With advent of Windows 7, users have been started transitioning to Windows 7 and Window Server 2008 R2. On July 13, 2010 Microsoft is ending support for Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Client and Windows XP SP2.

Windows 7 is blowing market dramatically and already has covered over 5% of the OS market, but Windows XP is still the most popular Window OS worldwide with share about 70%. After the deadline, Windows XP SP2 users will no longer support for their  most favorite platform.

If you have not migrated to latest Windows Client OS (i.e. Windows 7) yet, Microsoft is providing wide range of options to help customers to move from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Guide – This guide helps walk through the decisions you will make when migrating from a Windows XP environment to Windows 7 and to learn about the tools and resources available from Microsoft to help you each step along the way.

Download the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 – The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 helps you to install, customize, and deploy the Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 family of operating systems.

Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 – Learn how to use the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to migrate user files and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 using a default installation.

User State Migration Tool – The User State Migration Tool (USMT) for Windows 7 is now part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and provides fast and flexible options to migrate user profiles and data from one operating system to another. Explore how the new Hard-Link Migration feature highlighted in his demonstration can dramatically reduce migration time for in-place operating system migration or computer refresh scenarios.

Planning Windows Optimized Desktops and Windows 7 Projects with MAP – This demo will show you how to use technical guidance and automated tools to clarify infrastructure planning process and speed up asset discovery and hardware readiness assessment for Windows 7, App-V, and more.

Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 – Guidance for IT pros – This 5 part blog series covers :

• The "One-Pager" for Moving from Windows XP to Windows 7 (Overview)
• Migrating User Files and Settings from Windows XP to Windows 7
• Application Management and Preparing for a Windows 7 Deployment
• Choosing and Image Strategy and Building Windows 7 System Images
• Automating the migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 End-to-End

Courtesy: Windows Team Blog