Upgrading Vaio VGN AW11M to Win7, Clean install or Upgrade ?

[satnam]

Dear All,

I purchased my Vaio (18.4 inch monster) a few months ago, and very pleased with it I am. Im thinking of going over to Win 7, should I choose Upgrade or do a clean install?

Another thing, I want to make sure that my FN Keys and vol and eject keys still work and my programs like Win DVD BD still continue to work, will I be able to reinstall these features if I do a clean install? or does this mean I should use the upgrade disk instead?

Your help and advice is much apprieciated.

Cheers.

[Blencogo]

Hi satnam and welcome.

Are you entitled to a free upgrade from Sony - when did you buy your Vaio? The Sony free(ish) upgrade kit is an 'In-Place Upgrade' so all your programs and settings should remain.

If you are not entitled to a free upgrade then I would choose the Windows 7 Upgrade disc (£69 for Windows 7 Home Premium from PC World or Currys). Again this is an 'In-Place Upgrade' from Vista Home Premium and all your software and settings should be preserved.

If you want to change from 32-bit to 64-bit then an In-Place upgrade is not possible and you will need to do a clean install. You will lose all your preinstalled software and Windows settings and all your data. Confusingly you still buy an upgrade disc but you need to select the clean install.

The main reasons to do a clean install are to upgrade to 64-bit, change language or to follow an unupgradable path like Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional, or any upgrade from XP.

[satnam]

Just finished upgrading to Windows 7, and happy to say all went successfull.

Nice and easy upgrade, all my FN keys are working, including the vol and eject key.

Very very happy with Windows 7.



Just one more question, what anti virus software to you guys recommend i install ?

Thanks for all your help and advice.