Five things to know before Win7 installation

First, choose the installation method

Now you have downloaded the ISO image and burned it to DVD. Next you have two options to run the installer. The performance of the Windows Installer depends on which method you choose.

If your system already has windowsxp, Vista, or an earlier version installed, you can launch the installer from the Windows operating system. Alternatively, you can boot the system from the installation media. Either way, you will see a dialog box.

What is the difference? If you run the installer in Windows.

1. You cannot run a 64-bit installer on an x86 version of Windows.

2, install Windows7 and the existing Windows version of the same volume.

3, must use the existing partition, can not be changed, the installer does not recognize the unallocated space.

If booting from a Windows 7 DVD:

1. You cannot upgrade an existing Windows version, you can only customize the installation.

2, you can delete an existing partition, create a new partition, extend an existing disk partition, or specify an unallocated space as the installation location.

3, install Windows7 and the existing Windows version of the same volume.

Also, if you launch the installer in Windows, you can choose to run a compatibility check on your existing system.

Second, the hard disk capacity requirements return to the original

Under the current standard, you do not need a lot of disk space to install Windows7. Microsoft announced the RC minimum hardware recommended 16G free disk space. But that's not a hard requirement. After installing Windows7Ultimate on a 10G drive (9.9G format) virtual machine, I still have 3.95G of free disk space.

Later, I noticed that the full installation of Windows7Ultimatex86 requires 6 to 9G of space. Obviously, this amount will increase when you install additional programs or create data files. But how big should the system partition be? According to the author's experience, 15G is a minimum scale, but sooner or later it will become tight, so if you have enough spare disk space, it is recommended to reserve at least 30G.

Finally, the author also collected some general knowledge about Windows7RC, share it:

RC is the latest test version of Windows7 development process. Available in x86 and x64 formats. It is the last version before Microsoft officially released Windows 7. A full installation of Windows 7RC should be completed in one and a half hours. As for the slower machine, it can be completed in two hours.

Although it is possible that Microsoft will add some new desktop background or screen saver. But currently Windows 7RC is already a full-featured version. Microsoft's work from now on is to fix the final error, most of which will be related to the original equipment manufacturer's configuration and hardware support.

The RC version is like a trial version and the public will be able to download and install it. No need to pay any fees.

Windows7 cannot be installed on top of Windows XP. Windows 7 must be installed as a net, or installed on a Vista-based basis to migrate data and personalization from xp.

Virtual machines have special uses, and virtualized hardware does not support Aero graphics features, so a real desktop experience is not possible.

Most mainstream commercial and entertainment programs that run on Vista can run on Windows 7.

You will be prompted to enter your product key during the installation process. If you leave this box blank, the installer will continue and there are no restrictions on your Windows 7. But before you activate, you must enter a valid product key. By default, it will be activated automatically within 3 days after installation, or it can be disabled during the installation process.

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Third, no fear of overwriting old folders

When you instruct Windows installer to do a custom installation It will move the old Windows, ProgramFiles, and User Folders (DocumentsandSettings) to a folder called Windows.Old. The new installation creates a new set of top-level folders on the current system drive: windows, ProgramFiles, and Users.

The benefit of this is that when a single disk on a system has only one partition and a large amount of free disk space, it is completely new and does not lose any data. A new, non-destructive installation gives you a new start, and old data files are safely hidden in the Windows.old folder.

To perform a clean and non-destructive installation, you can launch the Windows 7 installer on Windows or from Windows 7 DVD, click on the installation steps, select the Custom (Advanced) option, and then, in the list of available disk partitions, select one of the included The partition of your current Windows installation. For most people, it is drive C.

When you click OK, you will see a warning dialog.

After completing the setup, when you start Windows 7 for the first time, you will see that all your data and program files are in the Windows.Old folder. If you have any old data files to retrieve, you can find them in Usersfolder (WindowsVista) or DocumentsandSettings.

Fourth, find the old driver without fear

In my tests, so far, windows7 is very detailed on the driver. But it's not perfect, some devices are blank, or replaced by generic drivers.

If you have already installed an earlier version of Windows Vista or Windows 7, you do not need to use a special program to back up the driver from the old system. Windows Vista and Windows 7 save a local copy of all drivers in a folder called FileRepository, which is in a subfolder of the DriverStore folder. The full path is C:WindowsSystem32DriverStoreFileRepository.

In a clean Windows 7X86 installation, the FileRepository folder contains more than 900 MB of files. If you add some new devices or updates, this number can easily exceed 1GB.

After you have completed the new installation of Windows 7, you can use Device Manager to install or update any driver, or just click on the old driver you saved to install.

V. How to install a new one

If you plan to do a clean installation, it is recommended that you back up first, then boot the installer from Windows 7DVD to eliminate any existing partitions. Because this will save you time and reduce some trouble. Now assume that you have already made a backup. Because all the data will disappear, so be sure to save it before you start.

There are four steps to the new installation:

1. Start the program from WindowsDVD, follow the prompts to select a custom (advanced) installation, and then click Next to enter the screen;

2. Click Drive Options (Advanced) to display all available disk management tools;

3. Select a partition from the list and click Delete;

4. For any other The extra volume is repeated until nothing is left except for the unallocated space.

Now you can complete the installation with all the unallocated space on the drive.