Thinking of Upgrading From Windows Vista to Window 7

[ChaZz182]

I'm currently using Windows Vista and was considering upgrading to Windows 7. The reason for this is that I'm currently using a 32 bit operating system and I would like to upgrade to a 64 bit operating system. So I just had a couple of questions and concerns.

1) Which version to get? I see retail, oem and upgrades. With retail being the most expensive and oem and upgrade editions being about the same price. I'm also consider doing an upgrade to the processor/motherboard and I know that can cause a problem with an oem version of windows.

2) Does Windows 7 contained both the 32 and 64bit versions on the disc? I've seen some retailors selling the 64 bit version, but it was my understanding that all Windows 7 discs contained both.

3) Is there a significant difference in Home vs. Premium?

4) Is this a good upgrade for the price? With being able to use all the RAM (currently only 4GB) on my system as well as the efficiences in Windows 7, is it worth the upgrade?

As always, thanks for the help!

 

[ChaZz182]

I guess operating system upgrades aren't as exciting. Heh.

 

[jaydee]

I'm currently using Windows Vista and was considering upgrading to Windows 7. The reason for this is that I'm currently using a 32 bit operating system and I would like to upgrade to a 64 bit operating system. So I just had a couple of questions and concerns.

1) Which version to get? I see retail, oem and upgrades. With retail being the most expensive and oem and upgrade editions being about the same price. I'm also consider doing an upgrade to the processor/motherboard and I know that can cause a problem with an oem version of windows.

2) Does Windows 7 contained both the 32 and 64bit versions on the disc? I've seen some retailors selling the 64 bit version, but it was my understanding that all Windows 7 discs contained both.

3) Is there a significant difference in Home vs. Premium?

4) Is this a good upgrade for the price? With being able to use all the RAM (currently only 4GB) on my system as well as the efficiences in Windows 7, is it worth the upgrade?

As always, thanks for the help!

1. Are you trying to save all your files and applications just the way they are on Vista, or are you planning on doing a fresh reinstall? Retail comes with official MS support if you run into problems, it goes unused by the vast majority of people. Retail is transferable to other PC's I believe if you want to move it, whereas OEM is stuck on that PC forever. Upgrade is going to eliminate the previous OS. If the previous Vista install was a retail version, you could theoretically move that to another PC if you buy the OEM or retail Win7. You can not move the Vista install if you buy the Win7 upgrade.

2. That may depend on if its a retail, OEM or upgrade. If it doesn't specify, it probably comes with both?

3. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare

4. Personally I think upgrading to Win8Pro for $40 next month (and use Classic Shell) is more worth it, and makes more sense than Win7HP for $90 or Win7Pro for $110. But I'm cheap.

 

[lxskllr]

You can use 64bit Vista with your key. Win7 isn't substantially different from Vista. If I upgraded to anything, it would be Win8. I'm not a fan, but I'm also not a fan of paying for obsolete technology. Win8 is where MS is going, so either buy in, or get out.

 

[Rio Rebel]

Win7 isn't substantially different from Vista.

I thought that too, until I moved up from Vista and suddenly things started working that I had given up on. (Wireless printer, bitstreaming through AMD graphics card, etc.) You never realize how badly Vista sucks until you escape it.

If I upgraded to anything, it would be Win8. I'm not a fan, but I'm also not a fan of paying for obsolete technology. Win8 is where MS is going, so either buy in, or get out.

A fair point.

 

[vailr]

The best strategy would be: upgrade your Vista 32-bit + 4 GB memory to: 8 GB memory + a clean install of Windows 8 64-bit.
There's free workarounds if you don't like the Windows 8 Metro display.
Such as: "Start8" by Stardock, or "8StartButton":
http://www.majorgeeks.com/8StartButton_d7915.html

 

[ChaZz182]

You can use 64bit Vista with your key. Win7 isn't substantially different from Vista. If I upgraded to anything, it would be Win8. I'm not a fan, but I'm also not a fan of paying for obsolete technology. Win8 is where MS is going, so either buy in, or get out.

Thanks for your replies so far. I wasn't aware you could upgrade to vista 64 bit with your key. Is there a fee for this? How would you go about doing this? I may do that in the mean time, and based on everyone advice just got with windows 8 when it's released.

The only concern is most people don't seem to like windows8. I know it's not worth upgrading using old technology, but its usually not a good idea to upgrade to bad technology either.

Thanks.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I think most people who don't like Windows 8 are Windows 7 users who don't care for Metro. If you are a Win7 user who dislikes Metro, then Win8 offers little to nothing for you...so you don't want to see it arrive and begin the decline of Windows7.

If you're coming from Vista, you'll love it, even if you don't care for Metro. It's just one more click over to the desktop.

 

[ChaZz182]

Also, is there any problem upgrading a Vista 32bit to Windows 8 64bit?

 

[jaydee]

I think most people who don't like Windows 8 are Windows 7 users who don't care for Metro. If you are a Win7 user who dislikes Metro, then Win8 offers little to nothing for you...so you don't want to see it arrive and begin the decline of Windows7.

If you're coming from Vista, you'll love it, even if you don't care for Metro. It's just one more click over to the desktop.

Agree with the above.

I think you'd have to be extremely picky or in unique circumstance to dislike Win8Pro with "Classic Shell" or "Start8" compared to Win7Pro stock. Considering Win8Pro upgrade is just $40 (compared to $100+ for Win7Pro), it's an easy decision in my mind.

 

[ChaZz182]

Agree with the above.

I think you'd have to be extremely picky or in unique circumstance to dislike Win8Pro with "Classic Shell" or "Start8" compared to Win7Pro stock. Considering Win8Pro upgrade is just $40 (compared to $100+ for Win7Pro), it's an easy decision in my mind.

So is the $40 uprgrade to anyone to who has vista right now? Is there any way to check if you qualify?

Also, can this be purchased anytime, or it a speacil preorder thing?

 

[MichaelD]

Speaking as a SysAdmin who was forced to deploy Vista to 600+ workstations of varying manufacture, I can tell you that Vista stinks, plain and simple. By the time you get done loading all the patches that FIX the darn thing, the registry is slow, bloated and unreliable.

This saying is old by now, but is still true: "Windows 7 is what Vista would've been if Microsoft had taken the time to build it right instead of rushing it to market."

Win7 is pretty much perfect. Stable, fast, has built-in drivers for darn near anything you connect to the PC...it just WORKS.

IMO Win8 is the new Vista. MS took their Metro interface and slapped it on a Win7 kernel. Reviewers are split on it at this point but most of them all have the same major gripes. Mostly about the Metro UI. If you have to run a NEW operating system with the old or "classic" UI, what's the point? YES, it's based on Win7 so it's not a POS, but the Metro UI was built for tablets and smartphones, not a KB and MS-based PC or laptop.

Windows XP is still by far the most-deployed OS in the world. Windows XP was Win7's "stable predecessor." Remember Windows Me, the OS before XP. Sucked, right? MS has a proven history of "Great-Dud-Great-Dud" when it comes to OS releases.

Win7 is the new XP. It will be supported for the next 10 years, minimum (IMO). Sure; Win8 is $40, blahblah. MS will wait until a ton of people buy it at that price, then jack it up to what Win7 costs now.

With SP1 what few bugs Win7 had have been worked out. Why be MS's guinea pig and suffer through Win8 until they release SP1 a year from now?

You can find a GENUINE RETAIL COPY of Win7 Ultimate on EBay for well under $200 and most of the sellers use the "Make Offer" button in their ads. If you shop CAREFULLY, VERIFY return policies via email, etc, you can find a good deal.

And Retail is the only way to go. A LEGIT RETAIL COPY OF at least Win7 Home Premium 64-bit is the only way to go for a Windows Operating System today and for the next 6-9 months at least.

 

[lxskllr]

Thanks for your replies so far. I wasn't aware you could upgrade to vista 64 bit with your key. Is there a fee for this? How would you go about doing this? I may do that in the mean time, and based on everyone advice just got with windows 8 when it's released.

The only concern is most people don't seem to like windows8. I know it's not worth upgrading using old technology, but its usually not a good idea to upgrade to bad technology either.

Thanks.

You'd have to get 64bit oem Vista media, and do a clean install. The same applies for Win7 or Win8. You can still use upgrade media, but can't upgrade in-place from 32bit. You have to do a clean install.

Win8 good or bad? I'm not a fan, but I could use it if I were a Windows user. I think this is where MS is heading, so putting off the inevitable isn't really productive. The problems people have with Win8 aren't performance related, they're style related. You could stick with 7, and hope they make a direction change with 9, but I wouldn't count on it. If I were a Windows user, and couldn't use 8 for whatever reason, I'd give serious consideration to jumping ship, and use GNU/Linux, or OSX.

 

[ChaZz182]

You'd have to get 64bit oem Vista media, and do a clean install. The same applies for Win7 or Win8. You can still use upgrade media, but can't upgrade in-place from 32bit. You have to do a clean install.

Win8 good or bad? I'm not a fan, but I could use it if I were a Windows user. I think this is where MS is heading, so putting off the inevitable isn't really productive. The problems people have with Win8 aren't performance related, they're style related. You could stick with 7, and hope they make a direction change with 9, but I wouldn't count on it. If I were a Windows user, and couldn't use 8 for whatever reason, I'd give serious consideration to jumping ship, and use GNU/Linux, or OSX.

Can you do a full clean install from the $40 upgrade disc?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

can someone please explain this $40 version of windows 8, I currently have vista

 

[postmortemIA]

$40 will give you upgrade later this year but with big BUT it will not come with windows media center.

 

[Dominato3r]

$40 will give you upgrade later this year but with big BUT it will not come with windows media center.

Actually you get the option to install media center

 

[Matt1970]

Speaking as a SysAdmin who was forced to deploy Vista to 600+ workstations of varying manufacture, I can tell you that Vista stinks, plain and simple. By the time you get done loading all the patches that FIX the darn thing, the registry is slow, bloated and unreliable.

This saying is old by now, but is still true: "Windows 7 is what Vista would've been if Microsoft had taken the time to build it right instead of rushing it to market."

Win7 is pretty much perfect. Stable, fast, has built-in drivers for darn near anything you connect to the PC...it just WORKS.

IMO Win8 is the new Vista. MS took their Metro interface and slapped it on a Win7 kernel. Reviewers are split on it at this point but most of them all have the same major gripes. Mostly about the Metro UI. If you have to run a NEW operating system with the old or "classic" UI, what's the point? YES, it's based on Win7 so it's not a POS, but the Metro UI was built for tablets and smartphones, not a KB and MS-based PC or laptop.

Windows XP is still by far the most-deployed OS in the world. Windows XP was Win7's "stable predecessor." Remember Windows Me, the OS before XP. Sucked, right? MS has a proven history of "Great-Dud-Great-Dud" when it comes to OS releases.

Win7 is the new XP. It will be supported for the next 10 years, minimum (IMO). Sure; Win8 is $40, blahblah. MS will wait until a ton of people buy it at that price, then jack it up to what Win7 costs now.

With SP1 what few bugs Win7 had have been worked out. Why be MS's guinea pig and suffer through Win8 until they release SP1 a year from now?

You can find a GENUINE RETAIL COPY of Win7 Ultimate on EBay for well under $200 and most of the sellers use the "Make Offer" button in their ads. If you shop CAREFULLY, VERIFY return policies via email, etc, you can find a good deal.

And Retail is the only way to go. A LEGIT RETAIL COPY OF at least Win7 Home Premium 64-bit is the only way to go for a Windows Operating System today and for the next 6-9 months at least.

This.

 

[dawks]

I'm currently using Windows Vista and was considering upgrading to Windows 7. The reason for this is that I'm currently using a 32 bit operating system and I would like to upgrade to a 64 bit operating system. So I just had a couple of questions and concerns.

1) Which version to get? I see retail, oem and upgrades. With retail being the most expensive and oem and upgrade editions being about the same price. I'm also consider doing an upgrade to the processor/motherboard and I know that can cause a problem with an oem version of windows.

2) Does Windows 7 contained both the 32 and 64bit versions on the disc? I've seen some retailors selling the 64 bit version, but it was my understanding that all Windows 7 discs contained both.

3) Is there a significant difference in Home vs. Premium?

4) Is this a good upgrade for the price? With being able to use all the RAM (currently only 4GB) on my system as well as the efficiences in Windows 7, is it worth the upgrade?

As always, thanks for the help!

4) Yes, upgrading for performance alone is worth it. Vista is notorious for randomly thrashing the harddrive, and wasting RAM. Windows 7 is much cleaner and quieter in both respects.

I can't recall if there are both 32bit and 64bit on each disc.. I'd think not. But all versions of Windows (Home, Premium, Pro, Enterprise, Ultimate) are infact on the disc, and I think are technically even copied to the harddrive during install. Its simply the key that determines which features are made available (typically you can upgrade to Pro for example just by providing a new key, waiting a bit and rebooting).

I'd recommend Home Premium.. Home is missing a few features, such as Media center, and even the Areo Desktop (cool visual effects). Beyond that, it will still do most of what you want (performance and application support is the same).

I'd definitely recommend going 64bit. One thing to note, you can't upgrade 32bit to 64bit. That transition requires a reinstall, no matter how you try to do it.

 

[ChaZz182]

I would like to go with windows 7. But I don't know if I can justify the $160 price difference, especially since I would like to upgrade some other stuff.

I've never really had a problems with vista to tell you the truth, maybe I'm just not observant.

Maybe I'll see if I can find a good deal on windows 7. Is retail really that much better than OEM version?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Vista can run fine. It's not impossible, or even rare all patched up. I'd sure try a 64-bit install with your existing key before shelling out for an upgrade if it's working well enough for you. The only "real" (as in totally artificial) issue with it now is lack of IE10 and Office 2012 support.

Retail Windows editions are a little more lenient on activations and can transfer to new PC's vs. OEM. In operation there's no difference. If you're going to upgrade, the $40 OEM Win8 will be your best option assuming you can hammer the UI in to something useable.

If you try a Vista 64 install it may not take your key initially. Just let it generate a trial key, then change to your key after installing and it should activate.

 

[Mem]

4. Personally I think upgrading to Win8Pro for $40 next month (and use Classic Shell) is more worth it, and makes more sense than Win7HP for $90 or Win7Pro for $110. But I'm cheap.

I would go that route personally,btw I'm a fan of Vista and Win7,I also have Win8 Pro RTM on one of my PCs,Win8 with Start8 program installed(free btw)makes it very Vista/Win7 like IMHO at desktop.

 

[ChaZz182]

Vista can run fine. It's not impossible, or even rare all patched up. I'd sure try a 64-bit install with your existing key before shelling out for an upgrade if it's working well enough for you. The only "real" (as in totally artificial) issue with it now is lack of IE10 and Office 2012 support.

Retail Windows editions are a little more lenient on activations and can transfer to new PC's vs. OEM. In operation there's no difference. If you're going to upgrade, the $40 OEM Win8 will be your best option assuming you can hammer the UI in to something useable.

If you try a Vista 64 install it may not take your key initially. Just let it generate a trial key, then change to your key after installing and it should activate.

I've heard from a few people that you can use your existing key to upgrade to a 64 OS system. I have yet to find out to do this through my research. Anyone have any idea?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I've heard from a few people that you can use your existing key to upgrade to a 64 OS system. I have yet to find out to do this through my research. Anyone have any idea?

You just have to "acquire" the 64-bit install media, install, then use your key to activate it. I know first hand this works.