The other day I posted information about how to upgrade Vista to Windows 7. Wanting to keep that post to the bare bones process, without the burden of editorial comments, I didn’t tell you about the twists and turns I encountered during the installation process. Suffice it to say it was a hair-pulling experience.
Very early in the installation process, your system is scanned to determine compatibility issues. When there are possible conflicts detected, the installation process pauses and provides a list of the incompatible hardware and software apps. In my case, there were several items that were identified, including:
- Audacity
- Symantec Endpoint Protection
- Dell 725 printer
- Compaq iPaq ActiveSync Mobile Device
- Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Flash Media Controller
And there were a few others as well. The error message icon next to the TI controller was scary, a big red ‘X’. Since this is integrated hardware, it’s not something I can necessarily upgrade. A bit of research seemed to lead me to the possibility that a driver upgrade would be sufficient. I downloaded the driver to my desktop but decided to wait until the need arose to install it.
In some instances, as in Audacity and a couple of other programs, I simply had to upgrade the application to get rid of the error message.
Before the installation, I had used Symantec Endpoint Protection to do a full system scan, after which I disabled it.
I was no longer using either the Dell 725 printer or the Compaq iPaq, so I decided to leave that part of it alone for the time being. I proceeded with the installation.
Nearly four hours later, during the very last portion of the last step in the upgrade to Windows 7, the installation bombed. Thinking that maybe it was a fluke, I tried again. Same thing, nearly four hours later.
I decided to uninstall Symantec. It could be replaced with another anti-virus program (there are some excellent free programs available). I also wanted to get rid of the Dell Printer. However, the uninstall program (via control panel) didn’t work – although it appeared to work, right through the reboot. It just never went away.
Time for some minor hacking. I removed the Dell Printer subdirectory in the Program Files folder, and then used TuneUp Utilities to clean the registry, and defragment it once again (I’d done this during the pre-installation preparation, as noted in the Upgrade Vista to Windows 7 post).
I was not able to uninstall the Compaq iPaq device driver or ActiveSync software because it was no longer there. I suspected that there were some stray references to it in the registry (Windows programs don’t always do a good job of cleaning up after themselves). I moved forward with the installation once again.
Once again, it failed. I was starting to have a sinking feeling about this. I tried to change my attitude toward Vista, which it seemed like I’d have to keep living with for awhile longer. I began some serious research into the Compaq iPaq/ActiveSync issue.
One complication is that with Vista, the supporting application changed from ActiveSync to Windows Mobility Center, so now it seemed I had two parts of the problem to chase down. My initial research led to no clear path.
Time for some major hacking. First I created a restore point, and backed up my registry to the desktop. I then searched through the registry for all references to Compaq iPaq, and deleted all the associate keys that I could (not for the faint of heart). There was one key that wouldn’t delete at all, giving me only one of Windows’ sonic alarms. I also deleted some of the data associated with the keys, anything at all with the Compaq reference.
Things were getting messy, and I wasn’t feeling like I’d nailed it. I restored the registry, only some if it didn’t restore properly – another error message. Ick. At that point I decided to restore my system back to the saved restore point.
I did a complete system search for all references to the phrase ‘Compaq iPaq’, and another search for ‘ActiveSync’. Several files with the prefix ‘wceusbsh’ showed up in the search results. Some Google research indicated that I should delete all those files. Not being sure, I hesitated.
More research. This time I found a forum that suggested that I run a utility called USBDeview.exe. The forum post was addressing a different concern, though, as someone was having difficulty syncing their iPaq with Vista. I decided to give it a try.
The utility is a self-executable, so no installation was needed. The purpose of the utility is to display the various ports and list the hardware that is currently assigned to the port. Seems that even though the associated hardware, drivers, and software had been removed, the port assignment remained.
There were two port assignments to the Compaq device, and I deleted them both.
To clean things up a bit, I defragged the registry once more, and initiated the Windows 7 installation once again.
Bingo! This time, after going through the compatibility check, the installation did not halt. For the next several hours I kept my fingers crossed, but I had a good feeling about it this time. In the end, success.
So now I’m happily learning my way around the Windows 7 OS. It was a frustrating challenge, but in the end, there’s a measure of satisfaction in having figured it out.
If you, too, have compatibility issues, keep digging. Don’t take on anything you’re not comfortable with (get help if you need it), but keep at it. As long as you meet the minimum Windows 7 requirements, and Windows 7 is a valid upgrade path for you, there is probably a solution at hand. Good luck!
