Has anyone ordered Windows 7 from them yet? In the cart, the item reads “Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade.” Is this an oversite or are they selling upgrades only, not the full version?
According to this web site, anyone with a copy of Windows XP or later should only buy the upgrade version of Windows 7 and can save money. The latest newsletter says one can use the upgrade version to perform a clean, full install, even to a hard drive that’s been reformatted.
Thing is, one can legally buy a full version OEM copy of Windows 7 and it’s cheaper than a retail upgrade version.
I got my copy from them. Upgrades only.
If you’re already using Vista I see little or no reason to upgrade.
There’re a few improvements, better sound device controls for example, but there are also a number of added annoying features that can’t be turned off. But the biggest problem is the UI which has been royally screwed up. It wastes so much more space than previous windows versions. Windows explorer uses between 89-103%(depending on your settings) more vertical pixels to represent the exact same UI panel information and options(albeit organized differently) as XP. That’s only on the UI portions of it, but even the content portion can waste more space. Theres more pointless whitespace between lines if you use “Details” view mode, for example, wasting even more vertical space needlessly and you need to have the window considerably wider than the columns headings or you get a horizontal scroll bar which wastes either horizontal or vertical screen space. This is all in comparison to XP though. I don’t currently have a Vista installation but if I recall correctly it wastes considerably less space the Win7, but slightly more than XP. But this is all using Windows Classic mode. Were I to use Aero the amount of space wasted jumps up considerably. And if you have Aero on font smoothing weasels it’s way back into to the UI even if you have it turned off.
Admittedly wasting space is a pit of a pet peeve of mine so I notice it where others might not and lately every developer out there seems to love to waste so much more space for their UIs than they used to that I spend much of my days in a frothing rage at the annoyance of it all but it’s probably not as much a deal breaker for most people.
Had I a legitimate copy of Vista I would go back to it in a heartbeat just for the more succinct UI. Though I’d miss the better sound driver options.
The only difference is legality. The upgrade version is still the full version. Although it may give you a bit of hassle, you can get it to install on any blank hard drive.
You technically have an extra license, then. If you put the OEM license on the computer, you could even legally give away or sell the retail disc. I know I’d be morally okay with making a copy of that disc before getting rid of it as It would then be a functional backup of your defective install disc. (Or you could just send off to get it replaced). If you put the retail license on the computer, though, then the problem is that the OEM version can only be legally installed on a “new” computer.
Can someone outline in detail and small words just how exactly that $30 upgrade works?
What happens after I fill out my credit card info and click “checkout” or whatever it says? What kind of fancy computer stuffs would I have to do afterwards to get Win7 up and running?
For anyone wondering, I’d like to know because I want to take advantage of the deal ASAP, but I don’t want to have to install Win7 on this particular computer. It’s old and I’d rather not do anything big and drastic. I’ll be in the possession of a much more modern and capable machine in a month or so and tha’ts what I want Win7 for because I’ll just be relocating this hard drive to the new stuff.
Nothing too it. We got our dvd, popped it in and started the upgrade. It asked for the serial and then quite a long time later was done. all our “Stuff” was there and worked.
Painless really.
BTW i am a IT guy but the OP wanted small words…
So I can buy now, use later? As per my most recent post before this one?
I know it sounds absurd, but Microsoft is pretty good on the phone. No, really … stop laughing!
Aside from hardware support (two keyboards died, they shipped based on SN alone), their activation support lines can be pretty helpful. Um … wait, this may be old advice – I’d called about swapping XP Pro and Home on a couple machines a few years back. YMMV.
Windows activation: (888) 571-2048
Good luck and do post if they help – I’m kind of in the same boat. Ultimate Steal disc, but won’t install for several months (and then it’s likely to go on a Mac!).
Yes you can buy it now and use it later. As long as you keep the serial number you can install anytime you want. I got one using my sons edu email and my wife got one using a friends sons. So think of a inlaw or friend who has a child with a MAC, they would not be buying the update and might let you use it. My DIL has a brother who wont be using his so I will be getting one from him as well.
<CM Burns>
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So, new question. To be able to buy it now and use it later, it would require I buy that $15 thing they don’t immediately advertise, correct? The “disk kit”.
Not necessarily, the download will make a disk image you can burn to DVD yourself if you’re able.
I’ve weaned myself off windows. I still use it on my desktop, but when it corrupts I’ll either use a ghost image or go with Ubuntu or Mint.
I purchased two copies of windows. One when I wasn’t a student and one when I was. I own both. However, I have reinstalled it so many times (more than 3), and now I have to freaking call them when I have to reinstall it.
I’m not dealing with that. I’ll spend my money elsewhere (and would buy OS X if it wasn’t a pain in the arse to get it installed and drivers installed on a non Mac).
But this new computer won’t come with Windows 7 already? Are you getting a used computer or something?
ETA: or a Mac?
No, you can burn the download to disc – I don’t even think you need to make an ISO disc. When I got Office (grrr!) I went for the disk anyway, just to be on the safe side. But I still have the downloads saved in an archive.
Any opinions about 64 or 32 bit? If the processor can handle 64, any reason to stay at 32?
As long as there are 64-bit drivers available for all your devices/hardware, nope. 64 bit is the way pretty much all personal computers are heading towards it seems.
I am purchasing pieces of a computer and keeping this current hard drive to cut costs for now and not that I need more than 160GB of space.
How would someone go about finding this sort of information?