Students = Cheap windows 7

[Fat Dog]

Just tested this and it works fine, just like it did in Vista. You can do a custom install over an unactivated previous install that had no key entered. Obviously this breaks the EULA if you have no previous Windows license to upgrade from.

I’ve read that if you try a workaround as you did that even though the installation is allowed the activation fails which is why I was looking for confirmation.
So the crux of the matter is has anyone done this and successfully activated it?

boosfuk has done it I think. Am curious about the poster above who claimed to have installed straight to a new hdd using one of these students keys...

 

[jaybee]

AFAIK, Upgrade versions are Retail. They cant be OEM as OEM requires them to be sold with a new PC, and the upgrade version cleary isnt.

That's what I thought. In which case this really is worth jumping through hoops as it is the equivalent of a retail win 7 for £30.

 

[r0cky]

AFAIK, Upgrade versions are Retail. They cant be OEM as OEM requires them to be sold with a new PC, and the upgrade version cleary isnt.

What I read from googling around is that the upgrade version leaves you with what you had before. So if you have an OEM, and you upgrade the OEM, you end up still with an OEM. But waiting on someone to say for sure with Win7.

What I want to try to do, is go from Vista Ultimate x64 OEM -> Win7 Pro x64 retail using the student Win7 Pro x64 upgrade.

If what I've been reading here is correct, if I install say Win7 x64, don't activate it, I can then run the student upgrade from within that and activate? Will this loose my OEM tie-down? Basically I want Win7 on my current OEM Vista machine, and I want to get a new machine in a few months time. Ideally carrying the new Win7 upgrade with me.

 

[Fire Wizard]

Are we sure the home premium version is an upgrade licence? Because it doesn't say so anywhere, just says that the professional version (same price) is an upgrade license.

Yes, both the Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional editions are Upgrade licenses.

Quick simple question.. My Vista home premium version was an upgrade from Xp and not a full version, although it was purchased from a high street store boxed retail. Will it be ok to upgrade to this Win 7 from my vista upgrade...

To qualify for an Upgrade license, you need to have either a Retail or an OEM license of a previous version of Windows. Since you have a Windows Vista Upgrade license, it means that you either have a Retail or an OEM license of Windows XP already. This means that you also qualify for a Windows 7 Upgrade license. However, it will make your Windows Vista Upgrade license redundant. Unless you already have another Retail or an OEM license of Windows XP or you go out and purchase one, it will mean that you will not be able to use your Windows Vista Upgrade license until then.

I'm running Xp32 bit standard edition, if I get the 64bit Windows 7 upgrade will it work fine? A little confused what exactly the upgrade bit means.

If you refer to my post here and skip directly to my response to stopstartstall, it should clear up your confusion regarding what the "Upgrade" part means.

Will windows 7 student edition work on a pc with windows xp upgrade edition? Furthermore If I get the disc version of it can I do a fresh install on a new pc using the windows xp upgrade serial to varify?

I'm afraid you do not qualify for a Windows 7 Upgrade license. You need to have a Retail or an OEM license of Windows XP or Windows Vista to qualify for a Windows 7 Upgrade license.

 

[Fire Wizard]

Oh for christs sake... Assuming I have NO other copy of Windows, no, lets assume I don't even have another computerto "upgrade"- If I have a brand new Hard-Drive (For my new PC) would I be able to buy this student W7 deal and install it onto that hard-drive or not?

If you do not have either a Retail or an OEM license of either Windows XP or Windows Vista, I'm afraid you do not qualify for an Upgrade license of Windows 7.

Hmm, so, I have a Windows XP Upgrade Edition disc, would I be able to use this at all? There won't actually be an OS installed on my new hard-drive, but I Have this XP disc.

I'm afraid you don't qualify for an Upgrade license of Windows 7 since as stated above, you need either a Retail or an OEM license of Windows XP or Windows Vista.

I know this must have been asked quite a few times, but can I confirm that the student Upgrade edition is OEM rather than retail? i.e. it's locked to the motherboard you first install and activate it on.

I would also like to know with the student version of Pro if it genuinely is retail, in terms of future activation having changed your components (motherboard)....will that work?

The Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional editions that you can purchase for £30, they are Upgrade licenses which means you need to have a Retail or an OEM license of either Windows XP or Windows Vista to qualify for this offer.

A Windows Retail license means that you can move Windows from one machine to another as long as you remove it from the first machine. An OEM license is slightly different in that once it is installed on a machine, it cannot be transferred from one system to another. Though, you can change any hardware component apart from the motherboard and you will still be correctly licensed.

Regarding what happens with a Windows 7 Upgrade license and the sorts of restrictions you're bound by. If you have a Retail license of Windows XP or Windows Vista and you then purchase a Windows 7 Upgrade license, it effectively becomes a Windows 7 Retail license. You will be able to change the motherboard of that particular system that you have Windows 7 installed on and still be correctly licensed.

Now, lets say for instance you have an OEM license of Windows XP or Windows Vista. If you purchase the Windows 7 Upgrade license, you then effectively have a Windows 7 OEM license which means you will not be able to change the motherboard of that particular system, just as if you hadn't installed Windows 7 in the first place and left Windows Vista in place.

Though, despite what I have just said above about what happens when you upgrade from an OEM license of either Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 using a Upgrade license, it only applies to machines in which you upgraded to Windows 7 from an OEM license of either Windows XP or Windows Vista. An Upgrade license is transferable which means you're still perfectly entitled to remove the copy of Windows 7 from the existing machine and then install it on a new machine, providing the new machine has a legitimate copy of a Retail or an OEM license of either Windows XP or Windows Vista.

just one question is the upgrade student version motherboard locked like the oem used to be?

What I have said directly above should answer your question.

 

[jaybee]

Ok, suppose you don't know if you are running an OEM or Retail copy of Windows XP/Vista....how do you find out?

EDIT: My computer > Help > About
This seems to show "some" info but just a string of which i'm again not sure if it is retail or oem

 

[simpletom]

So anybody had any success upgrading from 32bit Vista to 64bit Windows 7?

 

[Shamikebab]

Thanks for the clarification Fire Wizard

 

[Egon]

If you refer to my post here and skip directly to my response to stopstartstall, it should clear up your confusion regarding what the "Upgrade" part means.

I remember reading that Fire Wizard but you then went on to talk about how Microsoft would be putting measures in place to check whether you have a legitimate, previous version of Windows a few posts down, which left it unclear still.

My understanding then of post #152 is that we are effectively buying an upgrade license. The media is effectively the same and therefore installation methods are the same.

This seems to have been confirmed by elpedro in post #353 ???

 

[Shamikebab]

I wish MS had used a different word than upgrade as it's clearly causing a lot of confusion.

So I have XP 32bit OEM currently, if I buy a Windows 7 professional 64bit upgrade it will require a clean install but will work fine?

 

[Egon]

I wish MS had used a different word than upgrade as it's clearly causing a lot of confusion.

So I have XP 32bit OEM currently, if I buy a Windows 7 professional 64bit upgrade it will require a clean install but will work fine?

That's how I understand it - but people seem to be having problems running the downloaded exe on their 32bit version of XP.

 

[Fire Wizard]

Ok, suppose you don't know if you are running an OEM or Retail copy of Windows XP/Vista....how do you find out?

Did you purchase a system from a retail store which already had either Windows XP or Windows Vista installed? Or did you just buy Widows XP or Windows Vista from somewhere like Overclockers in the form of a software package?

I remember reading that Fire Wizard but you then went on to talk about how Microsoft would be putting measures in place to check whether you have a legitimate, previous version of Windows a few posts down, which left it unclear still.

My understanding then of post #152 is that we are effectively buying an upgrade license. The media is effectively the same and therefore installation methods are the same.

This seems to have been confirmed by elpedro in post #353 ???

I'm sorry but I am not quite understanding on what you're trying to get at. Would you care to clarify for me please?

 

[Big red]

well I'm proper stuffed i get an error in the exe file when near completion i should have bought an other retail disc or d/load file again

 

[Egon]

Did you purchase a system from a retail store which already had either Windows XP or Windows Vista installed? Or did you just buy Widows XP or Windows Vista from somewhere like Overclockers in the form of a software package?



I'm sorry but I am not quite understanding on what you're trying to get at. Would you care to clarify for me please?

Sorry, hopefully I'll be clearer this time.

My understanding of your post in #152 was that we are effectively buying a license. So what is actually on the disc of a retail copy, an upgrade copy or contained within a digital download (which the majority of people in this thread are trying to download) is the same.

Therefore it doesn't matter which license we own, everybody will be able to stick a Win7 disc in and install to a clean hard drive. They key that comes with our copy of Win 7 and we use to activate Windows is what effectively determines our license type.

 

[cuke2u]

Hi, seems to work with any schools using RM Easymail, or domain name.sch.uk
Chris

 

[elpedro]

o_o Let me get this straight, you installed W7 (Home Premium or Professional?) on a brand new out-of-the-box hard-drive, and it didn't require a previous install?!

What happened exactly?

And how did you create the boot image, what software did you use?

Used vlite v1.1.6 to create an ISO from the extracted files from the downloaded installer.

Burned the ISO to a blank DVD.

Restarted my PC with the DVD in the drive, booted from the DVD.

Windows 7 installer popped up, I clicked install, selected the empty partition to install the OS on then let it do its thing.

After it had completed, entered the key I got in my email and it activated.

BTW, the copy I bought was Windows 7 Professional. I assume the same will apply to Home Premium. The only system I had previously on the drive I had formatted was Windows 7 RC. So even if it somehow could detect a previous OS from a formatted drive, it wasn't a full liscense; as far as I know, you can't upgrade from the RC. And if you can, there's no need to buy the full version as the RC is free!

 

[jaybee]

Used vlite v1.1.6 to create an ISO from the extracted files from the downloaded installer.

Burned the ISO to a blank DVD.

Restarted my PC with the DVD in the drive, booted from the DVD.

Windows 7 installer popped up, I clicked install, selected the empty partition to install the OS on then let it do its thing.

After it had completed, entered the key I got in my email and it activated.

BTW, the copy I bought was Windows 7 Professional. I assume the same will apply to Home Premium. The only system I had previously on the drive I had formatted was Windows 7 RC. So even if it somehow could detect a previous OS from a formatted drive, it wasn't a full liscense; as far as I know, you can't upgrade from the RC. And if you can, there's no need to buy the full version as the RC is free!

Interesting.
I would suggest it found the Win 7 RC. Apparently that is what's happening on another forum someone has posted.

 

[Big red]

i d/loaded the student win7 pro onto c drive of pc running xp pro , and connected a new formated h /drive and loaded my retail win 7 and tried the student key , it came back as not valid , so i formated the new drive and went back to the c drive where the d/load was located but untouched and when i click on the exe file it nearly completes and the throws up an error stating that it could not create new files

and to check the folder properties and to make sure that i had security permission on the folder to write files and that it is not read only . so i don't know what to do from here ?

 

[meths]

I just re-installed after making a DVD from the method mentioned earlier using OSCDIMG.EXE.

It let me format my drive and install from scratch. The key was accepted and activated with no problem at the end of the installation.

 

[StarSolitude]

I just re-installed after making a DVD from the method mentioned earlier using OSCDIMG.EXE.

It let me format my drive and install from scratch. The key was accepted and activated with no problem at the end of the installation.

So, the same story as Elpedro? (Above posts)

And you used Windows 7 Professional as well? Your drive was empty when you started?