Windows 7 Half-Price Sale Starts Friday

[handyguy]

XP is fine for me. I'd rather just get a new PC with a full version of W7 on it. It doesn't seem to add much to the price of a PC.

[hudsonf]

I'm a Windows 7 RC user right now. So does that mean if I bought one of these upgrade versions I would have to reinstall XP or Vista and then install the 7 upgrade?

right from a microsoft faq page "I am running Windows XP, can I upgrade to Windows 7?

Microsoft designed Windows 7 Upgrade media for Windows Vista. A customer with Windows XP can purchase Windows 7 Upgrade media but must back up their files, clean install, and then reinstall their applications." So you will be able to do a clean install. There may even be a way to install over the RC and not have to lose everything.

I'm not running XP, I'm running 7RC. I knew from the beginning that installing 7RC I would have to do a clean install when 7RC was offically released. But what I don't want to do is reinstall XP just to install 7. I would like to just format my harddrive and install 7 from a clean drive. But that sounds like I would have to get an oem or full version of windows 7, not the upgrade. Is there a way to just install win7 on a clean drive and use my old XP key?

A customer with Windows XP can purchase Windows 7 Upgrade

[johns0]

Guess you cant preorder this if you live in canada.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Guess you cant preorder this if you live in canada.

Unfortunately no:
'Windows 7 Pre-Order Promotional Pricing is a limited time offer good only on internet pre-orders of qualifying upgrade versions of Windows 7 (Home Premium Upgrade or Professional Upgrade) within the 50 US or DC. Offer good from June 26, 2009, until July 11, 2009, or while supplies last.'
http://store.microsoft.com/Help/Orders-Shipping?err=t6#at6

[edDV]

I bet Canada did something to piss MS off. Europe will pay double and not get a web browser

But really just wait for Canada to catch up. There is plenty of time until Oct.

BTW: How do you download a web browser if you don't have a web browser? Europe?

[Ai Haibara]

I think I've heard they're supposed to have some kind of menu where they can choose.

Do the newer versions of Windows still come with command-line FTP utilities?

[edDV]

I hope MS makes that menu a download. Or gives the snailmail address of Netscape.

[yoda313]

@eddv - isn't the webbrowser thing the whole reason the government went after microsoft in the first place?

[MOVIEGEEK]

I think it was WMP that the EU filed a antitrust lawsuit for, they were threatening another lawsuit with IE so MS said screw you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_v._Microsoft

Of course it's ok for Apple to ship a MAC with Quicktime and Safari.

[vcdlover]

I've just completed a pre-order of Windows 7 Home upgrade. The total cost is about $60 includes shipping and tax. The note says it's a DVD and I hope I could choose 32 at later time. I plan to upgrade from Windows 2000 Pro to Windows 7 64. I anticipate to struggle little bit with the 64 bit drivers. If it becomes too much of a problem, I'll plan to run 32 and I hope I could do it.

We shell see...

vcdlover

[RLT69]

Of course it's ok for Apple to ship a MAC with Quicktime and Safari.

The AntiTrust suit was over Internet Explorer. The EU also pursued Windows Media Player.

As people are so fond of saying, Apple does not have the market share as Microsoft. Kind of hard to have a Monopoly without the Market Share. Also, Apple never claimed that Safari was absolutely necessary to run OS X because it became so entwined with the OS that the OS would fail to work without it.

Heaven forbid Windows includes browsers other than IE (like Linux does). I mean it's not like OEMs don't packaged PCs with other non-Microsoft software....that never happens.

But then I guess Choice and Capitalism don't go together. 8)

[rallynavvie]

I plan to upgrade from Windows 2000 Pro to Windows 7 64. I anticipate to struggle little bit with the 64 bit drivers. If it becomes too much of a problem, I'll plan to run 32 and I hope I could do it.

Considering the two Windows OS you are jumping with that upgrade does your hardware even support x64? Specifically you need to look at your processor to see if it has x64 instruction sets.

If you do have recent (last year or two) hardware then I wouldn't worry too much about x64 driver support. It is far better now than it was even a year ago. I've been finding Vista drivers work for Windows 7 in the few cases I've not found native Win7 drivers. There are still some gaps on some off-brand items (read: cheap) but most anything with a mainstream chipset has x64 drivers these days.

[edDV]

But if you don't need >3.5GB RAM, 32bit is less trouble especially if you run older peripherals and/or applications.

[vcdlover]

I plan to upgrade from Windows 2000 Pro to Windows 7 64. I anticipate to struggle little bit with the 64 bit drivers. If it becomes too much of a problem, I'll plan to run 32 and I hope I could do it.

Considering the two Windows OS you are jumping with that upgrade does your hardware even support x64? Specifically you need to look at your processor to see if it has x64 instruction sets.

If you do have recent (last year or two) hardware then I wouldn't worry too much about x64 driver support. It is far better now than it was even a year ago. I've been finding Vista drivers work for Windows 7 in the few cases I've not found native Win7 drivers. There are still some gaps on some off-brand items (read: cheap) but most anything with a mainstream chipset has x64 drivers these days.

My hardware list is below.

NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Creative Lab SB X-Fi
Samsung 245BW
Intel Q6600
8GB
ASUS P5QL PRO
HP LaserJet 2600n
HP PhotoSmart 7280
Epson Stylus R280

vcdlover

[rallynavvie]

You should be OK on a 64-bit version of Windows with all of that.

[vcdlover]

You should be OK on a 64-bit version of Windows with all of that.

Thanks rallynavvie

This is a list of software I've been running and I also hope they will run well under Windows 7.

Adobe CS3
Soundforge 8
Mainconcept 1.51
Nero 7.10
Sony Vegas 7
Ulead DVD Workshop 2


vcdlover

[lordsmurf]

I would not mind IE so much if I could uninstall it. I think that was the beef with the EU, more than it coming packed-in. I use IE long enough to get a better browser.

But IE8 isn't that bad -- it's actually better than a number of alternate browsers now, including Netscape and Opera. Firefox still better than IE, however. Chrome isn't bad, but too many AJAX/form bugs.

Win7 will clearly come with IE8.

[handyguy]

Apple just put out Safari browser, it looks pretty nice, for Mac or PC.

[yoda313]

I posted in another thread but I think this might be more appropriate.

I'm not sure if this has been covered or not so bear with me.

Can you use an upgrade version of vista or win 7 with an oem copy of xp?

I don't have a retail copy of xp just the oem one that came with my emachine. Same with my vista pc. I have the preinstalled vista premium on that.

[minidv2dvd]

oem version of ms os's are eligible for upgrades. going from xp to 7 will require a clean formatted hard drive. no direct in-place upgrade available.

[minidv2dvd]

you can purchase vista now with "free upgrade to 7" coupons at newegg. vista ultimate with coupon is 189.99 - less than the 219.99 microsoft is asking for the 7 ultimate upgrade package alone.

[jagabo]

Hints of a Home Premium Family Pack:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/07/windows-7-home-premium-to-get-family-pack-deal.ars

[yoda313]

@minidv2dvd - thanks for the info.

[Des]

The upgrade price is just a few dollars cheaper at Costco:
http://tinyurl.com/nyxx2s

$47.99 for the Home edition and $97.99 for the Pro edition.

I have Vista Home Premium now, and it serves my needs very well, so if I were to upgrade I guess logically I would be looking at the W7 Home Edition, yes?

Question is: What are the benefits right now of upgrading to W7 from a stable working Vista x64 enviroment?

I may buy the disks just because of the cheap price, but I wonder if there is a significant advantage?
(Maybe I should start a new thread on that)

--dES

[yoda313]

@des - currently the only reason I might be tempted to do the 7 upgrade on my vista pc is h.264 support in windows media center that I saw in another thread.

My hauppauge hd pvr records in h.264 m2ts files and to be able to stream them to my xbox 360 instead of using just the computer for playback is intriguing.