Moving to Windows 7

[bornival]

I have a Vaio VGN-TX5XN which I bought about 2 years ago and is running under Vista Business. From what I read in this forum, it seems that I can buy Windows 7 Professional from any vendor and make an "in site" upgrade (if wishing to conserve all my Sony programs and existing Vaio drivers).

Can anyone confirm this (I see no indication to this effect on the official Sony web site, at least for people who are not eligible of the free upgrade).

However, I read in other forums that making a clean install might be better as it would avoid carrying over misconfigured programs and other problems. Is this correct ? Also, if I do that, how do I get necessary drivers and the different Sony programs (such as Vaio update and so on...) that came with the machine ?

[Blencogo]

Hi bornival,

Yes you can run an In Place Upgrade to Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate and retain your settings, programs and data (see chart at the bottom of this post).

This will not be part of the Sony Upgrade Scheme as that is only available for Vaios purchased since June 2009.

You can make a clean install and download the Vista Drivers and Utilities from Vaio Support - I can't link you as the site appears to be down - but this will be a more complex operation and you will lose all the preinstalled software, which is not downloadable.

[bornival]

Thank you. I'll try and keep you posted (but it may not be before a couple of days at least becasue I'll be travelling).