June 24, 2010 4:58 AM

aaronp1994 said: I have searched the forums high and low for about 20 minutes now and i cannot seem to find a helpful answer to the question i want an answer to! I have a HP TOUCHSMART IQ526 22 inch desktop computer that is running windows vista 64 Bit home premium. And i was about to go out to bestbuy and buy a copy of windows 7. But I am worried that i will lose touch functionality or something will screw up. Is this computer FULLY FUNCTIONAL WITH NO FLAWS in windows 7 if downloaded?

You need to search a bit better then, there are MANY threads here on Win7 upgrades and how to install the new v3.0 software.

Can you upgrade in place and everything works with no additional work on your part? no, you have to upgrade the Touchsmart applications either from HP or using the nifty AIO installer Jolly Wombat created.

Diane

July 4, 2010 8:31 AM

pologuy said: Well, I guess what he is asking, and what I am asking...:) Do you lose anything at all by upgrading to Windows 7? Even after applying all of the Windows updates, HP updates and the AIO installer... Will the computer be fully functional with no flaws... :)

And my answer is the same, it is not a painless, easy, nothing can go wrong installtion, nothing is.

Describe what you mean by "not lose anything"? Since you should have your backups done, and the recommended way to handle this is a fresh install, not an upgrade in place, "upgrade in place" is always the WORST approach with the highest amount of risk and problems.

Diane

July 9, 2010 2:36 PM

Darrell52 said: I have a 22" Touch Smart and researched installation of Windows 7 from Vista 64 bit back in March. It warned that the Touch Smart features would be compromised with installation (back at that time.) I don't know if there has been any fix to this problem since. I gave up.

I don't know where that was being confidently stated, the Touchsmart 3.0 applications have been available and fully functional since the end of 2009 for IQ5xx and IQ8xx units.

You can install all manually via HP.com support for your model, or you can use the JW All in One installer from the forums here.

Diane

July 10, 2010 8:06 AM

Darrell52 said: The Windows 7 website provides a compatibility program to check your computer to see what changes are necessary before installation of the upgrade. That is where it told me I would lose TouchSmart capabilities.

Well they're right in if you upgrade the computer and DO NOT upgrade the Touchsmart components, however the updated Touchsmart components are all available at HP since late 2009, I would use HP's resources, not Microsoft's.

Diane

July 10, 2010 1:05 PM updated: July 10, 2010 1:06 PM

Darrell52 said: Thanks. How do I go about updating through HP?

It's not an automatic process, you go to hp.com, go to support, plug in your model number, and then tell it what OS you have, and download the appropriate files, it's about 300MB.

Or you can use the Jolly Wombat All-in-one installer from the notebook forums here, it has a small difference or 2, but is 90% the same as what you get from HP.

As always, I strongly recommend backing up your data and doing a clean install for your upgrade, not leaving the old Vista install. I recommend that for ANY user making an OS change.

Also as always, make your Vista Recovery Media BEFORE you install Windows 7, just in case.

Diane

July 10, 2010 4:22 PM

pologuy said: Hi Diane, Is there a way to know exactly what HP updates are done using the HP Update function?

In general HP update works best on the original OS and configuration, it will work somewhat in upgraded machines, but not reliably.

The best way to handle updates is from inside the Touchsmart applications and manual verification by looking at the HP website. Several of the Touchsmart and HP applications can check for updates from inside themselves.

In other words, sometimes you have to look for yourself.  :-P

Diane

August 1, 2010 5:35 PM updated: August 1, 2010 5:35 PM

Dirtdober,
I will not post the link for the Jolly Wombat all in one installer, since it's easily findable here in several forums and it's a sticky, you just need to look a bit more, no one will spoonfeed these to you here. You also should read the threads it's in so you understand what it does.

When you find it, then it will answer your questions, but it install NO drivers, that's not what it's for, it's all the Touchsmart 3.x programs wrapped in a single installer for your ease of use after you have installed Win 7>

Clean install = Tell Windows 7 to FORMAT the drive and wipe all the data in the upgrade, it is part of a custom install, but not all custom installs are clean.

Diane

August 2, 2010 8:13 PM

I hate to interpret what other people are trying to do, but I think Diane's intention is to lead you to discover the solution for yourself so you need to rely less on the help of others (being self-reliant is usually a good thing).

Here's a link to the forum where one of the sticky threads is:

http://www.touchsmartdevzone.com/forums/37/HP-TouchSmart-Notebooks/threads

Still not giving you the full link, I know :)

August 2, 2010 9:58 PM

Thank you for the link... as a new poster to this forum I am not well versed with the structure of this web site. It would have helped if I knew the poster was jollywombat... as opposed to a line item or subject description.

What is the point of a forum if it is not to share information in a selfless mannor? If I wanted to be self reliant, I would not reach out...just slug it out on my own, then join a forum and tease all the newbys with tid bits of info that make me look brilliant to other forum members.

Lighten up, be more helpful, and this site may grow.