Microsoft tells users to beware upgrading from Vista to Windows 7

Upgrades could take up to 20 hours, so do a clean install

http://news.techworld.com/operating-systems/3201755/microsoft-tells-users-to-beware-upgrading-from-vista-to-windows-7/?email

 

So that is why they are giving away the upgrade to Win 7 for free when you buy a new laptop, LOL...

 

Rather funny I found this because I just finished a clean install about 20 minutes ago; and it took just under an hour with driver install. Windows setup took maybe... 20-25 minutes om my laptop.

I feel bad for the users that can't do driver installs... 20 hours is a bit much; I doubt any normal user would hit that high.

 

That's a really ridiculous article focusing on an absolute worst case scenario. Here's a "rebuttal" of sorts:

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/09/14/vista-to-7-upgrade-20-hours.aspx

 

Well better naming the worst case scenario than having an optimistic view and then have people cry it took 10 minutes longer.

 

Still... taking 90 minutes to upgrade at a minimum? That's still quite a long time for the relatively trivial changes that happened between Vista and 7

 

The 20h is at the worse case scenario... Microsoft was talking about A LOT of applications installed and A LOT of data on the HDD to transfer on a slow computer. Please read the full details of Microsoft report instead of the headlines that does 2 think:
- Attract attentions
- Win7 bashing (it won't not be bashing if didn't target that 1-2 guy on this planet with this setup)

Microsoft presented these reports so people don't have surprises.

 

I would not say it is trivial

 

Took me an hour to install Vista SP2 on a Core 2 Duo desktop system.

 

i have upgraded many systems to win7 and it never was more than a hour to do... and i actually have never had any issues doing it either

 

it is trivial.


still, the upgrade for sure is, as well => it just checks each file and overwrites it.

 

What a garbage headline. 20 hours represents a worst case scenario. The main premise of the blogpost they were citing was the upgrade process time versus Vista's upgrade time.

 

media hype is lovely and sweet

 

well my xp to vista upgrade took 4 hours... on a basic system with average amount of programs and probs 300gb on the HDD

i dont think 7 would be even close to that if i did it on the same machine.

 

OK I have installed Windows 7 RC and RTM as a clean install (both x64) on my laptop and the install itself, along with all the drivers (minus Bluetooth) took less than 30 minutes. No joke. My laptop was preloaded with Vista.

 

Same here. I haven't upgraded to Windows 7 but it only took me one hour or two to install Vista. My friend installed Windows 7 rather fast so I don't what's going on over at Microsoft.

 

it was one case of thousands they tried. and they just, rightfully so, informed that it MAY take quite long. it shouldn't, and normally doesn't. but it might.

 

Like I said, Microsoft presented an extreme cases.

Have a look at Paul Turott's blog:
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/09/14/vista-to-7-upgrade-20-hours.aspx

 

took about 15min or less on my desktop lol..

 

yap. 7min to install vista or win7, then some drivers, then done.

 

I remember reading an article similar to this on softpedia a few weeks back, and as others have stated this is a extreme case. Under normal circumstances the update will take somewhere in the vicinity of 1hr to complete.

My current installation of windows 7 pro was installed via upgrade from vista business. It took me approximately 1hr and 20mins for the upgrade to complete. Once it finished everything was working and I had to make no changes. Since then windows has been running smoothly with no further issues. I have to say this is the most painless windows upgrade I have ever seen, I usually do clean installs but this upgrade went very well.

 

they even documented how they got that: their lowest system, and their most complicated user profile (300gb+ user data). i wouldn't expect this to perform well... this is more for them to test if it works at all, because, if not, there's a bug.

 

Just out of curiosity:
What exactly does the upgrade process do?

It replaces Vista files, OK.

What does it do with unnecessary files (I bet there are some if the tidied up Win7) - does it delete them?

And next: Does it work better than a Vista repair?

I was just thinking... before I do a reinstal of Vista the next time, I may as well visit MSDN AA and see if I can upgrade it to Win7 with nothing to loose...

(but somehow I feel this wouldn't work on my SZ.... a Vista repair breaks Sony functions)

 

I don't know what EXACTLY it does. Only Microsoft can answer your question. Based on my observations few things I read, and logic, it SEAMS to do the following (please take this as a grain of salt!):
- Scans your system for updates for the new OS and drivers for the new OS (done when running setup in your soon to be previous Windows)
- Store all these files in a temp location.
- Setups check for any incompatible software (A/V, anti-spyware, etc... as well as your own installed software based on some database)
- Computer restart
- Setup updates NTFS format if needed
- Setup updates the boot manager
- Setup moves all your files and system to Windows.OLD
- Setup transfer Windows 7 files for disk to your HDD
- Setup extract all the transfer file and place them to their correct
- Setup scans Windows.OLD and grabs all non-OS files and transfer them to Win7.
- Registry is scanned, corrected for any corruptions
- Registry is scanned again, and all non-Vista elements are transferred to Win7 registry (expect for drivers).
- Setup installs Win7 drivers that where downloaded.
- Setup creates Start Menu shortcuts.
- Setup setups all the encryption stuff, file permissions, etc...
- Setup cleans everything.
- Setup restart your computer for first run.

So basically, the only potential problem is that viruses, spyware, malware may be transferred, and a "dirty" registry will be transferred as well to Win7.
If your computer is really clean, then you should not see any difference between your system after upgrade and a clean install with all your stuff installed after.

Upgrade in this case shows the LEAST amount of possible problem as the OS core is the same. (Win7 is based on Vista, even Vista drivers works under Win7)

Of course.

 

OK - so I may try it before my next reformat....

Thing was, as mentioned before, a Vista Repair messes up my Sony utilities...

You should have +rep for the good work

 

hmm.. just read the article and the thread... Mine took about at least an hour when I did the same thing. But 20 hours? That's nuts.