Lisa, here's the best place to start. Go to the Microsoft site and
download the test app to see if your computer has enough resources to
run Win-7. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20
As for loading Win-7 on a computer without installing it ... no
wayunless he made a separate partition on your hard drive and loaded a
clone. That's a joke at best, because the boot manager wouldn't
recognize this added on partition without proper editing at some point.
There's just no sense in doing that at all. Find your old receipt from
this guy and see what it has listed. I hate to think he may have taken
you for a ride, but if he did, he needs to be reported. At any rate, I'd
find a new shop and leave that guy as far behind as possible. Some
desktops run for four years, some run for ten years or much more.
If your desktop is running fine, and the test from the link shows that
your computer will handle Win-7, then by all means stick with your
desktop, but shop around for a different computer shop. If your computer
will handle Win-7 have them install it and also have them dust the
interior out. You should have this done twice a year or more often if
you have pets. If your computer won't handle Win-7, find out what's
needed to upgrade your computer and consider the cost. If you can't
upgrade to Win-7 or upgrade your desktop and you want to stay with
Microsoft, you'll have to get a new computer. If you'd like to find out
what that other operating system called Linux is, see what your new shop
would charge to follow the link below to Vinux and download it. They can
burn an installation disk then install it for you and all you'll have to
pay is for their time since Vinux is free. It will run on any computer
that had XP on it. This will give you a second computer to use and to
learn about Vinux. The current version of Vinux will be supported until
April of 2017 giving you three more years of use out of this computer,
and the next release of Vinux should run on the same hardware with no
trouble since, based on Linux, it's much less of a resource hog than
Microsoft.

No Microsoft garbage used here, sent by a very satisfied Linux-Mint
<http://www.linuxmint.com/> user (a former disgruntled Microsoft user).
You could check out Vinux, Linux for the visually impaired
<http://wiki.vinuxproject.org/>.
This email and any attachments are not virus scanned either, that's up
to you poor Microsoft users to deal with.
I'd rather be a wild and wacky Linux Penguin than a docile,
domesticated, Microsoft sheep.

Linux user 546139. <https://linuxcounter.net/cert/546139.png>
On 12/04/2013 06:05 PM, Lisa McManus wrote:
>     Hi all,
>  
> When we purchased our computer, we were not sure if we wanted to use
> windows xp or windows 7.
>  
> The guy who built the computer told us he would load windows 7 onto
> the computer without installing it and installed windows xp.  By doing
> that, he said we could upgrade at any time.  That was 4 years ago.
>  
> When we called him today, he stated that he would not have loaded both
> programs, and strongly suggested that we buy a new computer.  He said
> that the life of a desktop computer is 4 to 6 years.  He said that 6
> years was stretching it because we are heavy computer users. 
>  
> How can we find out if windows 7 is actually on this computer in an
> uninstalled fashion?  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks very much.
>  
> Lisa
>  
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