Installing and Upgrading Windows

Understanding Installation Methods

You can use a number of different techniques to install an operating system. But before I discuss the actual installation procedures, you should understand the overall approach you will take to install the operating system.

In the following sections, you find out about the different techniques that are used to invoke the installation of Windows operating systems. As an A+ Certified Professional, it is critical that you know a number of ways to invoke the installation so that you are well versed when the time comes.

Bootable DVD

With Windows OSes today, the DVD that you use to perform the installation is a bootable DVD, so you simply place the DVD in the system and power on the computer. When you power on the computer, the system will boot off the DVD and start the installation!

During the installation of modern Windows operating systems, you will have the opportunity to partition and format the drive from within the installation program itself. This is a huge benefit compared to older operating systems because those operating systems would make you partition the drive before you started the installation. Your goal now is simply to start the installation and take care of all partitioning and formatting tasks from within the installation.

Nowadays, with virtualization being such a popular option for systems administrators and even some end users, downloading Windows operating systems in the ISO disc image format presents a convenient way to replicate DVD boot functionality without having to mess with physical media.

To ensure that you do not install Windows over a perfectly functioning system, the folks at Microsoft built a feature into the installation DVDs for Windows so that if you boot from the DVD, you’re asked to press a key (any key) before the installation process continues. This feature keeps you from unintentionally re-installing the OS if you accidentally leave the DVD in the drive.

USB and PXE

When planning to install the Windows operating system, you can invoke the installation by booting from media other than DVD. Today’s systems can be installed by booting off a USB memory stick and invoking the installation. It will take time to prepare the USB stick so that it is bootable and contains the proper installation files.

Most systems today support the preboot execution environment (PXE), which is booting from a network card and then invoking the installation directly from the network without the use of a CD or DVD. To boot from the network, the system must have the following BIOS settings enabled:

Boot from network: Ensure that your system has the capability to boot off the network and make sure that network boot is enabled in the BIOS.
Boot order: Ensure that you modify the boot order and make the network your first boot device, then the CD/DVD, and finally the hard drive.

After this is set, you can then boot off the network by pressing F12 while the system is starting. The system obtains an IP address from the DHCP server on the network and then can connect to your installation media to perform the installation.

Network installation

A number of network administrators install OSes and other applications to desktop systems via a network. When performing a network installation, you typically boot the system from a bootable CD, which then loads a network card driver and connects to a server on the network. You can also connect to the network using PXE to perform the installation. Under the hood, modern Windows OSs store all the installation binary files in an archive format known as Windows Imaging (WIM). During an over-the-network installation, the WIM contents are streamed across the network to the target computer, where the actual installation takes place.

Network-based OS installation is performed every day by businesses not only on Windows PCs, but Mac (OS X) and Linux systems as well. For example, NetBoot is an Apple OS deployment technology that allows Mac computers to boot from their network interface card (NIC) firmware and download OS images from a central server. Windows PCs employ the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) to do the same thing.

Drive imaging

One of today’s most popular techniques for installing an OS is to use imaging software, which creates a snapshot of a system and stores that snapshot in an image file. When you want to configure other systems with the same setup, you apply the image (snapshot) to the other systems. The contents of the image file overwrite the contents of the hard drive of the destination systems.

Here’s an example of when drive imaging should be used: Your manager asks you to install Windows on 20 new computers. When you receive the systems, you sit down at one system and boot off your Windows DVD to perform a clean installation on that new computer (this computer is known as a reference computer). After the OS is installed, you install any additional drivers and applications that users will need. For example, most users need Microsoft Office, so you install Office on the computer as well.

After you have the system properly configured, you then create an image of that system by using imaging software, such as Acronis, Macrium, Symantec Ghost, or Microsoft’s ImageX and DISM programs that come with the Microsoft Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK). Typically, you would copy the image to an image server so that you can connect to the imaging server from across the network and apply the image to the other systems.

When it comes time to configure the other 19 systems, you boot off the network card or a bootable DVD or USB stick and connect to the imaging server and download the image to each of the 19 systems. This takes far less time than performing the installation of the OS, drivers, and applications on each system individually. Most companies today use imaging solutions.

Imaging with Windows 7

Microsoft has a number of tools that can help you deploy Windows 7 on a number of computers, including its own imaging technology that you can use. To get a hold of the installation tools, you first must download the Windows ADK from the Microsoft website.

Although CompTIA wants you to know about the ImageX command-line tool, you should know that Microsoft is gradually retiring ImageX in favor of its Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool that does all the same things and more. Both tools are included in the Windows ADK.

Creating a bootable Windows PE disc

The first step to working with Microsoft imaging tools such as ImageX to capture an image is to create a bootable CD known as a Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) disc. A Windows PE disc is a bootable disc that runs a mini-version of Windows that is used to run programs like ImageX to image the system.

To create a Windows PE disc, follow these steps:

Download and install the Windows ADK from the Microsoft website.

Note that Microsoft publishes a separate version of the ADK for each OS. In other words, there are Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 versions available. Yes, this can get confusing!
Choose Start ⇒ All Programs ⇒ Microsoft Windows ADK ⇒ Deployment Tools Command Prompt.
Type the following command to create a folder containing the 64-bit Windows PE boot files:
copype.cmd amd64 c:\winpe_amd64
Copy the base image to boot the CD/DVD from:
copy c:\winpe_amd64\winpe.wim c:\winpe_amd64\iso\sources\boot.wim
Copy ImageX to the ISO folder:
copy c:\program files\Windows AIK\Tools\amd64\imagex.exe c:\winpe_amd64\iso
Create an ISO image from the ISO folder:
oscdimg.exe -n -bc:\winpe_amd\etfsboot.com c:\winpe_amd64\iso c:\winpe_amd64\winpe_amd64.iso

After the ISO file is created, you can then burn that to a CD or DVD and boot off it to create an image of a system with the ImageX program you placed on the CD.

Capturing an image with ImageX

You can use Microsoft’s ImageX.exe program to create images that come from the Windows ADK. After you have created your Windows PE boot disc, you can create an image of a system by following these steps:

Install Windows on a system, and then install any drivers that are needed.
Install any applications that are needed, such as Microsoft Office.
Prepare the system by running sysprep.exe:
c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe

This command is very important because it prepares the system for imaging by removing unique data from the system, such as the security ID and the computer name. The system is shut down and ready to image after the command completes.
Boot off the Windows PE disc and connect an external drive to the system, which you will use to store the image on.
To create an image of a system, use the following command (in the code, the Win7.wim image is located in the path E:\images):
imagex /capture c: e:\images\Win7.wim "Compaq Laptops - Windows 7"

This command creates an image of the C: drive and stores it in an images folder on the E: drive (the external USB drive).

Applying an image with ImageX

After the image has been created, you can then apply the image to another system by following these steps:

Boot off your Windows PE disc and create a primary partition on the target system with the following commands:
Diskpart Create partition primary Format fs=NTFS label="Boot Drive" quick Assign letter=C
Apply the image by using the following command:
imagex /apply e:\images\Win7.wim 1 c:

In the preceding command, you are applying the first image that is inside the Win7.wim file to drive C: of the system.
Make the drive bootable:
Bcdboot c:\windows

Now that you understand a bit about imaging technology, I’ll go back to performing a manual installation.

Preparing for Installation

After talking to many people in the industry about installing different OSes or servers, I have come to realize that one thing that always requires more time is planning. Many people tell me that they can’t do any actual work until their head office sends them the server. However, the best time to do your installation and disaster planning might be while the server is being shipped. Planning your installation or deployment of the OS to the desktops can save you time and money in the long run by helping you to anticipate any issues that might arise and to have the solutions ready when the time comes.

This section helps you identify some points you need to consider when installing a new Windows OS. Before jumping into the installation, be sure that you plan a number of installation decisions. Some things you will be asked about during the installation are

Hardware requirements
Computer name
Workgroup/domain
Partitions
File systems
Application support

Hardware requirements

You first prepare to install an OS by finding the OS’s hardware requirements and making sure that the computer fits the bill. Table 3-1 shows the minimum hardware requirements for the different Windows OSes.

TABLE 3-1 Windows Hardware Requirements

Hardware Component	Windows Vista	Windows 7	Windows 8.1
Processor	800-MHz processor	1 GHz processor	1 GHz processor
Minimum memory	512MB	1GB for 32-bit/2GB for 64-bit	1GB for 32-bit/2GB for 64-bit
Recommended memory	1GB	1GB	2 GB
Hard drive space	15GB free space	16GB free space for 32-bit/20GB for 64-bit	16GB free space for 32-bit/20GB for 64-bit

Not only should you verify that the computer meets the minimum hardware requirements before installing an OS, but you should also make sure that the hardware components you are using will work with the OS. For example, make sure that the make and the model number of your network card are compatible with the OS you want to install. For years, Microsoft published a list of hardware components that had been tested with each version of its operating systems. You can find the HCL for a given OS on the Windows installation CD in the hcl.txt file, or you can find the listing online at the Microsoft website.

Nowadays Microsoft calls the HCL the Windows Compatible Products List (CPL), and it is (wisely) completely web-based. The CPL is not a list of the only devices that will work with Windows; it is a list of devices that have been tested. If you have a network card that is not on the CPL list, it might still work with the OS, but it hasn’t been tested. There is only one way to find out whether it works — install it! Just make sure you are installing it on a test system and not a production system, just in case it causes the system to crash.

You can view the CPL by pointing your browser at https://sysdev.microsoft.com/en-us/hardware/lpl/.

Computer name

When you install Windows, you must specify a computer name for the machine you are installing. This computer name is a unique name assigned to the system and will be used to identify the system on the network. You want to plan the computer names because you are not allowed to have two Windows systems on the network with the same name. The computer names can be up to 15 characters, and they are not allowed to include spaces. For more information on computer names, check out Book 8, Chapter 3.

Workgroup/domain

When installing Windows on a system, you need to specify the workgroup or domain that you want the system to be a part of. A workgroup is a logical grouping of computers. For example, you could logically organize all the accounting systems into an accounting workgroup — the benefit being that when users browse the network for resources, they can double-click the accounting workgroup to access all computers in the accounting workgroup.

If you are installing Windows into a Windows domain, you need to specify the domain name instead of the workgroup name during the installation. A domain is the term that Microsoft uses for its networking environments. A domain has a central server that stores all the user accounts so that users have to log on to the domain only once to access resources across a network.

If you are not sure whether you are installing your Windows system into a workgroup or a domain, choose a workgroup. You can always join the domain later by going to the properties of My Computer. For more information on changing a computer name, check out Book 8, Chapter 3.

Partitions

When you install Windows, you need to partition the hard drive or select which partition you want to install Windows to. Plan this ahead of time! Partitions are logical divisions of the hard drive that you can use to help separate the different types of information stored on the system.

The following is a review of partition types you can read about in Book 2, Chapter 5:

Primary partition: A partition that you can boot from.
Extended partition: A method to extend beyond the four partition limitation. You can create an extended partition to hold a large number of logical drives.
Logical drives: An area of space in the extended partition that is formatted and assigned a drive letter.

For more information on partitioning a hard drive, check out Book 2, Chapter 6.

The default disk type when installing Windows is a basic disk, which supports up to four partitions per disk. You can convert the drive to a dynamic disk after installation and then create a number of volumes on the drive. For more information on basic disk and dynamic disk, check out Book 2, Chapter 6.

When installing Windows, you can manage the partitions from within the Windows setup program instead of having to boot from a startup disk first and then create the partitions before installing the operating system, like you had to do in the old Windows 9x days. You can build all of your partitions from within the setup program.

Within the Windows setup program, you can build the partitions by choosing an area of free space and then pressing C (for create). The setup program then asks you the size of the new partition. You want to be sure that you create a partition that is large enough to hold the operating system and any future patches or updates to that operating system. For example, the laptop I am using to write this book has a 500GB hard drive. I have created a partition to hold the operating system, which is 120GB in size. By the time I have installed the operating system, patched it, and installed my applications, I only have 50 percent of that space available for future updates. Windows Vista/7/8.1 now allow you to create partitions using a graphical screen within the setup program.

The Windows setup program also offers a Delete command, which lets you delete any existing partitions. After creating the partitions and choosing a partition in which to install the Windows OS, you are asked what file system you want to use.

When you install Windows, you don’t have any control over the types of partitions that are created during the setup. For this reason, it is best to only create one partition (to install the OS on) during the installation. Then, after the OS has been installed, use Disk Management to create the remaining partitions. You will get more options and flexibility from the Disk Management console than from the Windows installation program.

File systems

Windows supports four file systems: exFAT, FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. The primary advantage of using the FAT file system is that it is common to all Windows OSes. The FAT file system has its limitations, however, in that it can handle only up to 2GB partitions. The FAT32 file system, however, supports up to 2000GB partitions (although the Windows setup program cannot create a partition larger that 32GB with FAT32).

exFAT is a Microsoft-proprietary file system that's optimized for use with a flash drive. exFAT is a great fit for smaller drives that aren’t a good fit for NTFS.

Neither version of FAT supports security features, so beware of these file systems!

NTFS (New Technology File System) is a file system supported by Windows that offers a richer set of features than FAT or FAT32. For example, NTFS supports setting permissions on folders and files so that you can control who can access what files. NTFS also supports auditing, compression, encryption, and quotas — a feature that allows you to limit how much hard drive space a single user can use. None of these features are available with FAT or FAT32. If you need any of the features provided by NTFS, you need to use an NTFS file system on each partition.

For the A+ Exams, be sure to be familiar with the different file systems that Windows supports. Also note that NTFS is the only file system that gives you features such as permissions, auditing, and quotas.

Another file system that you should be familiar with for the A+ Certification Exams is the Compact Disc File System (CDFS). This file system allows the operating system to access the data on optical drives, such as CD-ROMs or DVDs.

Other preparation steps

Before you install Windows to your production systems, you also want to make sure that you prepare for the installation by checking that the applications that are going to run on the systems work and that your UEFI/BIOS is prepared to boot from DVD. This section outlines these two additional preparation steps.

Application support

Make sure that you test each application that will be running on the OS completely to verify that it functions correctly. Today, you may have a mix of some 32-bit applications and some 64-bit applications. Windows stores 32-bit programs in the path C:\Program Files(x86) by default, and it stores 64-bit programs in the path C:\Program Files.

Be sure to test each application with the new operating system you are installing. For more information on application support in Windows, check out Book 6, Chapter 2.

BIOS/UEFI

When you install the Windows OS, you will boot from the Windows DVD, and the setup program will start. Because you are booting from a DVD, you need to prepare for the installation by verifying in the BIOS/UEFI settings that the DVD device is the first device in the startup order. This ensures that you can boot off the Windows setup media. For more information on configuring BIOS/UEFI, check out Book 2, Chapter 4.

Other considerations

You want to consider a number of things when planning your installation of the Windows operating system. The following items should be planned carefully:

Repair installation: The great thing about the Windows installation DVD is that it is also used to repair a corrupt installation of Windows, so keep that installation DVD handy!
Multiboot: If you need to support older applications that will not run on the new version of Windows you are installing, you may need to install Windows in a dual-boot configuration. If installing Windows 7 in a dual-boot configuration, be sure to install it on its own partition.
Remote network installation: As mentioned earlier, you can install Windows across the network. If you are planning to install from across the network, be sure that the system has been prepared to boot off the network card on the system.
Image deployment: The best way to install an operating system is to prepare an image to be installed. Spend some time preparing images of your systems to simplify the installation at a later time.
Third-party drivers: Your new Windows installation may not have drivers for the hardware in your computer, so be sure to spend some time downloading new drivers from the vendor’s website.
Time/date/regional settings: Ensure that you set the date and time settings on the system during installation.
Factory recovery partition: When partitioning the system, do not overwrite any of the default partitions, created by the manufacturer of the system, that have the recovery tools; these partitions are needed if you intend to recover the system to its original state.
Automatic Updates: Ensure that you enable automatic updates so that your system is updated on a regular basis. This will help improve the security of the system.

Performing Attended Installations of Windows

This section begins with an overview of the installation process for Windows Vista/7, and then Windows 8.1. The attended installation processes for these two OSes are very similar, so if you know how to install one OS, you will be able to install the others with no problem.

I begin with attended installation of the OS. That is, installations that you attend, or sit through, and answer all the questions that the setup program asks.

Performing a Windows 7 and Vista attended installation

The steps to perform an attended installation of Windows 7 or Windows Vista are very similar to other versions of Windows, but the architecture of the installation program has changed. Windows Vista no longer uses the text-mode installation phase that was part of all other Windows installations. Instead, it uses the Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE), which is a scaled-down version of Windows that runs when you boot from a CD or DVD. The installation sports a GUI right off the bat, as compared with Windows XP, which had a text-mode phase where the screen was very DOS looking. Boy, am I glad the XP days are finally over!

Because of the size of the newer versions of Windows Vista, Microsoft ships it on DVD instead of CD-ROM: something you will notice more for future software releases as well. To install Vista, follow these steps:

Place the Windows 7 or Vista installation DVD in the system and restart the computer.

The computer boots off the DVD and then starts the Vista installation by loading files into memory.
After Windows 7 or Vista loads the GUI installation shell, you are asked to set your preferred language, time, and currency format (see Figure 3-1), and then click Next.
(Optional) Like previous versions of Windows, you can perform a repair of a system from the Windows installation media.
Because I assume this is a clean install, click Install Now. (See Figure 3-2.)
Read the licensing terms, choose the I Accept the License Terms option, and then click Next.

You are then asked whether you want to upgrade your current version of Windows to Vista or perform a clean installation by choosing Custom (see Figure 3-3).
In this example, I choose Custom.
When next presented with a list of hard drives where you can install Windows Vista, choose the drive you want and then click Next.

If you don’t want to use the entire drive to host the OS and you are interested in partitioning the disk, click the Advanced link to access options for creating, deleting, and formatting partitions, shown in Figure 3-4. When partitioning the disk, you will notice that Windows creates a system reserved partition of 100MB, which is used by Windows for features such as BitLocker.

Windows copies the files it needs, expands them, and then continues installation. The screen shows the progression; see Figure 3-5. This step might take the good part of 30 minutes.

After Windows Vista installs, you are then walked through some final steps.
Create a user account (for yourself), which will have administrator capabilities (Figure 3-6), type a username and a password, and then click Next.

Note: In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the default administrator account is disabled by default.
When asked the name of the computer, enter a name of less than 15 characters, choose your desktop background, and then click Next.
When asked whether you want Windows to automatically protect your system (enabling automatic updates), choose Use Recommended Settings.
Choose your time zone, verify that the date and time are correct (see Figure 3-7), and then click Next.
Set your computer location; see Figure 3-8.

Because I am using this system for a home network, I opt for Home.

The location is important. For example, say you chose Public Location here. Vista security settings are tighter — a good thing — if you let it know that you are in a public site, such as an Internet cafe.
With installation now complete, click Start.

After Vista reboots, you can log on with the account you created during installation.

FIGURE 3-1: Select Vista installation settings.

FIGURE 3-2: Choosing to install Windows Vista.

FIGURE 3-3: Choose a clean installation or to upgrade.

FIGURE 3-4: Use advanced options to manage partitions during Vista installation.

FIGURE 3-5: Windows Vista installation copies files to the system.

FIGURE 3-6: Create an admin account during installation.

FIGURE 3-7: Choose date and time settings.

FIGURE 3-8: Setting the computer location.

After you install Vista, you need to activate it to prove you have a licensed installation of Windows Vista. You will need your software key, which is usually located on the side of the computer or inside the CD case. With key in hand, configure your install to use that key and then choose the Activate feature in Vista. That prompts Vista to connect to the Microsoft site to verify that the software key has not been used.

To activate Windows 7 or Vista, follow these steps:

Click Start. Right-click Computer and choose Properties.
In the System Properties window, click Change Product Key (bottom of Figure 3-9).
Type your product key into the product key window that opens; then click OK.
Back in System Properties, click the Active Windows Now link.

FIGURE 3-9: Change your product key to activate your copy of Windows Vista.

Performing a Windows 8.1 attended installation

For Windows 8.1, Microsoft followed the same installation paradigm as with Windows 7, but streamlined the process even more. In a nutshell, here is the information you’re required to specify when you perform a clean installation of Windows 8.1:

Accept the license agreement.
Choose an upgrade or custom (clean) installation.
Select the installation partition and optionally format it first.
Name the computer.
Choose Windows Update and Internet Explorer configuration options.
Create a Microsoft account or a local administrator account.

Thanks to Windows PE, you have access to the Internet and local network as soon as Windows loads a network interface card (NIC) driver. This means you can patch your Windows 8.1 installation immediately.

I remember the days when I’d install Windows XP completely offline because if I had an open Internet connection on the box before updating it, the machine would attract malware almost automatically. Those were the bad old days.

Verifying and Troubleshooting the Installation

In the previous two sections, I show you how to perform attended and unattended installations of Windows. In this section, you look at some tips for verifying and troubleshooting a Windows installation.

First things first. After Windows is installed, ensure that all device drivers have been installed. Open Device Manager and verify that all drivers are present. If you are missing drivers for some devices, Device Manager will have a category called Unknown Devices, which are indicated by a yellow question mark.

Check out Book 6, Chapter 1 to find out more about updating drivers.

Windows creates a number of log files during installation. If installation does not go as you planned, peruse these logs for more information about an error. These log files report information only for events that happen during the installation, so if you’re troubleshooting something like booting Windows or networking, these files won’t help.

The log files created during installation are

Setupact.log records information about the files that are copied during installation.
Setuperr.log records information about errors that happen during installation.
Setupapi.log records information about device driver files that are copied during installation.
Setuplog.txt records additional information about the device drivers.
Cbs_unattend.log records information related to unattended setup servicing.
Sessions.xml records all servicing activity.
CBS.log records more details about offline servicing failures.

Be sure to remember the log files that are created when you install Windows. These files can be used to help troubleshoot problems with the installation of Windows.

A number of problems may arise during Windows installation. The following list outlines a few common ones:

Bad DVD or DVD device: If you experience failure to copy files during the setup process, you might have a bad DVD device, or maybe the DVD itself is bad. Try booting from another Windows DVD to find out whether the problem is with the media or the DVD device.
Can’t boot after install: If you have trouble rebooting after you complete an installation, be sure that you did not leave a floppy disk in the floppy drive. Also check BIOS/UEFI setup to ensure that the hard drive appears as a boot device. (See Book 2, Chapter 4 to find out how to tweak BIOS/UEFI settings.)
Can’t start Windows install: If you can’t start the Windows setup by booting off the installation media, make sure that the DVD device is listed as a startup device in BIOS/UEFI. Also, ensure that the DVD is listed before the hard disk in the system boot order.
RAID not detected during installation: When installing Windows, if you have a hard drive controller or a RAID controller in the system that is not detected during installation, press F6 during installation to supply third-party drivers.
Not enough disk space: The Windows setup program checks available hard disk space. If your computer doesn’t have enough space, Windows indicates this with an error, and the Windows installation stops. You will need to restart the installation again after cleaning up disk space.

Overall, Windows installations have become more reliable with each successive version, so you are less likely to have installation problems with the current version than you would have back in the Windows XP days.

Upgrading Windows

You will be responsible for understanding how to upgrade from previous versions of Windows to Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows 8.1. The following sections introduce you to the theory of upgrading an OS.

Preparing to upgrade

Many businesses run Windows, so understanding how to upgrade is important. Whether installing the OS from scratch or performing an upgrade, the process is pretty much the same. Note: With an upgrade, though, you will find many installation decisions already made for you during the installation of the previous OS. For example, when you upgrade an older version of Windows, you will not be asked the computer name of the system as this information is inherited from the previous operating system installation that you are upgrading.

Before you upgrade any OS, backup the system and any important data. You never know when an upgrade is going to go bad, so make sure you can at least put the system back to its previous state.

Upgrading to Windows Vista

You can perform an in-place upgrade of an OS to Windows Vista, but you must prepare for the upgrade. Start by verifying that your existing hardware and software are supported by Windows Vista. To do so, check with each manufacturer’s website, or run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor (downloadable from Microsoft online). The Upgrade Advisor will run on your system and report any installation issues that could arise if you tried to install Vista.

The goal here is to prevent you from installing Vista and then finding out none of your applications run or hardware is supported.

If you wish to upgrade to Vista, you must have one of these three prerequisite OSes: Windows 2000, XP, or another edition of Vista. Yup, you read that right: You can upgrade from Vista to Vista if you upgrade a lower-end edition (such as the Home edition) to a higher-end edition (say, Enterprise).

The other issue to watch for when upgrading to Vista is that the edition of Windows you are upgrading is upgradeable to the edition of Vista. For example, you cannot upgrade Windows XP Professional to Windows Vista Home edition because XP Professional supports features not supported in Vista Home Edition (such as domain environments). Really, when you think about it, if you were successful in that action, you are downgrading — not upgrading!

Upgrading to Windows 7

If you are running Windows Vista, you can upgrade to Windows 7, but no upgrade path exists for other operating systems such as Windows XP to be upgraded to Windows 7. Also, like upgrading to Windows Vista, you must upgrade to an operating system edition of similar functionality. For example, you cannot upgrade a Vista Professional edition to a Windows 7 Home edition.

Also note that you cannot upgrade between 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. You must do a clean install to switch from a 32-bit copy of Windows to 64-bit. Remember this for your A+ Certification Exams because I am sure that you will be tested on what systems can be upgraded to Windows 7.

Upgrading to Windows 8.1

According to Microsoft, you can perform a direct upgrade to Windows 8.1 from either Windows Vista or Windows 7. Microsoft strongly recommends running the free Upgrade Assistant (shown in Figure 3-11) to identify compatibility problems before you pull the trigger on OS upgrade.

FIGURE 3-11: Use the free Upgrade Assistant (available from the Microsoft website) to upgrade to Windows 8.1.

Microsoft has an unfortunate propensity to change its product names every so often. For our purposes, “Upgrade Advisor” and “Upgrade Assistant” are synonyms.

Remember that an upgrade installation of Windows intends to preserve all user settings and document data. That’s the benefit. That said, please don’t fall victim to the mistaken idea that upgrading Windows to a new version will fix the so-called “ghosts in the machine” that plagued the initial Windows version.

In this case, I suggest you back up all user data and preferences and perform a clean installation of the newer Windows version.

Restoring User Data Files

You can move a user’s computer’s state from one system to another. The state of a user’s computer comprises the information and settings important to that user. This includes files in the My Documents folder, email settings, Internet Explorer favorites, and the desktop wallpaper, just to name a few.

Saving a computer’s state

If you are going to replace a user’s computer, you should know how to save the computer’s state. You will replace a system for a number of reasons. Maybe the system is running Windows 7, and you feel that to run Windows 8.1, the user should have up-to-date hardware. Or maybe the user is running Windows 8.1 on a system, and your manager has a new laptop for the user that will run Windows 7. Bottom line: You have to move the settings from one computer to another.

Windows offers the User State Migration Tool (USMT) feature, which is a set of command-line tools that can simplify your life when you need to move computer settings from one system to another.

The USMT tools are typically used in enterprise environments where systems administrators need to migrate user state for several users. Residential customers are encouraged to use the Windows Easy Transfer tool instead.

In this procedure, you migrate user state from a Windows 7 computer to a Windows 8.1 computer by using the Windows Easy Transfer wizard. To do so, follow these instructions:

On the Windows 7 computer, start the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard by clicking the Start button, typing Windows Easy Transfer into the Search box, and pressing Enter.
As shown in Figure 3-13, choose how you’ll transfer user state data from the Windows 7 computer to the Windows 8.1 computer and click Next.

You’ll need to purchase the Easy Transfer cable if you want to use a direct connection between the two computers. Otherwise you can use a network-shared folder or, more likely, a connected external USB drive.
Specify whether this is the new or old computer, and press Next.

This is a pretty easy choice here because you know you’re currently exporting the user state from the Windows 7 box.
Select the appropriate option for saving only the user’s settings, only the user’s files, or both, and then click Next.

See Figure 3-14. Normally, you opt to transfer everything, but your mileage may vary.

The Windows Easy Transfer Wizard copies all the user state information that you specified on that computer. If you choose to transfer the complete user state for a given account, the wizard saves these items by default to the location you specified:
- Contents of My Documents
- Contents of My Pictures
- Contents of Desktop
- Contents of Favorites
- Internet Explorer Favorites
- Browser and mail settings
- Accessibility options
- Display properties
- Folder and Taskbar settings
- Mouse and Keyboard settings
- Regional settings
- Microsoft Office applications settings
Click Finish to exit the wizard.

FIGURE 3-13: You can use a variety of methods to transfer user state with the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard.

The Windows Easy Transfer Wizard allows you to migrate only one user’s settings at a time. To migrate a number of user’s settings simultaneously, use these the User State Migration Tools (USMT) executables:

scanstate captures a user’s settings from a source computer and dumps the settings to an intermediate folder.
loadstate loads those settings from the intermediate folder to the destination system.

Restoring a computer’s state

When it is time to restore the settings to the destination system (assuming that the destination system is running Windows 8.1), simply invoke the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard and specify that you’ve already saved the user state computer and that it’s available on the local machine. Provide the location of the user’s state, and the state will be restored.