Install Windows 7

Installing Windows 7 is a fairly straightforward task, as daunting as the idea might sound if you've never done it before. But did you know that there are actually several different ways to install Windows 7?

There are, as you'll see below, and choosing the right way to install Windows 7 is probably the most important step of all.

This article will help you decide which Windows 7 install method is best for your situation, and the screenshot based walk-throughs I linked to will show you exactly how to install Windows 7 - quickly and painlessly.

Note: These tutorials work equally well in explaining how to install any version of Windows 7 like Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, etc.

After serious system problems it's often necessary to wipe your hard drive clean and install Windows 7 again from scratch.

A Windows 7 clean install will remove everything from the primary hard drive on your computer so a backup of the data you want to keep is absolutely necessary. Also, all of your software will need to be reinstalled after the clean install is complete.

The most frustrating and time consuming way to install Windows 7 is probably the Windows 7 clean install but it's almost always a certain fix for serious Windows problems.

A less common way to install Windows 7 is in a way referred to as a "parallel install." A Windows 7 parallel install installs a second copy of Windows 7 on your PC.

Important: To be clear, after a parallel install, you will have two separate and generally unrelated Windows 7 installations on your computer.

Outside of some rare troubleshooting reasons, there are few reasons you'd want to install Windows 7 in parallel to another installation of Windows 7.

Usually, a parallel install is created by accident when making key mistakes during a clean install. A parallel install of Windows 7 with a different operating system makes sense if you'd like access to both Windows 7 and other OS. This is called dual booting.