Windows 7

[MuleShack]

I have Vista home premium on my laptop and was going to upgrade to Windows 7.

If I were to stick with the W7 home premium, are there any adverse affects of using the "upgrade" disk instead of the full install? Does it keep all of your settings or do you have to reinstall a bunch of stuff after the fact?

I do know that if I choose the W7 professional to get the remote desktop server i would have to go with a full install. Does the full install wipe out your settings as well?

Just looking to see what kind of time i'll have to invest in this project.

the only experience i have with W7 is working on a friends computer that came with it new installed.

[Jim Almquist]

If you do the upgrade nothing will be lost as far as your files and such. It is a little different then a XP upgrade because you put in the disk and then select the disk and do the upgrade vs XP would take off right from the disk. The one downfall is that your key will only work as a upgrade key and will not work on a clean install.

[upnorth]

Readme

Read some of the info in this article. Not all version of vista will upgrade to windows 7. I would prefer to do a clean install anyways, and I do believe the windows 7 upgrade allows for that.

[spearchucker]

You can do a clean install from an Upgrade disk. I did a clean install from Vista Basic to Windows 7 Premium on my laptop. It puts all of your user files into a separate directory so you can copy them to your profile folder when you are done. It works well. I backed up my entire drive before doing this, but really didn't need to because it puts all your files in a separate directory. I just copied what I needed and installed all my programs and deleted the directory.

[blakjack23]

I agree with Upnorth, I always do a clean install. I have never done it the way Spearchucker mentioned though, I usually save whatever I need to an external drive, then completely format and reinstall Windows. I just don't like taking the risk of issues associated with an upgrade disk.

[spearchucker]

I agree with Upnorth, I always do a clean install. I have never done it the way Spearchucker mentioned though, I usually save whatever I need to an external drive, then completely format and reinstall Windows. I just don't like taking the risk of issues associated with an upgrade disk.

There is no risk by doing a clean install from an upgrade disk. It even asks you, so there is no trickery in doing this. I would not recommnend the upgrade over the clean install though.

[upnorth]

There are options for the upgrade version to do a clean install, that is why posted the link it explains things much better than I can in a short post.

[blakjack23]

Sorry, I meant the risks associated with doing just an upgrade. I didn't mean there are risks using an upgrade disk to do a clean install.

[MuleShack]

Thanks,

I'll probably do it right with the full install to avoid any hidden problems...There goes a sunday

[MuleShack]

I just confused myself again...

I was looking at pricing on line and the W7 Pro list as $299 for the full install and $199 for the upgrade. ($179 on amazon)

The upgrade version/pricing is still a full version where I can still wipe hard drive and install from scratch...the price is only lower because i am upgrading from a different MS product? This sound right?

Anybody know if it is cheaper anywhere else?

[LMITOUT]

I got confused when I read that as well. I was always under the impression that an "upgrade" version was more or less a refresh of your current OS to the new version, replacing the things that needed to be replaced, yet the uglies of the old OS were still in the background. Plus, if you ever wanted to do a complete wipe later down the road you would have to first install your full version of the original OS and then do the upgrade again all over to get back to the new OS.

I've been contemplating moving up from Vista to 7 on my laptop, but I'd rather do a clean install to wipe any and all pieces of Vista away. But like you said, the price tag on the full version is a little more than I really want to spend. It's almost not too far away from a brand new laptop with 7 already installed!

If that is the case then why would anyone buy the full version? Just for completely new installations, i.e. home built PC? Does the upgrade version truly have the complete OS but you're really just buying the licensing, using your old OS key as the way to install it, hence the discounted price?

BTW, love the avatar!

[spearchucker]

I got confused when I read that as well. I was always under the impression that an "upgrade" version was more or less a refresh of your current OS to the new version, replacing the things that needed to be replaced, yet the uglies of the old OS were still in the background. Plus, if you ever wanted to do a complete wipe later down the road you would have to first install your full version of the original OS and then do the upgrade again all over to get back to the new OS.

I've been contemplating moving up from Vista to 7 on my laptop, but I'd rather do a clean install to wipe any and all pieces of Vista away. But like you said, the price tag on the full version is a little more than I really want to spend. It's almost not too far away from a brand new laptop with 7 already installed!

If that is the case then why would anyone buy the full version? Just for completely new installations, i.e. home built PC? Does the upgrade version truly have the complete OS but you're really just buying the licensing, using your old OS key as the way to install it, hence the discounted price?

BTW, love the avatar!

Did you read any of the previous posts? They pretty much answer your questions.

[spearchucker]

I just confused myself again...

I was looking at pricing on line and the W7 Pro list as $299 for the full install and $199 for the upgrade. ($179 on amazon)

The upgrade version/pricing is still a full version where I can still wipe hard drive and install from scratch...the price is only lower because i am upgrading from a different MS product? This sound right?

Anybody know if it is cheaper anywhere else?

That sounds right. If you can get by without Pro you can get the Family 3 packs of Windows 7 Premium for $99-149. Pro has XP mode (really a virtual machine) and the ability to allow remote access via RDP.

Whatever you do make sure you buy from a reputable seller and not from Habib on an auction site. There are a lot of pirated copied on auction sites and the keys will fail.

[MuleShack]

If you can get by without Pro you can get the Family 3 packs of Windows 7 Premium for $99

Doing some quick math, the big A has the three pack for $99, this way I could upgrade my pc upstairs from XP to W7. Then upgrade my laptop from Vista to W7 and sell a copy to my friend who has a pc on XP yet and one on W7.

Then I can do an "anytime upgrade" to Pro on the laptop for $89.0 which is still cheape than the $199 they want for the Pro alone...plus i'll get $50 for the third copy from a friend.

Not bad suggestion.

[upnorth]

I got confused when I read that as well. I was always under the impression that an "upgrade" version was more or less a refresh of your current OS to the new version, replacing the things that needed to be replaced, yet the uglies of the old OS were still in the background. Plus, if you ever wanted to do a complete wipe later down the road you would have to first install your full version of the original OS and then do the upgrade again all over to get back to the new OS.

I've been contemplating moving up from Vista to 7 on my laptop, but I'd rather do a clean install to wipe any and all pieces of Vista away. But like you said, the price tag on the full version is a little more than I really want to spend. It's almost not too far away from a brand new laptop with 7 already installed!

If that is the case then why would anyone buy the full version? Just for completely new installations, i.e. home built PC? Does the upgrade version truly have the complete OS but you're really just buying the licensing, using your old OS key as the way to install it, hence the discounted price?

BTW, love the avatar!

I think this is the first time that MS offered the ability to completely wipe out a machine and do a fresh install with an upgrade purchase. It is good way to go. Especially when we are talking going from Vista.

[Valv]

I've been contemplating moving up from Vista to 7 on my laptop, but I'd rather do a clean install to wipe any and all pieces of Vista away. But like you said, the price tag on the full version is a little more than I really want to spend. It's almost not too far away from a brand new laptop with 7 already installed!

That's my point, I replace my systems every year or 2, since it's much more convenient to get a new one than go through the hassle of buying the upgrades. Last December upgrading software, hard drives, and memory totaled approx $ 350, I bought new laptops for $ 400, and they have better and newer hardware.

I can tell you where to buy new desktops for $ 250 or a little more. Win XP and Win 7 have the provisions to help transfering information from old system to new one, it's very easy to do.

[LMITOUT]

I think this is the first time that MS offered the ability to completely wipe out a machine and do a fresh install with an upgrade purchase.

OK, that's why I asked, and I'm guessing why Muleshack did as well, because I had only known of the way it was done previously and just wanted to make sure we were talking the same thing.

Thanks.

[MuleShack]

Yea, that was part of it. The word update "should" be changed to "update Pricing" on the MS site.

In the past I was thinking like LMT was where update only piled on to your existing software.

Thanks for all the insight as usual guys.

[bigbad401]

I just confused myself again...

I was looking at pricing on line and the W7 Pro list as $299 for the full install and $199 for the upgrade. ($179 on amazon)

The upgrade version/pricing is still a full version where I can still wipe hard drive and install from scratch...the price is only lower because i am upgrading from a different MS product? This sound right?

Anybody know if it is cheaper anywhere else?

To get cheaper buy OEM Window 7 through a new egg dot com. I have done OEM versions of Windows on many computers with no issues. It is the same program but without the fancy box.

[spearchucker]

To get cheaper buy OEM Window 7 through a new egg dot com. I have done OEM versions of Windows on many computers with no issues. It is the same program but without the fancy box.

I think legally the OEM versions are only valid on a newly built system by a system builder, but I'm sure they will work.

[bigbad401]

True, I have only put them on new systems, but anyone can buy the OEM version. You don't have to be system builder. I used to go to a couple different computer shops in Minneapolis to buy the OEM and I had to buy another piece of computer hardware to qualify the purchase. So I would buy another stick of RAM or a $10 video card to get the $100 Windows. It is a lot cheaper than the $300.

On second thought, OEM may not be the best bet for a laptop because of the System Builder deal. Red flags maybe risen if you put an OEM on a HP laptop.

Anyways, I bought Windows 7 when they had the presale when it was coming out. I did not want to lose any info on my laptop so I did an upgrade which I don't normally like to do. No problems to date with it.

[LMITOUT]

Correct. I bought an OEM version of XP but it has to be sold with some sort of network component, per Microsoft's agreement.

So what did I receive from the retailer? A Windows XP disk and a couple of screws that you would find on the back of a PC that might secure an ethernet card to the case.

[spearchucker]

MicroPro on 100 has Win 7 Pro OEM for $149.00

[LMITOUT]

Picked up the "family pack" today and got Win7 installed on my laptop. Everything went smooth and now just getting everything back to where I like it and old programs installed again.

Only strange thing so far is I'm getting a desktop.ini file on my desktop after rebooting. Delete it and it comes back. Going to look into that one some more.

[MuleShack]

Hey LMT, what did you pay for it if i may ask? And where?

I was going to order on line today for $99, but if i can buy it for that locally i would do it so I can install this weekend.