Looking to get access to the Virtual XP Mode function in Win7 professional, for a few older (non-GoG) games with 16-bit installs, and also general fiddling about.

Does anyone here know definitively if upgrading from Win7 64-bit Premium to Win7 Professional 64-bit actually changes anything substantially in terms of your system, beyond giving you access to the Virtual mode?

I would be pissed if it screwed up existing installs of games and the like, as I'm sure any GoG member can sympathize with.

Win 7 is going to overwrite your existing install, completely. You should back up everything. IF AND ONLY IF everything goes correctly, the old install will be in something like a C:Windows.old folder (I probably have that name wrong). So you have to reinstall everything anyway. Be sure to deauthorize any games/software that you need to before upgrading.

Once you reinstall your games you should be able to copy your saves over normally. If they are Games for Windows Live games be sure you back up the encrypting key for your saves so you can move it to the new system (or they will be useless). If you didn't use GfWL ignore that step, if you did, google up a knowledge base article somewhere, it's not hard, you just have to know to do it.

Obviously if you choose to repartition during the install you will wipe the entire contents of the drive and if your Win 7 disk is an upgrade copy the key will not work without saying "pretty please, I fucked up" to MS (I have had them auth these, but it's long and involved and you'd be best to avoid it).

Actually, if you use Windows Anytime Upgrade you get to keep your current programs, files, and settings intact. Also, if your programs worked before they'll work after the upgrade as well.

You also get network domain support for enterprise networks and network backup and restore.

If you do an in-place upgrade (as in, reinstalling a new OS over your old one) then you might have software that'll stop working.

I know that Win 7 Home doesn't have virtual mode... but I thought Premium did.

Ignore this, I quoted something badly.

Crosmando is talking about upgrading from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional, not XP to 7.

The Windows Anytime Upgrade should keep everything intact, all it does is allow you access to the features of the version of Windows you're upgrading to (and change around all the logos and text descriptions, etc. :P ) .

Okay... Yeah... It was Vista that came in 49 flavors... all with the faint smell of shit...

I remember now that home is Home Premium and Professional is the other option.

If you have an XP license lying around, VirtualBox is a better option than upgrading to Professional just for XP Mode. In fact, I would argue VirtualBox is a better option than XP Mode, even if you already have Professional. Personally, I have Ultimate and installed XP Mode to try it out, but I actually only use VirtualBox (and VMWare Workstation, which I'm slowly migrating away from in favour of the free solution).