Sunday, April 24, 2011

Upgrade v. Full

I'm a student and I'm interested in buying the student discounted version of Windows 7 Professional 64bit from Microsoft's website. The site says that the product is an "upgrade", but I've seen some places that claim that it works entirely the same as the full version. Any ideas on this?

Also, have any of you used this before and/or know how many systems the DVD of the OS allows you to put the OS on?

Reply 1 : Upgrade v. Full

The upgrade was a "license upgrade" and the student was irate that this Windows 7 64 bit version would not upgrade their 32 bit Windows. They also found out that it wouldn't upgrade the 64 bit versions and they had to perform a clean install.

Yes, it's a great deal but be careful when you install it. PLAN AS IF ! ! ! all your files are going away and you'll be ready.

Be sure to collect all your machine's 64 bit drivers before you install this.
Bob

Reply 2 : Upgrade v. Full

Oh, it will be on a new machine and I don't keep much on systems anyways (usually use externals, etc.).

Reply 3 : Upgrade v. Full

And we don't have the product code or site to check, we have to wait till more is known if this will let you pass without a prior OS.
Bob

Reply 4 : Upgrade v. Full

Even if it works technically, legally it would be a violation of the license agreement and thus technically be considered pirated software.

If you use an upgrade version, you basically transfer the existing license to the new version you're upgrading to. So without that initial license, the upgrade version would be considered pirated.

Which would mean we can't discuss it here, so my advice would be to see if there are any educational discounts on the fully licensed copies of Windows if you're looking to install on a new system with no prior qualifying OS.

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