Upgrading to Windows 7 is usually an effortless procedure, but if you want a bit more rough control over the development you may be fond of Paragon's System Upgrade Utilities 2010. The package leverages the company's imaging, partitioning, and boot manager software in a method that lets you to backing your old system, make a separate partition for the Operating System if you so wish, as well as run both your previous OS as well as the latest Windows 7 from the unchanged drive.

Unhappily, the handholding that Paragon System Upgrade Utilities present isn't almost as detailed as I'd hoped. The first Backup imaging was a no-brainer, but the set up OS partitioning part didn't seem to recognize that even a smallest Windows 7 installation need a number of gigabytes: It allow me generate a new-fangled partition with only 1.8GB. Of course Windows 7 balked at installing there. This happened when I was using a minimum 8GB virtual system partition; the program come up with more practical sizes when used with bigger disks, but it does point up just how much help you can be expecting.

All the components of the System Upgrade Utilities 2010 worked completely for me. Two of the other helpful features are the capability to convert a Paragon image to the .vhd format (which you can build up or else run under Windows 7 natively), as well as the boot manager (which lets you to boot to both your previous operating system as well as Windows 7). Microsoft does offer a free of charge downloadable utility--Disk2vhd--that can copy a partition to .vhd. If you set up Window 7 to partition further than the one your existing OS resides on, Disk2vhd make a dual-boot menu for you automatically. Paragon's versions, but, are a bit slicker.

In the last part, System Upgrade Utilities is a satisfying small package that you maybe don't need. I'd suggest spending $20 or so more for one of the full-featured suites from Paragon, Acronis, etc. In fact, Paragon told me they will upgrade you to the complete Hard Disk Manager 2009 suite for alleged $20, so you can get SUU 2010 as well as upgrade later on. This contract is not advertised, but the corporation assures us that it can be made by contacting customer service.