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Need to buy Windows 7 Home Premium from reputable source

P

PNGento

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 7, 2011
69
0
I need to buy a suitable Win7 Home Premium that I can use to install Windows 7 using Boot Camp. I need to buy a copy that can be downloaded, but all the download sites I'm finding seem a bit shady. Does anyone have a source they used that provide an honest legitimate copy along with activation code that can be used with boot camp on my rMBP.

Thanks.
 
PNGento said:
I need to buy a suitable Win7 Home Premium that I can use to install Windows 7 using Boot Camp. I need to buy a copy that can be downloaded, but all the download sites I'm finding seem a bit shady. Does anyone have a source they used that provide an honest legitimate copy along with activation code that can be used with boot camp on my rMBP.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You can buy Windows 7 Home Premium from Amazon.

Be careful not to buy OEM as that violates Microsoft's EULA.
 
xShane said:
You can buy Windows 7 Home Premium from Amazon.

Be careful not to buy OEM as that violates Microsoft's EULA.
Click to expand...

All I see there, are either upgrades or OEM or builders versions...all I believe are not legitimate.
 
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A system builder doesn't have to sell the unit on to satisfy the OEM EULA, he just has to have built the system. Swapping out the memory or the storage drive would qualify as a system build. A full retail version is better in the long run though because you can move it from system to system as often as you like as long as its only ever on one device at any one time. The OEM version is registered with the hardware you first install it on and cannot be moved to a new computer.
 
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Wow! 200 bucks for a Windows installer? I now appreciate my MSDN Subscription account that my employer gave to me.
 
I just bought a 40 dollar windows 8 upgrade for my old pc and loaded it onto my mbp. Bam, 40 dollar transferable legitimate copy of windows.

Just get a system builder.
 
psykick5 said:
Wow no wonder people pirate Windows. Legitimate copies are a pain in the ass.
Click to expand...

Boy, you got that right...so very confusing.

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Andydigital said:
A system builder doesn't have to sell the unit on to satisfy the OEM EULA, he just has to have built the system. Swapping out the memory or the storage drive would qualify as a system build. A full retail version is better in the long run though because you can move it from system to system as often as you like as long as its only ever on one device at any one time. The OEM version is registered with the hardware you first install it on and cannot be moved to a new computer.
Click to expand...

I went to Best Buy to see if they had a "suitable" version in stock so I could get this over and done with...they (2 different sales people) told me to go with the OEM and that this would be legal. But, they also had none on the shelf, so back to trying to find something online.

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xmichaelp said:
I just bought a 40 dollar windows 8 upgrade for my old pc and loaded it onto my mbp. Bam, 40 dollar transferable legitimate copy of windows.

Just get a system builder.
Click to expand...

Well, that is an interesting (and possibly/probably??) legal way to approach this...but why Windows 8...I still can't see that as a good move for me (not dissing your choice, obviously a personal preference). I just don't think I can find any good reason to want to use W8...unless on a tablet.
 
PNGento said:
Boy, you got that right...so very confusing.

----------



I went to Best Buy to see if they had a "suitable" version in stock so I could get this over and done with...they (2 different sales people) told me to go with the OEM and that this would be legal. But, they also had none on the shelf, so back to trying to find something online.

----------



Well, that is an interesting (and possibly/probably??) legal way to approach this...but why Windows 8...I still can't see that as a good move for me (not dissing your choice, obviously a personal preference). I just don't think I can find any good reason to want to use W8...unless on a tablet.
Click to expand...

If you buy Windows 8 OEM, you may use that for personal use.

You may not however use Windows 7 OEM for personal use.

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Andydigital said:
A system builder doesn't have to sell the unit on to satisfy the OEM EULA, he just has to have built the system. Swapping out the memory or the storage drive would qualify as a system build. A full retail version is better in the long run though because you can move it from system to system as often as you like as long as its only ever on one device at any one time. The OEM version is registered with the hardware you first install it on and cannot be moved to a new computer.
Click to expand...

That is simply not true. There's only two ways OEM is supposed to be distributed:
1. Preinstalled on a new PC.
2. Unopened copies to other system builders.

Source: Directly from the Microsoft Licensing FAQ.
 
PNGento said:
[/COLOR]

Well, that is an interesting (and possibly/probably??) legal way to approach this...but why Windows 8...I still can't see that as a good move for me (not dissing your choice, obviously a personal preference). I just don't think I can find any good reason to want to use W8...unless on a tablet.
Click to expand...

Just cause they had the promotion going on and it was dirt cheap. Windows 8 has shown to be slightly better at gaming in tests and obviously boots much quicker, takes half as long as OS X. I installed a third party start menu that replicates the windows 7 one, i never even see the metro UI besides right when i boot it. The hate W8 gets is lame.
 
xmichaelp said:
Just cause they had the promotion going on and it was dirt cheap. Windows 8 has shown to be slightly better at gaming in tests and obviously boots much quicker, takes half as long as OS X. I installed a third party start menu that replicates the windows 7 one, i never even see the metro UI besides right when i boot it. The hate W8 gets is lame.
Click to expand...

Source?
 
There's a few things that you could be asking for a source for haha, specify and i'll get back to you
 
xmichaelp said:
I just bought a 40 dollar windows 8 upgrade for my old pc and loaded it onto my mbp. Bam, 40 dollar transferable legitimate copy of windows.

Just get a system builder.
Click to expand...

How did you do that? I mean, how did you loaded windows 8 upgrade onto the mbp?

I also bought a windows 8 upgrade in and old dell.
 
xAgustinx said:
How did you do that? I mean, how did you loaded windows 8 upgrade onto the mbp?

I also bought a windows 8 upgrade in and old dell.
Click to expand...

Boot Camp will install Windows 8. It's just not fully supported. It works mostly fine but there is some wonkiness- onscreen display for volume and brightness doesn't work, adaptive brightness plays hell with your screen till you turn it off, and trackpad gestures work even less than they do in Windows 7 (one of the reasons I prefer to use OS X as much as possible).
 
PNGento said:
I just don't think I can find any good reason to want to use W8...unless on a tablet.
Click to expand...

Windows 8 works on a non-tablet PC, as long as you're willing to spend an additional $5 on Start8, which gives Windows 8 a proper Start Menu button. It's also a good program to use to disable the Metro interface almost completely so you boot directly into the traditional desktop with a Start button. You can do this without the spend but the workaround is a lot more technical. Personally I wouldn't recommend any Windows 8 install without also recommending Start8.

In any event, without additional tweaking Windows 8 is an nightmare on a non-touch enabled PC.
 
xShane said:
"Better at gaming" and "takes half as long".
Click to expand...

I can't find the link for the gaming test but like I said it was only slightly better, my main point was that it isn't like W8 is worse than W7 and bloatware or anything, it's basically the same thing with a new optional UI and slightly better under the hood performance.

Here's a link that shows the boot times, scrolling down a bit further shows W7 a little better at gaming, that's pretty much how much better W8 was in the original test I was referring to. Probably not noticable to the end user but again my main point was that W8 is just as good an OS as W7.

W8 takes me about 20-25 seconds i'd say to boot and OSX about 45-50.

http://usabilitygeek.com/windows-8-vs-windows-7-speed-and-performance-testing/
 
xmichaelp said:
I can't find the link for the gaming test but like I said it was only slightly better, my main point was that it isn't like W8 is worse than W7 and bloatware or anything, it's basically the same thing with a new optional UI and slightly better under the hood performance.

Here's a link that shows the boot times, scrolling down a bit further shows W7 a little better at gaming, that's pretty much how much better W8 was in the original test I was referring to. Probably not noticable to the end user but again my main point was that W8 is just as good an OS as W7.

W8 takes me about 20-25 seconds i'd say to boot and OSX about 45-50.

http://usabilitygeek.com/windows-8-vs-windows-7-speed-and-performance-testing/
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone ever doubted that it was a technically sound OS. It's built on the Windows 7 kernel but with improved performance and security.

That said, none of that really matters if the UX is so poorly designed that after three days you're fighting the urge to chuck your computer out the window of a moving commuter train.

I even like the start menu. The 'charm bar' is what kills it for me. At least on my HP the trackpad has multitouch-supported drivers that allow me to pull it up with gestures. On my MacBook it's just painful to use.

As far as boot times, put in an SSD and that performance gap disappears. Windows 8 does boot much faster than Windows 7 regardless of hardware though.
 
You can save money by using the Windows 8 upgrade program, and get windows 8 Pro for $15.

Its what I did worked out fine, just pointing out an option
 
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