Upgrading

If upgrading an existing PC, use the Windows Upgrade Advisor to check that your current hardware and applications are compatible with Windows 7. Make sure you attach all the hardware that you currently use, such as USB printers and scanners. Generally speaking, if your PC can run Vista, it should be able to run Windows 7. Digitally-signed device drivers are mandatory for 64-bit installations.

Microsoft's published requirements for running Windows 7 are:

• 1GHz or faster 32- or 64-bit processor
• 1GB RAM for 32-bin or 2GB RAM for 64-bit machines
• 16GB Free disk space for 32-bit or 20GB free for 64-bin
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

According to your planned usage of the system, you will need to increase this specification accordingly, with networking, audio, video, touchscreens, optical drives and so on.

Before starting the upgrade process turn off all system-level software, such as Antivirus, Boot Managers, firewalls, CD burning tools.

Windows XP Backup format is incompatible with Windows 7 backup software.

The Windows 7 setup can be run from Windows XP or higher with the following caveats:

• Windows Vista SP1 upgrades can only be done to Windows 7 if the Windows 7 version is the same or higher
• The setup program used must be of the same processor type (32- or 64-bit) as the currently installed system
• Running setup from within Windows does not allow you the option to re-partition the hard disk
• Windows XP will not allow an in-place upgrade - instead you will have to perform a clean install, loosing all data on the chosen sytem partition that has not been backed-up.

If you choose to boot and install from the DVD, you cannot perform an upgrade of the existing system, but you can install to the same volume as the existing installation

Clean Install

Boot from DVD to perform a clean installation. The first prompt you'll see will ask you to choose 'Upgrade' or 'Custom'. The upgrade option will not work, so choose 'Custom' for a fresh install. The next screen prompts to choose the installation partition. You can install to an external eSata drive if desired, but not to an external USB or Firewire drive. If you choose to install to the same partition as an existing version of Windows, the old Windows, Programs Files and Profiles directories are moved to a new folder called "Windows.old". The old Windows partition is no longer bootable, but the system files can still be retrieved if needed. Apart from the partition Windows setup creates as the primary active partition, a 100MB hidden system partition is also created at the start of the disk to hold the boot loader code and the BCD. This partition also reserves space for the startup files required by BitLocker Encryption, should you decide to use this at a later stage. To avoid creating this extra partition, you will have to manually create your partition configuration prior to beginning the installation process.

Once the partition selection has been made, Windows setup proceeds copying the files from the installation image. On completion, setup prompts for you to setup a username and hostname and then prompts for an product key.

Setup completes after configuration of Automatic Updates, System Date and Time and Network Setup dialogues have been completed

Activation

Whichever version you have purchased, the retail versions of Windows 7 all contain the same installation files. This means that you can choose to install any version of Windows 7 and run until the trial period expires, at which point you will be prompted to enter a product key. The grace period can be extended to another 30-day period by issuing the following at a command prompt:

slmgr -rearm

This can be run a maximum of three times, giving a maximum 120 grace period.

During installationk, The 'Enter Product Key' dialogue includes a check box, selected by default, that reads 'Automatically Activate Windows When I'm Online'. If left selected, Windows will try to automatically validate the installation 3 days after install if you entered the product key. If you need a longer time to evaluate the product, de-select this option, and activate only when you are ready. If you missed this during setup, you can change the following registry key from 0 to 1:

• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\Activation\Manual

The activation process creates a hardware fingerprint stored on your system which is checked each time the system is booted. Changes to your system hardware configuration may require you to re-activate the system. Changing the motherboard on a computer may require buying a new licence for Windows

OEM installations are pre-activated using SLP. Both the pre-installed copy of Windows 7 and the recovery disks check the system BIOS matches the installation. So the recovery disks can only be used to re-install the OS on the same system. A Retail copy can be reinstalled on a different computer, provided that it has been completely removed from the original.

Peridically, a validation tool runs that checks licencing and validation haven't been tampered with. If a system fails validation, it will need to be re-activated.