How can i upgrade my windows xp to windows vista

Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! When I fist purchased my PC it came with Windows In taking it to a shop for repair the tech installed Windows Millennium. As always money is a issue; would I be able to get a better deal choosing XP. Something that to correct will be a lot more expensive than the cost of the operating system. Become a Patron of Ask Leo!

If your machine came with Windows 98 originally that would indicate you probably got it before or in the year Video hardware that supports DirectX 9 and has at least 32 megabytes of graphics memory. Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Related Articles. Author Info Last Updated: September 16, Method 1.

Uninstall your antivirus, spyware protection, and third-party firewalls. Method 2. You have to run the Setup program from within Windows XP. After you insert the DVD, an autorun will pop up. Plus, given that the free Windows 10 upgrades are expiring in July, it makes sense to move these machines to Windows 10 now. There are some issues. First, there's no guarantee these old boxes will be compatible with Windows It's a good idea to run the Windows 10 compatibility checker to find out if Windows 10 will work.

That brings me to one other issue. There is no free upgrade path to Windows 10 from XP or Vista. To upgrade to Windows 10 from a machine running XP or Vista, you either have to buy an actual copy of Windows 10 in which case, you might as well just keep the old boxes sitting in their bins in the garage or first upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8.

That, too, might be complicated. It's particularly difficult to get a Windows 7 install disk from Microsoft. I have a ton of old licenses, so I'm not going that route. I'll simply upgrade each machine to Windows 7 or Windows 8 for those that need upgrading and then run the Windows 10 upgrader. Finally, I would advise you not to connect your XP machines to your network. While you're probably safe, I have seen how polluted with malware Windows XP can get, so I'm actually going to both keep my remaining XP machines off the network until I've upgraded to at least Windows 7.

I'm even going to power down my router in case any of the machines tries to tap into the network via WiFi. When your computer reboots, you will see that the traditional Windows XP startup animation is already replaced with the Vista version Now, even though the upgrade Windows XP to Vista wizard tells you that the actual upgrade may take several hours, in reality this is usually not the case. Even though the above message might make you think that the next thing you will see is your new Windows Vista desktop finally!

Windows wants to find out how you want to keep your version of Windows updated and protected through the Windows Update mechanism. Select "Use recommended settings" for now you will be able to change that after the installation is completed.

In the next screen you will be able to adjust your date and time settings. In this "Select your computer's current location" you can specify what role your computer plays in the network and what type of network your computer is connected to. Usually, if you use your computer at home, the first selection will work fine.

Again, these settings can be changed later on, if needed. Once you made it clear in what type of network your computer will work, you will be presented with the setup "Thank You" screen, where you have to click the "Start" button to get started. Clicking the "Start" button will lead you through as series of introductionary screens Enter your password and click the blue arrow next to the password field or hit the ENTER key to logon for the first time to your new Windows Vista:.

There you have it, a complete guide to upgrade your Windows XP to Windows Vista, from start to finish. Feel free to send your feedback or let us know if you found the guide useful. Back to the Windows tips and tricks homepage.

With support of Nevio webshops. Not with this guide, you don't. Anyway, let's get started. Before you get started Before you upgrade Windows XP to Vista, you should always make a complete backup of your entire system. After you have clicked "check compatibility online", you will see this: The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor is a tool that's freely available from Microsoft's website, all you have to do is click "Download Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor".

Windows will prompt you with this next screen: Click the download button to start the download process. You will get this security warning: Click the save button and proceed to the next dialog. Once the destination folder is created, Windows will show a "Download complete" dialog, like this: Depending on your settings, your computer might have skipped the dialog above, then it's only a matter of navigating to the location where you downloaded the software. That will result in another security warning, like shown here: It's ok to run this software, click "Run".

Click the "Download and install msxml" button. You will see the next dialog In most cases the first download button is fine, because the other versions are for 64bit computers files with "64" in the name or software development environments the one with "SDK" in the file name. Anyway, the next step in our upgrade Windows XP to Vista journey brings us here: Doubleclick the downloaded file to launch the msxml installer. The wizard will take you to the following dialog Simply hit the "Next" button again to proceed to this screen: Click "Install" to start the installation.

That will bring up this: Click the "Save" button to download and save the. Net Framework locally on your computer in a separate directory like this: Then Once the download is completed, go to the download location