Upgrading to Windows 7

Great post from The Macalope. Simply stated, the green squares mean you can upgrade to Windows 7 while keeping all your applications and data intact. Conversely, if your upgrade path lands in a blue square you'll have to do a custom install, wiping your hard drive (data and applications). For many users, the second option (custom install) is an onerous task - one that most wouldn't want to take on. The fact that the majority of upgrades require a custom install doesn't bode well for Windows 7 as an upgrade - as with Windows Vista, this may result in most Windows 7 PCs being new purchases, rather than upgrades.

How hard could it be?

Walt Mossberg asked Microsoft for a Windows 7 upgrade matrix and here’s what they sent him.

Yow. That’s a lot more custom installs than even the Macalope envisioned.