Windows 7 in Place Upgrade of My Lenovo X60 Tablet (update 2)

I went ahead and plucked down $219.00 to upgrade my Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate Thursday night. Here are the steps I followed to perform my in place upgrade:

1. I created an image of my system with Acronis True Image Home 2010 to my 160Mb WD Passport USB drive. Without OneCare, I think this is the best backup solution out there.
2. I downloaded, installed and ran the current version of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

 

1. I reviewed the reports and followed the advice given. I hate that Microsoft discontinued OneCare, it was probably one of the most helpful home/small office program they ever put together, but this year has been the year of slashing in Redmond with MS Money, and other consumer apps going by the wayside.

1. Once I completed the un-installs, I reran the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. I was never able to figure out which application the Lenovo Utilities was referring to but I figured it is probably all of the Thinkpad applications which Lenovo has updates for. The total prep time through this step was about an hour.
2. It is a good idea to check for the latest BIOS from Lenovo for the X60 although the Lenovo System Update will also perform a BIOS version check. The current BIOS is dated 01/08/2009. (Thanks RBK).
3. I then proceeded to purchase and download the upgrade from the Microsoft web site. I decided to download the standard 32 bit version instead of the ISO version because I did not want to go through the extra step of burning a CD. The download seemed slow so I left it run overnight Thursday. Friday morning I copied the directory structure found in my user\downloads directory to my server for backup.
4. I then started the in place upgrade process. The process revalidates your system and on this round of checking it told me I should uninstall all of the ThinkPad utilities, as well as the Intel Pro Wireless 3945 ABG drivers. At this point I was ready to move forward and figured I could deal with the issues once the upgrade was completed (not that smart, but today I was feeling lucky...). It took about 3 hours to complete.
5. When I restarted the Lenovo in Windows 7, the first issue I had to deal with was the wireless driver which the in place upgrade system check had highlighted. I uninstalled using the device manager; Windows then detected the hardware and reinstalled the drivers automatically. I was now connected to my network. I did have to reenter all of my network keys and network types (home, office, public). On the network front I also had uninstall and reinstall the Cisco VPN client version 5.0.04.0300. It looks like Microsoft has revamped the network stack, we are back to quick connect times on the VPN (Vista was slow, and before SP2 prone to errors).
6. I then downloaded the new Lenovo System Update 4.0 specifically designed for Windows 7. And ran the update to bring my ThinkPad utilities and drivers up to date.
7. I then needed to install a new Anti-Virus application. From my research, it looks like people really like the AVAST on Windows 7, so I decided to try it. You can also download Microsoft Anti Virus engine from the Microsoft Security Essentials web page (free for home use). Thanks Adamzea for clarifying the release.

My upgrade experience so far has been excellent, but I personally view Windows 7 as Vista SP3. I was already on Vista SP2 so I never thought I would have any real issues upgrading. Windows 7 is definitely much faster and the boot time is even better than XP. Bottom line "I am loving it" and Windows 7 is what the original version of Vista should have been. The subtle UI and task bar changes are also great. I love the merging of the task bar icons with running applications, and the mouse rollover to pick your active window means goodbye to Alt-Tab…

Comments

[RBK]

You forgot one step. Prior to any OS upgrade, you should check to see if there is a firmware/BIOS update from the Lenovo website, and apply that before moving up the OS food chain.

I'd do it now, as well, be it for an X60 or any other computer.

Note that if the system is running a 64bit version of an OS, you may need to burn a bootable CD of the BIOS update, rather than an over-the-OS BIOS update

[Stephen Skarlatos]

Good point RBK. The Lenovo System Update will check for the latest BIOS, it is a good idea to validate the version before starting the upgrade. I updated the post.

[Impotence causes]

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