XP to Windows 7 upgrade, WITHOUT reinstalling stuff

Question

I have a bit of an emergency on my hands. Uncle needs his PC upgraded to Windows 7, however I'm not too keen on reinstalling all his programs. I can't remember if I did a clean install on my PC, but I vaguely remember reading about a method whereby one can keep all installed programs. Much like a Win 98 to XP install used to be like.

Is this possible?

Solution 1

As both the Microsoft and the Blogs DNA guide state there is no direct upgrade from XP to Windows 7 which will "transfer" installed applications from XP to 7.

The original installation discs or setup files for the programs that you want to use with Windows 7

and

You need to perform clean installation of Windows 7 by formatting your Windows XP or install on different hard drive partition keeping XP and Windows 7 in dual boot mode

The best you can hope for is to dual boot XP and Windows 7 and then gradually migrate applications to 7 over time. Once you've migrated everything you need you could then delete XP.

Solution 2

There is no direct upgrade path from XP to Windows 7. However there is a upgrade path from XP to Vista, then Vista to 7.

If you can find a copy you can upgrade to Vista, then upgrade to Windows 7 you then won't lose program access.

Comments

[tombull89]

As far as I know it depends on the version of windows 7 you are installing but not having done an upgrade as I prefer a clean install I can't really give you more than that.

[Greg Jennings]

See Microsoft's related Help & How to page: Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7.

[Scott Chamberlain]

@Kazark He actually has a good point no one else mentioned yet, I took the liberty of fleshing out the answer a little more. Thadogg if you did not like my edit you can roll it back or make your own.