Replies

Yes, you should upgrade but there is no particular rush to do so. Take your time and do the appropriate preparation work. The only upgrade path available available to you with the standard upgrade packages is a clean install. Meaning, you will have to preserve all your existing data in a backup form then overwrite everything you currently have with full installation followed by a complete reinstallation of all your applications along with their individual reconfigurations and importation of all their data from your backup. All this requires some advance preparation with a systematic assessment of what applications you have along with what data is associated with it. All this is complicated somewhat by the fact that some of your applications may not work under Win 7 and you may have to obtain new versions (possibly at a price). In addition, some of your existing hardware may not be supported with new drivers so you may have to replace it.

All this requires a lot of prep work. The more thorough you are in your preparation, the smoother the upgrade will go.

BTW, I again point out that generally, all earlier versions of Windows are eligible to be upgraded via the retail upgrade packages and pricing, even though you may be doing a clean install over top of your existing Windows with that upgrade package. The post by veegertx may mislead you into believing you need to purchase the full package. You do not. You need only the upgrade package.

Chet,

Quoting statements from your two posts:

“Snip……

First, the chosen words and tone of some remarks is a violation of Lounge Rule 9. Courtesy is a necessary ingredient in encouraging the free flow of ideas, and I am certain that is something we all want here.

Second, the context of “upgrade” in this thread makes it clear that the difference of opinion is in regard to “in place” versus “custom install” upgrades, both of which can be performed using the upgrade editions of Windows 7. There is merit to both sides of this issue, however regardless of the reasons, there are many who have had difficulties with the “in place” upgrade process. Fortunately, not everyone has had a negative experience with the “in place” upgrade option.

I wanted to make the point that the original post should not be taken as an absolute and that there are very reasonable arguments to be made on behalf of an in-place upgrade. I get tired of people passing on outdated or second hand information that may never have been accurate and doing so as if it was true in some absolute manner. An opinion that a clean install is preferable is quite reasonable and invites a reasonable and reasoned response. An absolute statement that one should never never never do an in-place upgrade is a challenge worthy of a similar response.

The arguments against an in-place upgrade are based on little experience since there are really very few who have wide personal experience with either form of upgrade. The argument that a support type person sees many examples of failed in-place upgrade attempts (or reads about them online) is not a valid argument. For the most part, the only upgrade attempts that one hears about are those with problems. I have no hesitation conceding that a clean install will most often result in a successful creation ow a clean OS but the secondary problems associated with re-implimentation of the applications will frequently result in problems that service personel are unlikely to hear about. The opinion of people is heavily biased by what they see. A story I like to tell (or liked to tell before Toyota fell from grace) is about a person shopping for a new car. He goes to the Toyota dealership and observes that it has large and busy repair department busy repairing broken Toyotas. His conclusion is that Toyotas must be unreliable junk. The response to this story would usually be a rapid jump to the defence of Toyota by someone who was likely a Toyota owner. He would no doubt upbraid me by pointing out the falacy of my conclusion and citing the renowned reputation of Toyota for reliability. That’s not so likely to happen these days but both the conclusion that Toyota is unreliable junk because of what is observed in the repair department AND the conclusion that it is super reliable because of its reputation, are faulty conclusions (as recently demonstrated).

As for the possible misunderstanding of the term “upgrade” I suggest there is a real possibility of a misunderstanding as demonstrated by the post John Oliphant immediately following my last post.

I can’t really add much to my reasons for recommending the in-place upgrade over the clean install upgrade. I believe the former offers an excellent chance of success, especially for the naive user who would have difficulty navigating the hazards of trying to reinstall, reconfigure, re-update and re-register each and every application they own. There is no doubt in my mind that an in-place upgrade is the far simpler process for the user and the only reasons being offered here for a clean install upgrade are based on an imagined POSSIBLE problem.

A fresh start, such as is provided a reinstall of everything, may have some merit in some circumstances but such an undertaking can be done at any time including anytime after an upgrade, should a user feel it might be necessary or beneficial. It is simply not true that it is necessary or even desirable for everyone and complicating an upgrade with the complexities of a clean install seems a very poor general recommendation.

All that aside, I think it is worthwhile pointing out that both mechanisms are an ‘upgrade’. As far as I know, all earlier versions of Windows are eligible for an upgrade and the only time a full Windows 7 package must be purchased is if it is destined for a newly created system such as a home build. Both the current and former title of this thread, and some of the posts, may be misleading.

Your advise is mostly nonsense. By your own admission, you are basing your advise on experience that is over a decade old. Any quirks that successfully get migrated by an in-place upgrade are, almost by definition, configuration quirks and one could easily claim that such quirks can easily be corrected and/or that they will quickly be reintroduced even with a clean install.

The bottom line is that a in-place upgrade MIGHT migrate a quirk or problem that MIGHT require a reinstall of the OS.

A clean install will ALWAYS require the re-installation, reconfiguration and re-updating of ALL applications with the attendant problems of finding source material and re-licensing or reregistration.

The proper preparation for an in-place upgrade fully prepares one for doing a clean install should it become necessary. There is almost nothing to be lost in an in-place upgrade attempt. In most cases it works just fine. In those cases where it does not, little has been lost beyond a couple hours spent watching the in-place upgrade attempt.

BTW, your advise to use a separate drive for user data storage has merit. Your advise to stop using the Microsoft designated folders does not.

I always get a kick out of these idiotic stories about Win 7 being a memory hog. Of course it is. Why would an OS not use available memory. What possible benefit could there be to leaving memory sit idle.

Memory is one of the resources than can become a bottleneck but only if it is fully utilized and running processes are demanding additional memory resources thus forcing the OS to page data in and out. Paging rates (sometimes called memory faults where the desired program or data segment is NOT found in memory) is a better indicator of the adequacy of the current memory size.

Effective management of memory is a measure of the OS’s efficiency but the actual percent of available memory in use at any given time is indicative of nothing. One would hope that the more memory that one installs in a system, the more the OS would make use of it. Personally, I would consider any OS that did not fully utilize the available memory to be a poor design.

I encountered something like this a couple years back. I don’t believe it has anything to do with either the OS or the browser. Eventually I came to believe (but never confirmed) that the problem lies in more than one facility attempting to sign automatically. There may be several sources for such automatic sign in including the browser, a security system, and even the site cookie. It could as simple as two of these attempting to automatically sign or perhaps they have been told to remember different passwords. At least, that was my conclusion when one browser would work fine while another would not.

I can’t add anything to the explanation of what is happening but I was having trouble installing Photoshop under Win 7 and their support recommended I go through some complex steps to unlock a file/folder or use a free utility called “Unlocker” that is readily available from your favourite download site. Here is what CNET has to say about it.

This single-function system utility removes a file’s access restrictions, but lacks some common features. Unlocker is unobtrusive: it resides in the system tray; an Unlocker command appears in files’ right-click menus.

The application removes file-access restrictions that prevent a user from moving, deleting, or renaming a file. The user right-clicks on a file and selects Unlocker, which displays information regarding the selected file, such as Path Locked, PID, Handle, and Process Path. This program also allows terminating a currently running process. In some cases, files cannot be accessed due to Windows file-access bugs, for which Windows informs the user the file is currently in use–even when it’s not.

Unlocker can effectively bypass this bug’s restrictions; it unlocks or disables whatever is preventing the user to access that file. This tool would be a lot easier to use if it allowed hot keys. Novices to advanced users will find this free application very useful.

I believe the Microsoft Migration Tool that is is included on your upgrade disks will solve all your problems provided your objective is to copy the files to Win 7.

I cannot imagine why you might want to leave anything on the XP disk exclusively unless you have some plans to continue using XP forever. I suggest you migrate everything to Win 7 since that will provide Win 7 access to everything, including any software that is XP only software (since you have Win 7 Ultimate). You might want to retain the XP disk, with its copy of all applications and files, as a safety precaution for a while but there is no reason to operate from both OSs unless you have some very rare XP application which will not operate under Win 7 even if only in compatibility mode.

The Microsoft Upgrade Adviser does a good job of identifying any problems. There is a good chance that there won’t be any problems since you are coming from Vista. A clean install is NOT always the best approach and any driver problem will exist just as significantly in a clean install upgrade as it will in an upgrade in place.

Many of the drivers for your attached hardware can be obtained directly from the peripheral manufacturer unless HP has had a special version made for HP. In that case, you might eventually be faced with having to replace the device in order to keep the system viable. That’s one of the downsides of brand name systems.

If you plan to upgrade to a new or different system within a couple of years, I would seriously consider staying with Vista. Win 7 does not offer all that much over Win 7 and despite what the uninformed pundits say, Vista was/is a very good OS. You really have to ask yourself what you will get from an upgrade to Win 7.

What software do you use for recording and burning?

I have an Hauppauge HVR-1600 card, and use WinTV to record the movie. I then use Pinnacle Studio to edit the movie (remove leading and trailing non-movie-related video, and add menus). I takes Studio about 20 minutes (for a 100-120 minute movie) to convert the recorded MPG file into a DVD image on disk (if I do not re-render the video). Then I use Nero to burn the DVD – I have an older, slower DVD burner so this usually takes about 12-15 minutes.

My system is a quad-core, 2.4Ghz with 8GB RAM running 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

My system is very similar to your own and I also have the same problem as the OP. I usually do not use WinTV to record the TV shows because I like the facilities of Windows Media Center. WMC records TV shows in .wtv format, whatever that is ??? I have tried a couple times creating a DVD but the time required without any editing etc. is just too excessive. I have attempted a burn with both WMC and the commercial package I have by Roxio called Creator 2010 Pro. That is actually a suite of programs that includes composing and burn utilities. The output from it is whatever standard DVD format is. Almost all of the time is spent on conversion. The burn is relatively fast.

So, I also am interested in any solution that will result in a standard DVD output.

Very well explained… do you teach at Queen’s?

It’s a cut and paste from Windows Help FAQ on Sleep. I don’t teach at Queen’s, although I once worked there many years ago somewhere around 1969. I am now retired – full time.

I forgot.
A UPS is a Uninterruptable Power Supply. It is a commercial device you can buy from any computer supplier. Basically, it is a big battery that generates 120VAC so when it detects a power failure, it continues to supply power to your system without interruption and signals your system to shutdown. The battery is large enough to hold up the 120VAC long enough to complete Shutdown (we hope).

I believe Hybrid Sleep is a ‘option’ of the Sleep mode. In other words, you can elect to have your system go into Hybrid Sleep any time it enters Sleep or just enter Sleep. In the Advanced section of your current Power Settings, there is an option to enable Hybrid Sleep or not. If Enabled, your system will use Hybrid Sleep rather than Sleep any time it enters Sleep. If not enabled, it will only enter Sleep. In either case, you can have an additional choice of Hibernation. In the same Advanced Power Options, there is a option to Enable Hibernation after XX min. There is also an option for the front panel Power button and the Sleep button (if it exists). In both cases, you can select what happens when you press the button. I elect to have my system go into Hibernation on the front panel Power button. I don’t have a Sleep button.

Here is an explanation of the different states
Sleep is a power-saving state that allows a computer to quickly resume full-power operation (typically within several seconds) when you want to start working again. Putting your computer into the sleep state is like pausing a DVD player—the computer immediately stops what it’s doing and is ready to start again when you want to resume working.

Hibernation is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops. While sleep puts your work and settings in memory and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk, and then turns off your computer. Of all the power-saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power. On a laptop, use hibernation when you know that you won’t use your laptop for an extended period and won’t have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time.

Hybrid sleep is designed primarily for desktop computers. Hybrid sleep is a combination of sleep and hibernate—it puts any open documents and programs in memory and on your hard disk, and then puts your computer into a low-power state so that you can quickly resume your work. That way, if a power failure occurs, Windows can restore your work from your hard disk. When hybrid sleep is turned on, putting your computer into sleep automatically puts your computer into hybrid sleep. Hybrid sleep is typically turned on by default on desktop computers.

Not quite accurate. Entering Sleep state puts the system into a lower power state that preserves RAM. As you say, if power is lost during this time, the contents of RAM are lost and the computer must be re-booted.

Entering Hibernate state causes the system to write RAM to disk and puts the system into a much lower power state (virtually off) that does not preserve RAM. Upon receiving a wake-up signal, the RAM must be restored from disk, which is quicker than a re-boot but slower than waking from Sleep.

My preference is Hybrid. It works by writing RAM to disk and then invoking Sleep mode. Absent a power failure, a wake-up signal powers up the system with RAM intact, ready to go. If there has been a power failure the system performs a wake-up from Hibernate mode, restoring RAM from disk and is good to go.

You are completely right and I was very wrong. I didn’t appreciate the difference between Hibernation and Hybrid Sleep or even that there was a difference. I now understand that Hybrid Sleep is really more like Sleep but with a safety backup of memory. It even allows my mouse to waken the system. Hibernation is much more profound so that on waking the system even goes through some of the routines of a startup such as a check for updates and daily scans. It is also noticeably slower than a wake from Hybrid Sleep although nowhere near as lengthly as a full startup.

They all seem to insist on the monster flashing blue light which makes my den look like there is a giant snow removal truck in it.

Good for you. Glad we could help. As Chet mentioned above, there is a slight risk of losing data due to power failures when using sleep mode or any other time that your computer is on. You may want to consider a UPS (if you don’t already have one) and switch to Hybrid sleep or Hibernate.

Not entirely accurate. You do not risk data during Hibernate. That is the reason for Hibernate. On a desktop, there is no advantage to Sleep and some risk, even with a UPS. I am not at all certain a UPS can wake a Sleeping computer in order to put it through a Shutdown on a power failure, although I have to admit it would likely preserve a Sleeping computer longer than any power outage. Without a UPS, there is considerable risk since you are putting data at risk for the duration of the 24 hour day rather than just the time you are actually working.

I haven’t actually timed the awake from Sleep vs awake from Hibernate but I suspect there is zero difference. I believe all differences are confined to the entry to the state since Hibernate first saves a memory image. But it does not have to restore that image since memory is kept alive during Hibernate just as it is during Sleep.