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Crave - CNET Asia
- Darius Chang
Oct 7, 2009
Link to article
It's no secret that there is a huge population of Windows XP machines still in service. According
to Laplink's CEO Thomas Koll, up to 70 percent of PCs are still on the pre-Vista operating system,
with the majority capable of being upgraded to Windows 7. However, Microsoft has stated that it
does not plan to allow direct upgrades for XP to Windows 7, which means that XP users will have to
format their machines and reinstall all their previous applications and data to upgrade to the
latest OS.
Fortunately, there is now a third-party solution from Laplink. PCmover Windows 7 Upgrade
Assistant allows Windows XP users to install Windows 7 while retaining current software
installations and data. This also works for versions of Vista which do not have upgrades in-place
to Windows 7 editions such as Vista Basic.
But before you start salivating over this snappy solution, check out the fineprint first.
PCmover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant does not guarantee that the applications installed on Windows
XP will work on Windows 7, so the onus is on the user to ensure that the software is compatible
with the new operating system. In addition, non-native drivers as well as DRM-protected content may
need to be reinstalled or reactivated. Last, but not least, switching from 32-bit to 64-bit and
vice versa may cause software compatibility issues as well.
Still, at US $29.95 it's not a huge investment. So check it out if upgrading to Windows 7
from XP is important to you.
Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive Inc.