The XP-7 Upgrade Problem

Apple is lampooning Microsoft's requirement that XP users wipe their hard drives to start all over with 7. (Switching to a Mac would be easier, say the ads.)

Future Shop is Canada's Best Buy (indeed, it is owned now by Best Buy), and their "Windows 7 is here!" email flier landed in my mailbox overnight. Smack dab in the middle was the question from a "reader" for Ask An Expert:

I have Windows XP installed on my computer. I want to buy Windows 7. ...can I upgrade from Windows XP?

I was interested to read how Future Shop would deal with the problem, because right next to it was the company's blogger Buzz Bishop writing that both Mac and 7 were valid buying choices. (As FutureShop sells both, he has no choice but to promote both platforms.) Mr Bishop advised:

As we blast in to the busiest buying season of the year, recession or not, you've finally got a tough decision to make: Mac or PC, which will it be?

His answer is to buy something, anything! Just help Future Shop get through the recession.

With that background, let's go back to how Ask An Expert answers the XP upgrade problem:

With Windows 7 Microsoft has worked to offer the greatest amount of choice for options in upgrading. Owning Windows XP gives you the option of purchasing either a full version or upgrade version of Windows 7.

That's unhelpful: buy either the upgrade for CDN$130 or the full version ($225). The Expert provides no reason for buying the full version. I can hear my mother-in-law saying, "Just to be safe, maybe we should get both, just in case."

What further advice does Ask An Expert have?

As a user of Windows XP you'll find the experience of both of these products to be similar as you'll need to perform a clean install.

So, going with the Mac could be an option, especially since the $120-more-expensive "Run many existing XP applications in Windows 7" option implies that XP apps might not work in 7.

Wipe and install sounds like a pain. But, it's always been that way, according to Ask An Expert:

This is not a new process -- a similar program was in place for Windows Vista and Windows XP; users of older versions of Windows can purchase lower-priced upgrade versions, but must perform a clean install.

The semi-colon confuses, because the two sentence fragments refer to two different things. 

What final cheery advice do you have for us, FutureShop's Ask An Expert?

This means you're going to need to back up all of your data and programs and re-install/restore everything when the installation is complete. So feel free to pick up the upgrade version of Windows 7, and get ready to leave XP in the dust!

And what final words of advice do you have for us, FutureShop's Mr Bishop?

Andy Walker... had an interesting post on Facebook last week. "More of my dollars than ever go to Apple and not Microsoft these days. Maybe I should buy a nice MacBook Pro, you know to run Windows 7."

Translation: help Future Shop through the recession by buying a Mac that's 3x more expensive than a PC AND buy Windows 7.

Source.

Once of Microsoft's scams is that you need to buy a more expensive version of 7 to run "XP" applications. Nonsense. I have found that 7RC runs apps written for Windows 2000 and even earlier. The only problems were with Skype and WinZip (replaced by the free 7zip).

Comments

[Jimmy Bergmark]

I have used Skype on Windows 7 as long as I can remember without problem.

The Windows XP Mode is not even possible to run on all hardware. I agree that most programs can be made to run on W7 anyway. I have not had any use of XP mode so far and I use quite a bunch of different programs.

[Mike]

Ralph,

It should be noted that many, many, many hardcore Apple users also suggest doing a complete wipe and install when upgrading to a new version of OSX. When I read thru the various Apple forums I visit, the first suggestion to someone having a problem with an upgrade of OSX, is to do a wipe and clean install.

Microsoft is not alone in the wipe issue, Apple just seems better at hiding that nasty little suggestion.