Absorbing another partition into Ubuntu

[AdamMode]

I had a dual boot in my laptop with Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7 in different partitions. Now that i won't need my Windows anymore, i'd like for my Ubuntu partition to "absorb" the windows partition.

But i want it without formatting my laptop or doing a fresh install because i have a lot of stuff installed and configured and i don't want to go through the trouble of doing that all over again.

Is there a way to do it? If so, how?

Also, thanks of any help in advance! ;)

[dabl]

It can be done with GParted, but this is "brain surgery" on your drive hardware and any power glitch or user error could easily render your system unbootable and your data gone. I advise don't try it until you've got a proven good backup of all your data.