Girlfreind wants Windows 7 but wants to keep wireless settings?

Nate Silvers

Nate Silvers

Nate Silvers

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Girlfriend wants me to install Windows 7 on her laptop from XP.

Is there anyway to do this while keeping the wireless internet settings so when she goes back home she can log into her dads router?
 
Assuming she's connecting via onboard wifi then you will need to note down the configuration settings and put them back in afterwards.

I may be wrong here but I seem to recall XP could drop settings such as this to a floppy or USB drive for configuring other computers. I'm unsure of the extent of this feature and whether it'll take passwords as well as other stuff but might be worth looking into. One possible drawback is that Windows 7 might not recognise the settings so you'd be wasting your time.

Surely it can't be that complicated. Windows 7 is pretty good at connecting wirelessly. Just enter the password and it'll go, normally.
 
Tealc said:
Surely it can't be that complicated. Windows 7 is pretty good at connecting wirelessly. Just enter the password and it'll go, normally.
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You cant be serious :o Windows 7 is the worst ive ever seen for wireless and even wired connection. In my house theres 3 laptops, 1 on xp 2 on vista. One desktop on xp and my desktop on 7. Mine is the only one with connection problems dropping from the router at random times and not being able to get back on without a full reset of everything. Also cant see anything shared on the xp computers.

My mate recently got a new laptop with 7 on it and that messed up everything and he couldnt get back on the internet for ages it just wouldnt connect.

Also at uni windows 7 was just a pain to connect to the network over my old xp computer.
 
I've never had any of those problems with windows 7 :)

from the point of connecting to a router, its the same as any other OS. search, find the router, enter the password, go. if you experience consistent connection-dropping then i can only guess its some shoddy drivers you're dealing with. The issue is not windows 7.
 
My experience is that windows 7 is very good for networking and connecting to any network.
XP was good and Vista was the worst. Perhaps it depends on the network/wifi card and the drivers if there's such a range of success.

You can manually add wireless networks, as long as you know all the details. Not sure if you can reveal the password in XP. But it would probably be best just to connect again when there and ask for the password from father.
 
XP was terrible for networking. Win7 is basically plug and play. At my uni house it took us about 20 minutes to get everyone on the router and have everyone be able to access my music and stuff.
 
Subliminal Aura said:
FAIL CASCADE

OP needs the wireless settings including passwords exported so he can use them on a fresh install of Windows 7.

Now please go back and answer the question correctly
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As I stated, this is all you will need to connect windows 7 to a wlan;

jimbobaggies said:
All you need to know is the SSID, so you connect to the correct wlan, and the password, which surely she can get from her father....
Click to expand...
 
Subliminal Aura said:
FAIL CASCADE

OP needs the wireless settings including passwords exported so he can use them on a fresh install of Windows 7.

Now please go back and answer the question correctly
Click to expand...

Dano said:
Never seen any issues with W7 and wireless networking, if she's worried about not having the wireless key (and SSID) then use this: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html to recover it from the XP installation before going ahead with the W7 upgrade.
Click to expand...
 
Subliminal Aura said:
FAIL CASCADE

OP needs the wireless settings including passwords exported so he can use them on a fresh install of Windows 7.

Now please go back and answer the question correctly
Click to expand...

Do you want a step by step process?

1) She gets to her Dad's house and asks him what his routers "name" is.
2) Click on the network icon in the system tray and select "connect to" or whatever is it.
3) "DAD WHAT'S THE PASSWORD!?!?!?"
4) Type in the password.

Couldn't be simpler.
 
Dano said:
Never seen any issues with W7 and wireless networking, if she's worried about not having the wireless key (and SSID) then use this: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html to recover it from the XP installation before going ahead with the W7 upgrade.
Click to expand...

This looks interesting... the network is a hidden SSID too, her stepdad said if she formats again he isn't setting up the network (he sucks).
 
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