Microsoft Store, completely useless

v0n · 15 Mar 2009 at 19:30

Friend spilled some liquid over his old XP box last week, so he bought parts for new PC this weekend. Decent spec, gaming card. We put it together but it turned out he wanted to try DX10 but forgot to order OS with all the bits and bobs. Pressed for time, he decided to go expensive but instant route and order Windows Ultimate from Microsoft Store, downloadable version, online. All we had was my macbook, but it should suffice - has DVD burner, browser, what else would one need. We set it up on his network, he opened the browser, logged in and ordered Vista Ultimate SP1, full, retail. Or at least that's what he thought. To his shock and horror, the downloadable "Direct DVD Fulfillment" version appeared in his account only in 32 bit form. And not as iso, but in three separate files. One windows executable and two cryptic, smaller ".wim" parts.

So, long story short - he's without os, without working PC, set back £220 quid and seriously peed off. Who would suspect that Microsoft's not only doesn't do retail versions of retail versions for their "direct fulfillment" customers (thus in both x64 and 32 bit flavours) in their store but they also gone Xibit, and when one wants windows, one has to have windows to have windows.

That will teach him to download dodgy, ready to go copies in the future.

v0n · 15 Mar 2009 at 20:04

I suppose you can get used to idea of media-less shopping. The itunes, the steams, stuff you want "right here, right now" that just works. I have to say, I was looking every now and then when he was ordering it and I can't remember a single point where the order would suggest it was to be delivered as "installation DVD in three parts, consisting of windows executable expandable to loose files and no known media or DVD format". Why Ultimate? I don't know, honestly. I suppose you buy retail, you don't want to end up with single CPU home version etc. I think the difference between Business and Ultimate is £10. Although I bet things would be still the same and outcome leading to complete defeat if he bought Sauna and Garage Basic Edition, or Kitchen Premium. It would still download (at least no ActiveX's there) in three useless files, and only as 32 bit?

v0n · 16 Mar 2009 at 17:11

z0mbi3 said:
Along these lines it seems mad that anyone informed would pay retail price for Vista Ultimate especially with Windows 7 being relatively close and there being perfectly usable beta out there in the wild.

Windows 7 is still at least 6 months away, isn't it? And it follows regular route, betas, RCs, RTM etc etc?

v0n · 16 Mar 2009 at 20:30

Burnsy2023 said:
How many people run dual CPUs nowadays anyway?

I personally do actually run dual multicore CPUs at work and at home. Use Home Premium on laptop tho. He doesn't run dual CPUs at moment, but invested pretty decent money in i7 and good graphics and wanted bells and whistles to go with it. Suggested debian (comes with all bells and whistles), he politely refused (it's that gaming thing I bet - nethack doesn't do it for people anymore)

. Suggested Home Premium, he asked about how future proof it is, upgrades and such - well 16Gb of RAM, 1 CPU max, fits the bill now, few years from now, who knows. So he decided Ultimate (at £60 extra IIRC) it was...