Today, Tuesday 8 April, Microsoft will release the latest security patches for Windows XP which, as reported a year ago (" the end of XP, what to do now"> All in all it is not a serious loss, Microsoft has provided support for Windows XP for 12 years making it the longest running operating system ever, despite the huge security problems. With the end of support for Windows XP, many users will finally have to upgrade to a more recent operating system .
Below, we summarize the things to do to migrate from XP, to replace it with another Windows system .
READ ALSO: Precautions if you want to keep Windows XP after April 8th
Things to do before migrating
Before upgrading your computer to Windows 7 or 8 or even to a Linux system, it is absolutely necessary to understand what are the risks, time and costs to be done.
The problem is that an older computer may not be able to support newer versions of Windows from the hardware point of view.
Microsoft provides compatibility checkers to find out first if you can install Windows 7 or 8 on that PC.
The same check can check whether the installed programs will still work.
So you have to choose which system to put in place of XP
Windows 7 is easy to find and ensures stability and usability closer to XP.
Windows 8, although still undergoing adjustment by Microsoft, ensures a long period of support.
This means that buying it original will pay off in the long run because it will be usable for at least another 8 or 10 years.
If the hardware compatibility programs say that the computer is too old for a Windows update, then you can switch to Linux with a light distro.
In this case you will lose many of the programs that were used on XP (even if there will be equivalent).
Choosing to replace XP with Windows 7 or 8, keep in mind that there is no way to switch directly from XP to Windows 7 or 8.
You will need to proceed with a clean installation and a prior manual backup of important data.
The steps to do this transfer or migration on the computer are:
1) Check if the PC is 32 bit or 64 bit .
Right click on My Computer, go to Properties and check if it is a 32 bit PC.
2) Check for compatibility problems with the software
To make sure the software works on a newer operating system, you will need to check it program by program to see if there is an updated version.
Thanks to some automatic programs you can do:
- check if the PC is compatible with Windows 7
- Compatibility check for Windows 8
3) Move important files, document folders and settings to an external hard drive
There are a few ways to do this manual backup .
- Automatic PCMover program to pass files and data from Windows XP to the new computer
- Transfer files from old PC to new with similar and always automatic Windows Easy Transfer.
- You can backup your programs and customized settings
- You can manually save important Windows folders and files.
4) Install Windows
On the computer where Windows XP was, insert the Windows 7 or 8 installation disc, boot the computer from CD-DVD and follow the wizard.
Choose the correct partition containing the current XP installation (usually "C:" drive) and overwrite it.
Make sure the partition has NTFS format.
If not, go to the command prompt with administrator privileges, type convert DRIVE: / fs: ntfs with, instead of Drive, the letter of the disk where XP is installed.
When asked to force unmounting on this volume, press "Y" and then Enter.
For a complete detailed guide, consult the following articles:
- Install Windows 7 from Windows Xp
- Download and install Windows 8.1 Pro by updating XP
- Install Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Xp from USB stick, without cd
5) Restore files manually or using the same program used for backup, for example Windows Eeasy Transfer or PCMover.
6) Updating the drivers
In most cases, Windows will take care of driver updates automatically, but problems can be found.
It may be, for example, that the manufacturer of an old piece of the computer no longer exists and has not released drivers for Windows 7 and 8.
Check this before migrating
7) Reinstall the programs
For older programs, both on Windows 7 and on Windows 8, you can use XP compatibility mode or XP Mode.
8) Delete the Post-Installation files: Windows.old
The Windows 7 and 8 installer does not erase the data from the disk and keeps all the files from the previous XP installation.
All old files can be recovered from the Windows.old folder which will then be deleted to gain disk space.
To conclude, if instead you wanted to try installing or testing Linux on the old PC, I remember that the article on the best distributions for old PCs including Zorin OS, the most similar to XP.
