Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade
by Microsoft Software
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Software Reviews of Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade
Customer Review: Windows 7
Summary: 5 Stars
Having spent time loading Windows 98 on several systems, last decade, followed by more times with Windows XP, this decade, I was expecting a longer and potentially more difficult time loading Windows 7. Especially, considering the newest editing system I'd had made last summer, came incorrectly loaded with a 32bit WIN XP OS!!! (grrr) The system has an AMD 64 x 2 processor, and 8 GB of ram, and my guy put 32bit Win XP on it . . . Good grief! ("It was late ..." said the normally brilliant technician, last August. So, I just suffered with it the few months until Win 7 was released, and upgraded.) (deus gratias ...)
XP has always proved to be an extremely stable platform, and admittedly, I know people who've had real problems with Vista, so I was determined to skip that version.
Turns out the method of updating XP-32 to Win 7-64 requires installing Win 7-32bit first, and then Win 7-64bit, right after. (Both versions are included, when you buy 7, so it didn't require purchasing two sets.) I feared the worst. I expected to get the 32bit version on, and then be told I couldn't load the 64, or something similar, but, the first version took 40 minutes to install itself (all by itself, thank you) and the second version only took an additional 20 minutes, and no problems at all. The complete 7 installation and registration was so slick and effortless, that I have now spent the past month expecting the machine to, just - explode. This is a new experience, but I'm not complaining.
I'm quite impressed by Win 7's capacity to recognize all of my external hardware, before I'd installed the proprietary applications and drivers. For instance, besides dealing with professional format video, for work, I also happen to own an HDV home-video camcorder. It takes reasonably good, faux-HD video, with an impressive color depth, but it also uses a very obscure codec.
The HDV format produces video files possessing a majority of non-rasterized vector-image frames, which normally require a specific codec for viewing. My old XP couldn't deal with it, directly. Yet, the latest Windows Media Player from Win 7 had no problem playing the video. I have, gone ahead and loaded the proper codec on the system, but this little home video test was my initial way of finding out - what to expect from 7. I imagine, that if it will play HDV automatically, it will probably do everything else, equally well.
To sum up, I was apprehensive about this upgrade, since XP has been a very stable platform for most of my work (32 bit versions not withstanding) and only ever had minor issues, easily resolved with third-party applications and drivers. Windows 7, however, has worked so perfectly, that I am really sorry it didn't exist years ago.
Customer Review: Lousy Upgrade Experience
Summary: 2 Stars
Bought it to upgrade wife's Lenovo laptop that came w/ Vista Home Professional 64 bit. Delivered on time. Thanks UPS. Tried the upgrade install first. Got error msg. stating, "Cannot upgrade Vista Home Premium to W7 Professional." Must perform a Clean Install. Great. Used MS Easy Transfer to move files to an external HDD. After doing a clean install tried moving files back to the laptop, but kept getting an error message, "Cannot open Transfer File." More great news. Spent 2.5 hours on the phone with a very nice MS Tech Support agent, to no avail. Files lost forever. Don't try to upgrade unless you're prepared to lose everything on the computer you're upgrading.
Only good news is that the Lenovo w/ W7 smokes as compared to Vista. Guess it should, as there's nothing on the hard drive now to slow it down...
Customer Review: A Must Upgrade
Summary: 5 Stars
No problems with the installation. If your computer is running XP, you definitely want to look at your hardware first. Otherwise, the installs on my desktop and wife's laptop were so smooth. The desktop took less than 30 minutes for a clean install. The laptop was a little longer at 45-60 minutes. However, reinstalling the programs took some time, though I was very prepared and it went smooth. I had zero problems installing drivers. My scanner is about 8 years old & expected problems; but there were none. Setting everything up was really simple, but things like Office just take time because you have to download the service packs (500MB).
Windows 7 is a very smooth interface. I love it. Things are so intuitive. Aero interface is really nice. I had no problems with software conflicts. In fact, the only trouble I had was with Norton subscription, but a 20 minute call to their help line and everything was worked out.
Overall, you have to buy this. If you are running XP, you must move up. However, I would recommend a whole new computer to save yourself hardware conflicts. If you are running Vista, you can skip this but I think it is worth the money. Of course, as an early adopter, I pre-ordered the Professional version for 50% off w/ Amazon. Had they not run that special, I would have chosen Home Premium.
Customer Review: Sony laptop didn't like the upgrade
Summary: 4 Stars
Had so many issues; finally called Sony who told the technician I hired that the FW190 was not meant to be upgraded from Vista. Customer Review: Winows 7 Upgrade Issue
Summary: 1 Stars
This product, Upgrade to Windows 7 Professional, may be fine, but I had to return it because it was not part of the proper upgrade path for me with Vista Ultimate.
I feel Microsoft should have made upgrade path restrictions clearer in their product discriptions. I have since learned that I am not alone in encountering this problem.