I heard that I can upgrade to Windows 7 without losing my files.
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aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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I remember when I reinstalled Vista, all my stuff went into Windows.old.
Still, things can go wrong, so I'd recommend buying a spindle of CD-Rs (or DVD-Rs).
Still, things can go wrong, so I'd recommend buying a spindle of CD-Rs (or DVD-Rs).
If you're running Vista, then yeah it should be an easy upgrade from what I understand. My understanding is that Vista changed the file structure and Win7 is compatible with it, but NTFS is not.
Genocidicbunny
Bug squasher
Vista and Windows 7 both use NTFS too.
Hmm....I recall reading something, I think it was on wired, that if you're trying to upgrade your XP machine to Win7 you need to back up your files because you just can't overlay Win7 on top of XP like you could with previous OSes. I thought it was because of a different file system.... 
GenMarshall
High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
Iirc, it may be a newer version of NTFS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS
So, by MS standards it is the same version but by geek/Wikipedia standards it is different.Wikipedia said:
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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Didn't some people have trouble with security permissions when copying their files from XP to Vista?
Genocidicbunny
Bug squasher
For the most part its the different file structure, the way settings are organized and etc that breaks the direct upgrade from XP to 7. You can always go with XP > Vista > 7, but from what I hear, for that to work well, you need a squeaky clean install of XP.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
When upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 it does indeed put all of your old files in windows.old, but I would back up everything you really really don't want to lose and/or cannot replace.
IamJohn
(was)?
I reinstalled win7 directly over the old version when I went from the RC to the final version and wondered why I only had 10GB left on my hard drive and found out that even if you aren't upgrading as long as you don't wipe the hard drive first you'll find your previous install's files in the windows.old folder.
In any case though you should never just have one copy of your files, that's a sure recipe for trouble at some point, as I've found out before.
In any case though you should never just have one copy of your files, that's a sure recipe for trouble at some point, as I've found out before.
Genocidicbunny
Bug squasher
QFT. If you have everything properly backed up, a full reinstall should not be too much of a hassle (Yes there's programs and their settings, and some people, especially those that work in content creation may have specific settings and bindings and custom macros may object to a full reinstall, but for the rest of us its fine)
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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I put my files on a portable HDD, then DVD-Rs, then online backup for certain things. Redundant backups is a good idea.
If you're really nervous you can put the backup medium in a fire/waterproof safe.
If you're really nervous you can put the backup medium in a fire/waterproof safe.
bob bobato
L'imparfait
What do you mean by that? If you're upgrading from vista to 7, you need to uninstall & reinstall your programs? The upgrade sites I've seen say nothing about that. They recommend that you back up files, but only just in case.
Mise
isle of lucy
Idea for a web business: an "online registry" that you can store your programs' settings to so that they can be "transportable" from, say, work/school/university to home, and for backup purposes. Should be interoperable with Windows registry. Should know where all major applications store their settings, and should have options to add manually etc.
IamJohn
(was)?
What happens is basically the setup process copies the files in the old install of windows. You can't use the old programs since you don't have the registry entries, etc, but you do have all the old saves, pictures, music, etc. After installing just move the stuff you want to keep and delete the rest.
I don't think that would work very well- windows seems like something where you could do that since it's (as far as I know) very customized for each installation.
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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Be rather difficult as you would have to set it up individually for each program. Some programs keep settings in AppData, some in the program folder, some in registry, it eventually gets very confusing.
Mise
isle of lucy
Sorry I'm not sure what you mean by this?
If you just started with the most popular programs, e.g. Firefox/IE/Opera, MS Office, iTunes, etc, you could knock out 90% of the problem fairly easily. That is, if you added up the amount of time people spend using those programs, it might come to 90% of total time spent using a computer. Thus, you can get a lot of quick wins. C.f. the [wiki]80-20 rule[/wiki]. You then spend the rest of your time adding programs that people will purposely download it for, e.g. Adobe products or other design/"creativity" software that have a LOT of settings that can be a PITA to replicate on other machines.
It would be a very manual task, since, as you correctly point out, programs keep user settings in different places, but you wouldn't need to do every program -- just the biggest ones, the ones that people will want to use on different computers. Then you've got a web package that can save "all your favourite programs' settings" to sell to the end user.
Till
Adventurer
If you make an easy-to-use api accessible, you will only have to write modules for enough programmes to establish a small user base.
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