What does an upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 do – will all my files such as photos, documents, etc. be kept?

An upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 should go smoothly, ie all your personal files (photos, documents, …) but also personal settings (applications, configurations, themes, …) will be retained.

However, there are also situations where your current version of Vista cannot be upgraded to the version of 7 you want to use (eg from home to pro, or from 32bit to 64bit, …). In that case, you can install 7 using the custom installation option. In that case your personal files and programs will be lost… so backup is the message!

Fortunately, you can test in advance whether you need to perform an automatic upgrade or a custom one:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-vista-to-windows-7

Fabian