The short answer is a little bit of yes and a whole lotta no, at least in the
way that most people expect upgrades to work.
Here’s how I found out…
By mistake, I ordered copies of the Windows 8 upgrade edition. All
that really means is that rather than being able to install Windows 8 to a
clean or “bare metal” machine, there needs to be a prior version of Windows 7,
Windows Vista, or Windows XP installed.
The option of Windows XP confused me because Windows 7 didn’t really handle
that scenario well; effectively, there was no upgrade from XP to Windows 7 and
yet it appeared that that might have changed with Windows 8.
As it turns out, things may be a little more streamlined perhaps, but that’s
about it.
I’ll walk you through my upgrade and point out the relevant points when
upgrading from Windows XP.
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Upgrade Install versus Upgrade Edition
It’s important to clarify two different uses of the word “upgrade”
here:
-
An upgrade install is the process of updating a previous
installation of Windows to a newer version, preserving as much as possible in
the process. This is opposed to a “clean” install, which is basically the
process of installing a completely new version of the operating system without
regard to, and in fact deleting, anything that happened to already be on the
machine. -
An upgrade edition is a copy of the operating system
installation media or package which can be used only to perform upgrade
installs. In other words, an upgrade edition requires that there be a prior
version of Windows to be upgraded. This is opposed to a “full” edition, which
allows you to do either a clean or upgrade installation. Upgrade
versions are typically sold at a somewhat lower price than full editions.
So I had mistakenly purchased an upgrade edition which would only
allow me to perform an upgrade installation.
I chose an installation of Windows XP to be upgraded to Windows 8.
Backup first
I can’t stress this enough. Whenever you’re about to upgrade something as
major as the operating system on your computer, you must back up
first.
My recommendation is that you perform a full image backup using a tool such
as Macrium
Reflect or similar. That way, if something goes wrong during the
installation, you can always restore your machine from that backup to the state
it was in prior to the attempt.
The problem here isn’t that things go wrong often. The problem is that when
things go wrong, they can go very wrong to the point that the
installation on the hard disk – either old or new – may not be able to be
recovered.
A backup, on the other hand, will let you recover from anything.
Starting the upgrade
When upgrading Windows XP to Windows 8, you begin by inserting the
installation media (a DVD in my case) and running the setup.exe program if it
doesn’t start automatically.
As you can see, that’s the Windows 8 setup program preparing to run, on top
of Windows XP’s familiar default desktop background and task bar.
Next Windows 8 Setup asks for the product key.
In many ways, when you purchase software like Windows 8, it’s really the
product key that you’re purchasing that legitimizes and activates your
installation. Make sure to keep it in a safe place. You’ll likely be able to
re-download Windows 8 for free, but if you lose the product key, you’ll need to
purchase another should you ever need to reinstall.
Choosing what to keep?
After agreeing to the License Terms, Windows 8 Setup asks a very interesting
question:
Wanting to understand this better, I clicked on “Help me decide” which told
me this:
What are my options for what I want to keep?
What you can keep depends on the current version of Windows running on your
PC. These options only show up if the current version of Widows supports
them.
Here are the options you might see:
-
Windows settings. Windows settings like Ease of Access, your desktop
background, or Internet favorites and history will be kept. Not all settings
will be moved. -
Personal files. Anything saved in the user folder is considered a personal
file, like the Documents and Desktop folders. -
Apps. For the apps that are compatible with Windows 8, some will just work
while others will have to be reinstalled in Windows 8. For the apps that need
to be reinstalled, find the installation media and installers. -
Nothing. Delete everything and replace your current version with a copy of
Widows 8. Your personal files will be moved to a windows.old folder.
If you choose Nothing, make sure to do the following before you
continue:
-
Back up your files to an external hard drive, DVD or CD, USB flash drive, or
network folder. -
Find the installation media and installers for the apps that will work and
need to be reinstalled in Windows 8. -
If you use a fingerprint reader or another biometric device to sign in to
your PC, make sure you write down your password. You’ll have to type your user
name and password the first time you sign in to Windows 8.
Note: If the only option you see is Nothing, you can get
more info online at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=12416
The bottom line is simply this:
Windows 8 setup will offer to move or preserve what it can for you.
If you’re “upgrading” from Windows XP, the only thing it appears to be able
to preserve for you are your personal files. Everything else will be setup from
scratch.
So it’s not really much of an upgrade as it is a clean install that
preserves some of your data files.
Completing the installation
Click Next and Windows 8 Setup confirms what it’s about to
do:
Next, it gives you a warning, at least, that this could take a while:
After that “while”, your machine will reboot and be running Windows 8. But
you’re not quite done.
Initial personalization of Windows 8
You’ve probably noticed that so far the Windows 8 setup screens have all
been a lovely shade of … purple. Fortunately, the very first thing you get to
personalize is the default color or color scheme:
Next, you’re given the option to skip the rest of the options and let Windows
8 use its defaults:
Detailing all those options is a job for another day, but be aware that
while many of the defaults are in fact appropriate; they’re all Microsoft,
right down to Bing for your search engine.
Finally, you login with your old Windows XP username and password (this was
technically an “upgrade” after all, and that’s one thing that was indeed
preserved), and you’re running Windows 8.
Windows 8: same old moldy fruitcake; more GUI frosting. No wonder the business world stuck with XP!
So was the answer yes or no? I’m confused…it looks like you were able to, but in your opening note, you said a whole lotta no…
16-Nov-2012
Thanks for the Tips Leo! I am attempting an upgrade from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 8 Pro (64-bit) on a 3 month old machine. The full upgrade does not work, Windows simply states it can not perform the upgrade and returns my machine to it’s Pre-Upgrade state (At least that works!).
I will now attempt the “Keep personal files only” option and see if the “upgrade” is successful…
If that does not work, I will go for the “Keep Nothing” option and restore as needed from my backups…
Now that I’m an “IT” retiree I’ve got nothing but time to play with this stuff instead of “working” on it with a deadline!! Computers are “FUN” once again!!!
It use to be you could fool the upgrade into thinking there was a previous Windows install by simply copying the “WINNT.DLR(sp???) file to the freshly formatted target hard-drive. I don’t know if that still works or not… Sure did help when we needed to do mass NT upgrades using unattended install scripts.
I don’t think I have ever seen a “True Windows Upgrade” ever work without severe operational problems afterwards, I guess some things never change…
It took a lot of trys but ultimately i was able to do a clean install from the upgrade edition. You need to burn the iso to a disk using the windows download tool, boot from the cd. It may have been my system but this only worked if i only had one hd installed on my system
Thanks for the upgrade tips -from XP to windows 8.
It seems fairly straight forward – how about cost?
Would it be more cost effective to buy a new computer and reload the saved documents from the old XP ?
Many thanks Leo
16-Nov-2012
@Paul
I did what is normally unrecommended. I did a “keep all installed programs” upgrade from Win 7 to Win 8 on my 3 1/2 year old netbook (my workhorse take with me everywhere machine with all critical files in a Dropbox folder), and it worked like a charm. (No pun intended. I also disabled Charms LOL.) No problems. All but one program worked. It runs as fast or faster than Win 7, and faster than the original XP.
The “Keep personal files only” option worked upgrading from Windows 7 PRO to Windows 8 PRO. It does retain your basic login information for all users and all user data is kept intact, but that is about it. I’ve reinstalled almost all my software and am up and running on Windows 8. Now I just have to relearn where everything is! I did have a problem with blacked out dialogue boxes before rebooting the box again after the upgrade finished. After a reboot with some Windows 8 updates applied all seems to be running well.
It sounds like you guys were able to make an ISO from the $40 upgrade. Is this true, because this is why I have decided not to go for the 39.99 upgrade offered by Microsoft. I have heard that you just press download and install and the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant will check out your system and then install itself right over windows 7 without allowing you to download an ISO file for later install. Please let me know if you are given the option to download an ISO for later install when utilizing the Windows 8 39.99 upgrade deal. Thanks
I tried to upgrade an older XP laptop to Win 8. Ended up with a screen showing just the green window. Rebooted and got the same and no further action was possible. Re-installed Windows XP and half way thru got message “Sorry we could not install Windows 8”. Laptop is now back to Win XP.
Hi,
I try the Windows 8 preview edition.
If I am not very wrong, Windows 8 install faster and also its support to usb3 copy files faster than in Windows 7.
First of all, thanks for the walkthrough. I am planning to install Win8 on my not-too-new netbook, so all the tips and tricks are appreciated.
I have a little question, however. When I buy the upgrade online, I will get a licence key, and an installation file (which then can be burned to a DVD or some such). But as far as I understand, this installation file will only work for installing win8 over an older version of Windows.
So: what would happen if my harddisk dies, after installing win8? How would I be able to install my version (which is still licensed, after all) on a new harddisk, which has no previous version installed on it? It would be rather silly if I would be forced to buy a new (and more expensive) license just because my hardware broke down.
Any suggestions?
Customer had upgraded to Windows 8, then computer refused to boot past BIOS. CPU was a Pentium 4 2.4GHz but NX not available. He had not backed up but I could recover files by slaving drive on another computer. Upgrade to Windows 8 at your own risk.
Nothing appears in the setup window after it asks to what to keep. PLEASE HELP……