Well, I did it, and overall, it wasn't that bad.
So here is my story, but I want to begin this story by saying that patience is probably the biggest issue here. If you don't have patience, you may want to turn this job over to someone who does have it. I say this because I have NO patience and it almost overcame me.
Let us start by discussing another key issue: whether to perform a "clean" install or an "in-place" install. These intallations are very different and have a huge impact on whether you want to do this upgrade yourself, or trust it to a pro. An "in-place" install is certainly the easiest, but may not be possible in your case. If you are upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7, and you are upgrading from a 32-bit edition of Vista to a 32-bit edition of 7, then it is probably something you can do yourself. However, if you are upgrading from XP to 7, or you wish to convert from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version, then you have a lot of work to do, and a certain amount of skill and knowledge will be necessary.
Having said all of this, let's get to my upgrade, which was a straight "in-place" upgrade from a 32-bit version of Windows Vista Home Edition to a 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Edition. Easy peasy. But for once I followed my own advice.
Before starting the actual upgrade I did some maintenance. I ran a virus scan on my system, followed by a disk scan to ensure I had no physical issues that could cause an upgrade failure. I then cleaned up some of my work environment. I ran the upgrade advisor to determine if I had any issues that would cause problems, and the Windows Upgrade Advisor showed me a few things that may not work with 7. So I uninstalled those programs (they were really left-over junk) as well as several others I felt I didn't really need to use any more. After this I ran a "freebie" registry cleaner (in this case CCleaner) just to make sure my registry wasn't carrying any issues since it is integral to a good working Windows (and a safe Windows upgrade). I also uninstalled my firewall software (Commodo) and my anti-virus program, AVG. Lastly, I ran my Acronis True Image backup program and created a boot disk for the same program in case I needed to go back to my original starting point. All of this took a few hours, although much of that time was spent watching a soccer match on TV since the computer was doing all the work.
I then started the actual upgrade by loading the DVD in my existing Windows. The program asked if I wanted to do an "in-place" upgrade or a "clean" upgrade and I chose the "in-place" upgrade. The program then examined my system and pre-loaded some files necessary to the upgrade. A report then showed some issues that were not shown in the original Upgrade Advisor (although these issues in the end proved to be false). It then asked for a reboot, which I thought the program would do. It didn't. So after a few minutes of nothing happening I rebooted and then re-ran the upgrade program. It took me through the identical steps I had just gone through, but after the screen report of potential issues, it continued on and began the upgrade. And that was the last response required by me. For the next three hours the computer churned along slowly, rebooted three times, and came to a final screen telling me I was done. And for the most part, I was done.
Now let us talk about the virtues of patience. Having made myself used to the excellent installation speed of a clean install of Windows 7, upgrading to a well used and fully packed system taxed my patience to the limit. YOu don't see anything but a relatively simple progress scree, but sometimes it seemed nothing was happening (although a quick look at my drive light told me otherwise). For the most part I spend my time on my porch (nice temp and nice sunshine), smoking a cigar (or two) and listening to my new favorite Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis. Occassionally I got up and looked in on things (took a quick pulse to see if my computer was still alive). But everything just chunked along despite my worrying, and in the end, nothing bad happened.
OK, I had a few programs (technical programs that most of you will never use) I had to push a wee bit, but everything survived. I did immediately run the usual Windows update (actually, Windows did it for me) and was surprised how many were waiting for me, and then reinstalled a new version 9 of AVG.
Done.
Finished.
The great news is my wallpaper and gadgets all survived the upgrade, as did all my other personal settings. Everything I have tested has worked fine, and a couple of small issues I was having with Vista have disappeared. Things seem a wee bit faster, but that could be my imagination. The boot does seem faster as does the shutdown, but that could be wishful thinking kicking in.
Now I can say that this was not my first "upgrade" of 7. I have been involved in the beta testing of this product for many months. But this was the first attempt on my "big baby" (my main computer). The others were practice runs on my test computers.
The one big issue I discovered through all of this was my deep seated insecurities and anxieties that were sorely tested in this three hour trial of my patience. I have performed hundreds of upgrades over my 25 years of doing this stuff, and this seemed the slowest. But it also seemed the easiest. It was also a good test because I have an awful lot of "stuff" on my "big baby" so Windows 7's upgrade got a real test, and it passed with flying colors.
So far, I am a very happy man (well, as happy as I can be).
