How to upgrade Windows Vista to Windows 7 if you have AD LDS installed

Summary

This article describes how to upgrade Windows Vista to Windows 7 if you have Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) installed.If you haveAD LDS is installed, this upgrade is blocked by a compatibility check and you will be unable to continue with the Windows upgrade.

More Information

To upgrade Windows Vista to Windows 7 if you have AD LDS installed, follow these steps:

1. Back up the content for all the AD LDS instances on the computer that you want to upgrade. To do this, use one of the following tools:

   • Dsdbutil.exe

   • The personal backup system of an independent software vendor (ISV) application

   For more information about how to use the Dsdbutil.exe tool to back up data in AD LDS instances, click the following link:

   General information about how to use the Dsdbutil.exe tool to back up data in AD LDS instances

2. Uninstall all the AD LDS instances. For more information about how to uninstall AD LDS instances, click the following link:

   General information about how to remove an AD LDS instance

3. Uninstall the AD LDS binaries. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. Locate Control Panel, select Programs, click Programs and Features, and then click View installed updates.

   2. Select Active Directory Lightweight Directory Service for Windows Vista.

   3. Click Uninstall.

4. Use the standard upgrade procedure to upgrade Windows Vista to Windows 7.
   

5. Download and install AD LDS for Windows 7 after the operating system upgrade is complete. For more information about how to download and install AD LDS for Windows 7, click the following link:

   General information about how to download and install AD LDS for Windows 7

6. Install an AD LDS instance and restore the data. For more information about how to use the Dsdbutil.exe tool to restore data in AD LDS instances, click the following link:

   General information about how to use the Dsdbutil.exe tool to restore data in AD LDS instances

Note You can post your questions and feedback to the Active Directory newsgroup at the following link:

Active Directory newsgroupFor more information about the download details of AD LDS for Windows Vista, visit the following Microsoft website:

Download details of AD LDS for Windows VistaFor more information about AD LDS, visit the following Microsoft website:

General information about AD LDSFor more information about software update terminology, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates