"Upgrading" from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 5 Steps

You may have heard that there’s no direct upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. That’s true. You can only upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7. For Windows XP users, that means one thing: it’s time for a fresh install.

Don’t be afraid – despite what you may have heard, it’s not really that hard. It just takes more time. If you’re about to embark on this adventure yourself, check out the steps below for what I think is the easiest and most painless way to go about doing this.

1. Make a List

A clean installation of an operating system can be time-consuming, but in this case, “upgraders” don’t really have a choice. It’s the only way. However, there’s nothing like a clean install for really starting fresh with your computer. I have done this myself from time to time – most recently when I purchased a new hard drive for my laptop. It’s amazing how many programs I had downloaded over the years that I didn’t ever use or need. Since so much of my activity is done online these days, I really only had to re-install a handful of apps which included, of course, Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Windows Live Essentials, and Skype. Before reinstalling your OS, you too should check your Start Menu for applications and make a list of the ones you really need. Then, go locate the CDs and the registration keys before getting started.

2. Get an External USB Hard Drive

For a computer you’ve hung onto for a long time, you probably have a lot of files saved on the hard drive. Likely more than can be burned to a single CD or even a single DVD. I think the absolute easiest thing to do is to get an external USB hard drive for your backups. You’d be surprised how affordable these drives are nowadays, and, after upgrading, you’ll also have a good backup of your data in case anything ever happens to your PC. If you don’t already have a backup of your data, now is as good a time as any to make it happen. And depending on the size of the drive, you’ll probably even have room left over so you can continue to use it for additional storage and backups in the future. Believe me, this is incredibly useful. (Especially if you have a habit of purchasing entire TV seasons from iTunes or Zune. Wow, do those eat up disk space!)

3. Run the Easy Transfer Wizard

With your hard drive connected to your XP computer, pop in the Windows 7 DVD and browse to \support\migwiz\migsetup.exe on the DVD. Run this executable. It’s the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard and it’s an essential step to preparing your computer for the “upgrade” (aka wipe). The Transfer Wizard walks you through the process of backing up your User Accounts, Documents, Music, Pictures, Email, Favorites, Videos, and more. When you are prompted with the question “What do you want to use to transfer items to your new computer?” by the wizard, the answer is simple:“external hard disk or USB flash drive” is the third choice in the list and the one you want.

While the wizard runs, go do something else. For a while. A loooong while. Backing up your entire computer is going to take time. Maybe an hour. Maybe more? You can keep checking the status along the way, though.

4. Install Windows 7 and Your Applications

When it’s finished, you now can install Windows 7 on your computer. Pop in the DVD and follow the prompts. The easy wizard walks you through the process. Of course, you can get all technical if you’d like and create and delete partitions, but for most users simply installing the new OS is all that’s necessary. However, since you’re given the opportunity, I suggest you go ahead and reformat the hard drive while you’re at it. Considering as how you’ve been on Windows XP for a while, your hard drive is probably a little…how do I say this?…junked up. You may as well just start fresh. When you’re prompted to create a user account by the wizard, there’s no need to re-create all the accounts for your family members – just create one Admin account and be done with it. The rest will re-import when you run the Easy Transfer Wizard again.

Before re-importing all your data, now is a good time to re-install your applications. Refer to your list from before. Depending on your personal setup, the length of time this requires will vary. Before downloading any apps from the web, though, make sure your computer is up-to-date with any necessary security patches from Windows Update.

5. Run Easy Transfer Again

When that part is done, launch “Easy Transfer” from the Start Menu to get started with re-importing your data. Obviously, you’ll answer “This is my new computer” when asked by the wizard.

Choose the “Customize” option if you want to map the new Admin account to your old Admin account from Windows XP installation. Otherwise, just follow through with the wizard’s default settings to re-import everything that you had originally backed up. You’ll point the wizard to your file saved on your USB hard drive of course.

The wizard will run for a long time again. Probably as long as it took to back everything up the first time. But when it’s done, everything will be back to normal. All your files, all your data, all your email.

Conclusion

This “clean install” process isn’t as fast as a traditional upgrade, but it’s really not that hard.

Obviously, there are many other ways you could do a re-installation, but this is the way I’d do it (and will do it on my sole remaining XP PC when the time comes). I think it’s easy and straightforward enough for anyone to handle. If you have other suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments.