Many of us out there chose not to get Windows Vista installed on our new computers.  Instead we either opted for XP or downgraded from vista to XP.  The problem now is with the introduction of Windows 7 plenty of XP users want to do a XP to Windows 7 upgrade.There is a slight issue with this.Microsoft has not come out with a direct upgrade path to upgrade XP to Windows 7.

Microsoft it takes a few hits right now for not providing an option for XP users to upgrade to Windows 7.  The reason they say is that XP is a legacy operating system that came out a decade ago and that they cannot guarantee the outcome of a data transfer.I am still perplexed by this.  I know of one company out there that provides software to do just that.For the life of me I don't know why a third party vendor could make such a tool yet Microsoft was not able to or did not want to.Follow the above link in this article to learn more about this little software program that can do the upgrade for you.

So What Are You Going to do?

You can always just insert the Windows 7 disk and wipe out the XP operating system.If you went with this option you would first need to ensure you have backed up your personal files and settings and you would also have to re-install all your software programs.   A good site to check out on backing up files and doing file transfers is this XP to Windows 7 data transfer site.

A very complicated way to do this is to first upgrade to Vista and then over to Windows 7.This is not that good of an option because you would be wasting a good hundred bucks on purchasing Vista as well.  So you would not only have to purchase Windows 7 but another operating system that you do not plan on using.  That is why we recommend using the only software known to XP to Windows 7 upgrade.

I think plenty of people out there got a raw deal on this one.On the flip side of things the new operating system is getting some very good reviews.You will need to use the Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser first.  It's free from Microsoft and it will let you know if all your hardware and software programs are compatible.In many cases people will need to update some drivers like their video card or printer drivers to get those devices to work on Windows 7.