Hi, Bob.
Very interesting.
But I think that calling this an "upgrade" from 32-bit to 64-bit is slightly
misleading.
I have NOT tried this, and I haven't even read the promotional blubs in
detail. But it appears to me that all it really does is automate the 3-step
Microsoft Windows Easy Transfer procedure. That is: (1) Backup; (2)
Install Win7 x64 - by REBOOTING from the Win7 DVD; (3) Restore. The major
difference is that you Backup to and Restore from the PCMover, rather than
to and from WET. This product will probably help many users to make the
transition, and might very well be worth the price to them.
But the critical part - installing 64-bit Windows to replace a 32-bit
Windows - requires a clean install and cannot truly be called an "upgrade",
either "in-place" or otherwise. A true "upgrade" would run Win7 Setup from
the WinXP desktop; this would allow Setup to read the contents of the WinXP
Registry and configure the Win7 Registry to match. It would not be
necessary to then re-install many of the WinXP applications; their settings
would already be in Win7. This is not possible in a clean install, since
the required reboot from the Win7 DVD makes it impossible for Win7 Setup to
see into the WinXP Registry. When booting from the Win7 DVD, Win7 Setup
can't even see which drive letters WinXP has assigned and will make its own
Boot Volume "Drive C:", even if WinXP had assigned it "Drive X:". (And an
"in-place upgrade" simply re-installs WinXP from within WinXP, for example.
See
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;q315341 )
The critical question: In performing the "upgrade', did you have to REBOOT
from the Win7 DVD to run Setup?
Note that my quibbles are about going to the different "bitness" and about
use of the term "upgrade". I'm not asking about upgrading from any 32-bit
to any 32-bit, or from any 64-bit to any 64-bit Windows. Only in
"upgrading" from 32-bit to 64-bit. And I'm not saying that PCMover is not a
useful program or does not do what it claims. Only that the word "upgrade"
is used incorrectly here.
Please correct me if I've misread this.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64
"Bob Hatch" wrote in message
...
Well, kind of. I used the Laplink, Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant.
http://www.laplink.com/pcmover/pcmov...assistant.html
About 8 months ago I had done a reformat on my C: drive, did a fresh
install of the XP-Pro OS and fresh install of all the programs, so I had a
reasonably clean machine. Prior to the upgrade I cloned the C: drive onto
another drive using Copy/Wipe so that I was sure I would have a working
disk just in case things got really screwed up.
I did the upgrade on the 29th of October, so the computer has been running
for just over a week without any problems other than a couple of older
programs that refuse to run, even in XP compatibility mode, not XP virtual
machine. I'm using a Dell so I downloaded several of the drivers from Dell
for 64 bit Vista. For my Inspiron they did not have Windows 7 drivers, but
the Vista ones that I used seem to have worked fine.
My HP 25 1/2" Monitor installed fine in Windows 7 as did our 5 year old
Epson R300 photo printer. The one hardware item I had that I could not get
to work in Windows 7 was an older Linksys USB Wireless Adapter, I messed
with it for about 1/2 hour then drove down to Best Buy and bought a new
one.
There are a few things you should pay attention to if you want to try this
your self. Adobe programs like Photoshop will need to be reinstalled after
the upgrade and prior to the upgrade you should de-activate the Adobe
stuff then re-activate after the move. I did have to re-install Office
2007 Pro because every time I opened Outlook, Word or any of the other
programs in the suite it did a "Configure setup" of the program.
Other than those minor problems the installation was pretty straight
forward and saved me a ton of hours. I'm using Dos-Box to run an old
compiled dBase program that I have to reference once in a while and I've
been playing with the XP Mode virtual machine. So far I don't have a
reason to install and use any programs in the XP machine but I keep
looking for something thats important enough for me to install it and see
how it works.
After that in-place upgrade I did the same thing using the same software
on my wife's Toshiba laptop. I moved her computer from Vista Home Premium
32 bit to Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. On that computer the in-place upgrade was
a one shot deal and no problems after Windows 7 installed and I unpacked
the "moving van". Everything including Office 2007 worked without having
to re-install or mess with them. Her computer is the one connected to the
Epson printer and once I set up the network I was able to print from my
computer to the Epson on her machine.
Was it worth $40.00? To me it was because of the number of programs I have
installed on our machines. If I see any problems I'll report them here,
but so far, so good.
Fire at will. :-)
--
"To announce that there must be no criticism
of the President, or that we are to stand by
the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American public."
Theodore Roosevelt
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