Clarity on Windows 7 Upgrade Details
Microsoft recently confirmed there will be six different editions of Windows 7. Most home users will only see Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional, which will be the two main editions targeted to average users. The four other editions are: Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic (only for emerging markets), Windows 7 Ultimate, and Windows 7 Enterprise (for large volume licensing).
If you plan on upgrading to Windows 7 once it is released, cheaper upgrade versions will be available to current Windows XP and Windows Vista users. However, if you currently use Windows XP, you will have to do a “clean” install of Windows 7, which means you will lose everything on your hard drive and will have to restore all of your data from external backups. Current Windows Vista users will only be able to “migrate” to a similar version of Windows 7 (i.e. Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium). If you want to switch versions (say, jump from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional) you will have to do a clean install. An easier way to upgrade would be to install the similar version of Windows 7 to you current Vista version, and then use the Windows Anytime Upgrade feature found in Windows 7 to purchase an upgrade key to activate additional features.
Will there be upgrades for X64 users. That has always been a fresh install in the past.
I would like to get a E-Mail when windows7 come out thank you
It looks like Microsoft will be offering an upgrade for x64 customers this time. Previously if you moved from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS it would have required a full install because the file structure is different. Microsoft required a new installation with their Vista OS because they had upgraded the NTFS file structure to a newer version of NTFS. Even if you chose upgrade it simply compressed your old data and windows installation and installed a fresh OS. The compression was in case you need to rollback to old version. Here are the notes from Microsoft on the topic of upgrading:
Now you must make an important decision: whether to perform a custom (clean) installation or an upgrade installation.
Custom (clean) installation:
Once you’ve installed Windows 7, you can use Windows Easy Transfer to move data and settings from your other Windows computer to your new system.
Upgrade installation:
Again, an upgrade installation allows you to keep intact the files, settings, and programs from your current version of Windows. But you can only perform an upgrade under these certain conditions, described above.
For the full resource on Windows 7 visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-installation-instructions.aspx