Many users are facing problems with Windows 7 installation while upgrading from Windows Vista. Windows 7 installation stuck or hangs at 62% or 72% when upgrading from Vista via “Upgrade as install method”. The setup process stops and hangs and the system does not respond specially when it reaches 62% or 72% of completion. Even if you try to restart your system to resume failure installation process, it does not respond.

This installation problem happens because of iphlpsvc service and if you check the setupact.log file, you can see the error message as :

Warning [0x080b50] MIG AsyncCallback_ApplyStatus: Progress appears to be stuck. Current progress: 62

If the setup installation error file tells the above and exact error for installation hang at 62% or 72%, then there is an workaround to get rid of this problem and continue with the installation process. Remember that this installation failure happens during Windows 7 upgrade from Vista only.

Fix Windows 7 Install Hangs at 62% or 72% Error

1. Reboot your computer for the system to roll back to Windows Vista OS
2. Navigate to Start >> right click on Computer >> Properties >> Advanced Settings >> Environment Variables
3. Under System Variables, click New >> press ENTER
4. Type in the following variable information:

Variable Name: MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS
Variable value: IphlpsvcMigPlugin.dll

5. Reboot your computer and restart Windows 7 installation process
6. You are done.

The above workaround should fix the Windows 7 installation failure at 62% or 72% problem while upgrading from Vista and you can continue installing Windows 7 on your system without much hassles.

Search is built into every aspect of Windows 7, and as we get more and more files, documents, photos, music and videos in our personal libraries it can become harder to find things, especially if we haven’t looked at them in a while.

Search in Windows 7 works in a contextual way depending on what you’re searching in.  For instance, search in the Start Menu will prioritise Start Menu items and programs, search in Explorer will prioritise documents and pictures, search in Internet Explorer will prioritise Favourite websites and browsing history and so on.

Alas, gone is the simple search of previous versions of Windows to be replaced by a more text-based search.  When you start a search a drop down will ask if you want to add a search filter.

There and a great many of these which I shall detail but the basic ones Name: and Type: for file name and file type respectively would be used in the format…

Type: pdf

…if you were looking for Adobe Acrobat files.  This is a way to help narrow down searches.

Kind: used to search the properties of a document type

Kind:email
Kind:tasks
Kind:notes
Kind:docs
Kind:music
Kind:song
Kind:folders
Kind:programs

Datemodified: to search by the date a file was modified

Datemodified:22/10/2008
Datemodified:22/10/08
Datemodified:yesterday
Datemodified:lastweek
Datemodified:pastmonth
Datemodified:27/03/03..1/4/08 

Type: to search by file type

Type:image
Type:.doc
Type:.pdf 

Name: searching by file name or by a property name for a file

Name:holiday
Name:wedding

Warning: Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk. See How to back up the registry

Step by Step:
1. Open regedit (aka registry editor; you can access it from the star menu by typing “regedit” in the search box…)
2. Go to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\” folder and click on it
3. On the right hand side find there are a bunch of entries. Find the key named “wallpaper” and double click on it and put the path of the picture you want as your new wallpaper (example path is “C:\Users\Bob\Pictures\new_wallpaper.jpg”)
4. Right-click on the “Desktop” folder in regedit that you found in step 2 and click Permissions.
5. Click “Advanced”
6. Go to “Owner” tab, highlight your name in the box that says ‘Change owner to’ ( There are only two choices the other is Administrator )… once your user name is highlighted click “OK”
7. Click on “Advanced” again
8. Uncheck the button that reads “Include inheritable permissions from the object’s parent”… click “Remove” when prompted
9. Click “Add”
10. Type “Everyone” and click “OK”
11. Check Allow “Read Control” and click “OK”
12. Click “OK” again
13. Highlight “Everyone” and check to Allow “Read” and click “OK”
14. Restart Computer and enjoy new Wallpaper