Windows – Upgrading from Windows CE 6.0 to Windows 7

usbwindowswindows 7windows ce

I was wondering if it was possible to use a USB drive (as in, boot from USB) to upgrade from Windows CE 6.0 up to Windows 7. I have searched online for a solution, but to no avail. I currently have a "Wireless Book", made in China, running Windows CE 6.0, and currently using a flash drive with Windows 7 on it (made using Windows USB DVD Download tool). Thank you!

Best Answer

It is not possible! The first problem is the minimum hardware requirements to install windows 7. You can check Windows 7 system requirements (also below) where you will understand it is impossible for the range of devices using Windows CE 6.0.

  • 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  • 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
  • 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
  • DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

An embedded device must meet the following requirements to run Windows Embedded Standard 7 per Requirements for an Embedded Device (Standard 7 SP1). (also below)

  • 1 GHz x86 or amd64 processor with 900 mhz speed or equivalent
  • 512 MB of system memory (1GB recommended for amd64)
  • 1 GB free space on hard disk drive (HDD) or flash-based Solid State Drive (SSD) (4 GB recommended) At least one of the following bootable media types:
  • Bootable DVD-ROM drive
  • Bootable USB 2.0 port and a USB Flash Drive (UFD) with 4 GB of free space, or access to a local network

BIOS Supporting Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) 3.0

Also, another problem is the hardware architecture and CPU architecture. Check out Minimum Requirements for a Windows CE Board Support Package (pdf link. you can see some of the points below) and Windows Embedded CE 6.0 article on Wikipedia, so you can understand better how the system works, and therefore the machines that work on it.

CPU Requirements for Windows CE:

  • Windows CE-supported architecture (MIPS, X86, ARM, SH)
  • Memory management unit capable of 32-bit virtual memory (4GB)
  • 1MB of contiguous physical SDRAM
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