Avoid Installing Windows 7 over Windows Vista

We recommend that you get Windows 7 preinstalled with your next new PC. This is the best way to acquire Windows 7. Another reasonable option, assuming you know what you’re doing and have recent hardware, is to purchase a retail version of Windows 7 and then perform a clean install of the OS on your existing PC. We don’t recommend that you install Windows 7 over Windows Vista.

Here’s why. Installing Windows 7 on top of Windows Vista may cause incompatibility problems that you might not be able to fix easily. When you buy a new PC with Windows 7 preinstalled, it’s almost certain that the components in the PC will have been selected for their compatibility and will have the latest driver software. PC makers also support their products with Web sites that provide the latest known drivers. These sites aren’t usually as up-to-date as they should be, but they will at least work.

In general, you shouldn’t consider installing Windows 7 on a PC that previously ran Windows XP or Vista unless the following conditions are true: You need a feature of Windows 7 that you can’t add to • XP. (Much less likely with Vista.)
• You need an application that requires Windows 7.
• You can’t afford even the least expensive new PC that comes with Windows 7 preinstalled.

Even if one of the preceding conditions is true, you may be better off backing up all of your old data to a CD/DVD or removable hard disk, formatting the old PC’s hard drive, and doing a clean install of Windows 7. This avoids the possibility that some components of the old OS will hang around to cause conflicts. If you’ve never backed up and formatted a hard drive, however, don’t try to learn how on any PC that’s important to you.

If you do decide to install Windows 7 on an older PC, at least run Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, to determine which drivers you may need to update first; and regardless of how you need to install Windows 7.


Source of Information : Wiley Windows 7 Secrets (2009)