A new computer, HP notebook and Vista (family premium, or some such) came with a piece of paper offering a free upgrade to 7.0. More detailed specs are nearby if pertinent to our decision. Usage will be for a home office.
Should exercise the right to the upgrade? Now or later?
Yes. Soon.
Read up on this site.
I’m guessing they mail you an install disc. Why not take the offer, you can always hang on to it and switch whenever you’d like.
Yes. Windows 7 reviews thus far have been overwhelmingly positive (much more so than Vista’s, even though despite what everyone said, Vista wasn’t that bad).
I’ve been running Windows 7 on my media center PC for about two months now. So far, I’ve been really really happy with it.
On XP and Vista it was like pulling teeth to get the surround sound to work correctly. On 7 it took about two minutes.
The only crashes I’ve had were only occasional (three, four times) and ONLY when I was dragging videos to my iPhone. And it’s not every time, so I’ve just had to accept the fact that it’s probably just that iTunes sucks more ass than WinME.
-Joe
Yes. 7 takes care of some of Vista’s shortcomings. Considering how ramped the industry is about 7, I’d do it sooner than later. The release date is in October so you have a little while to wait.
That’s the deal I got when I bought a laptop with XP on it. It came with a free upgrade to Vista.
Big Mistake. On any other machine I ever had Vista on it worked fine. But on the laptop where I used the free upgrade disk… it never worked right.
I’m now typing this post on that same laptop with Windows 7 that I did as a fresh install… and it’s never run better.
So… My answer to your question is definitely get windows 7 when you can. It’s awesome. However I’d be leery of getting to Windows 7 via upgrade , and you likely won’t be able to use it as a stand-alone install. Now that being said, I’d say if you take the free upgrade disk, then I’d recommend you wipe out the hard drive, re-install vista as a clean upgrade, then perform an immediate upgrade to Windows 7.
I believe that the new shiny Win 7 disks will work as a clean install.
Also note that for the free upgrade to Windows 7, certain fees, taxes and shipping costs may apply. So have your credit card ready. Have your lawyer ready as well if you object to such grossly misleading advertising.
For example this is from the dell faq. Emphasis added:
Of course Dell’s main page doesn’t mention these fees. And you have to contact a Dell rep to find out what these fees are ($25 for laptops, $35 for desktops according to one poster on the internet) Computers, Monitors & Technology Solutions | Dell USA
Dell isn’t the only manufacturer pulling this trick, AFAICT.
I’m going to have to get someone to help me through this when it arrives. I have no idea how you would even DO a clean install.
The options will come with the installation disk, due around 22 Oct.
The best strategy, in my opinion, is to back up the files you care about to a separate drive (you should be doing this anyway) and perform a clean install. The secondary benefit is removal of all the bloatware used to subsidize the cost of new machines.
I use Windows 7 Release Candidate (no longer downloadable) and I intend to move to the commercial version asap. On my most recent laptop purchase there was no mention of any fees associated with the option to have the disc shipped to me by the redemption company, and I would be surprised if that is the case. However I have not purchased a computer from Dell so I don’t know for sure.
Win7 is great. I mean it’s hard to get excited about an OS but this one just works really well. I’ve used it since May and the Release Candidate version
IT support at my school are upgrading all their 600 computers from VISTA to Windows 7.
They told me “VISTA was a disappointment and Windows 7 is also faster.”
A couple of years ago, I purchased an XP laptop with a free upgrade to Vista. There were no mention of fees until I attempted to order the DVD disks. When I learned of them, I turned them down, since I had little inclination to upgrade to Vista anyway.
So I dug deeper this time. That said, I’m guessing that the upgrade to Win7 would be worth $35: furthermore a downgrade from Vista to XP would be worth that amount as well.
Hell yes. Win7 will almost certainly run better than Vista on almost any machine. Now, if it were a choice between XP and 7, that’s a much more complex issue.
Just adding another rah-rah for Win 7. I have been using the RC since it came out and could not have been happier with the whole experience. It certainly makes Vista look like it was just an extended Win 7 beta. If you are not using XP, then it is the way to go.
After my initial caution, Windows 7 is doing much better than Vista here.
In my experience Win7 is pretty much exactly like a properly updated Vista but with a UI that wastes a great deal* more screen space needlessly and a few mildly annoying additions that, as far as I can find anyway, can’t be turned off.
About the only real improvement I’ve seen on Win7 is that sound devices are managed much better then in Vista. But I haven’t used Vista in quite a while so maybe that found it’s way back there in an update.
*Okay not really all that much but it’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine and it’s enough to be significant.
In my case, it really, really was that bad. My laptop ran like a dog from the moment I bought it, crashed incessantly, and dropped wireless connectivity every five minutes. At times it felt like the OS was actively fighting against all the on-board peripherals.
I was all set to return the laptop as a lemon, but thought I’d try W7 first as I had nothing to lose: and every single problem was instantly fixed*.
*Bar one: not waking up from sleep sometimes, but that seems to be a hardware issue.