Win 7 upgrade from and upgrade from OEM?

[RLT65]

Hello, I have been trying to get this answered but no success, yet. Here is my question I bought win98 OEM way back, later on I bought winxp retail upgrade and did a clean install, when xp installation could not find an qualifying upgrade, it asked me to insert a qualifying CD, then I let xp installation read my win98se disc and xp installed fine. Now, I want to upgrade from windows xp to 7 with the win 7 retail upgrade, which I know requires a clean install. Can this complex task be done? M$ sure made this confusing!

Thanks!

[Midknyte]

If you have an XP upgrade disc, then you're supposed to buy the full Win7. You can't upgrade from an upgrade.

[BipolarBill]

You can't upgrade directly from XP to Win 7 anyway. It must be a clean install. You have to save your personal files to CD or external drive and install Win7. You then copy the documents you saved to the new install.

As a matter of fact, you can use the Win7 upgrade CD to do a full install. It's not condoned per se, but it is possible. You install and then install again and the second install counts your first install as a qualifying product. I know it sounds confusing, so here is more info on that:

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp