Microsoft outlines Windows 7 Upgrade Paths

Microsoft have officially released a whitepaper documenting on the supported and unsupported upgrade paths for Windows 7 SKUs. The whitepaper details on the paths you can take to do an in-place upgrade or upgrade installation. Many people often mistaken these paths as the only way to upgrade no matter what. This isn’t the case. If you cannot follow one of the upgrade paths, you can simply do a clean installation. The upgrade paths are only for those who want to do upgrade installations.

Below are the upgrade paths from Windows Vista SP1/SP2 to Windows 7:

It should also be noted that you cannot upgrade from any of the following upgrade scenarios:

• Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP, Windows Vista® RTM, Windows Vista Starter, Windows 7 M3, Windows 7 Beta, Windows 7 RC, or Windows 7 IDS
• Windows NT® Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server® 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2
• Cross-architecture in-place upgrades (for example, x86 to x64) are not supported.
• Cross-language in-place upgrades (for example, en-us to de-de) are not supported.
• Cross-SKU upgrades (for example, Windows 7 N to Windows 7 K) are not supported.
• Upgrades from Windows Vista to Windows N, Windows K, Windows KN, or Windows E are not supported.
• Cross-build type in-place upgrades (for example, fre to chk) are not supported.
• Pre-release in-place upgrades across milestones (for example, Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM) are not supported.

If you’re looking to download the complete whitepaper, you can download it from Microsoft here.

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. Read the rest at windows7center.com.