Upgrading to Windows 7 from Vista is pretty well drop dead simple but when it comes to upgrading from XP it isn’t so simple apparently. Given the number of people who are still running XP though Microsoft figured it might be a wise idea to offer a helping hand.

In the dedicated XP upgrade page they have put together a complete tutorial to help so if you are using XP and want to know what you will be up against when it comes to upgrading to Windows 7 you might want to bookmark this page.

Introduction

Because Windows XP can’t use the Upgrade installation option to install Windows 7, you’ll need to use the Custom option instead.

The Custom option is more complex, and it can sometimes take a couple of hours to complete. We created this five-step tutorial to help guide you through the entire process each step of the way.