im a college student so i am looking into buying windows 7 for $30 through win741.com . I was just about to order it when it offers me an upgrade dvd instead of a full windows 7 dvd. can I still install windows using the upgrade dvd through boot camp?
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Can I install Windows 7 with an upgrade cd?
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balamw
Moderator emeritus
EDIT: For anyone just joining us and reading the thread from the top:
Here are some of the guides/articles that have been published around this topic after the retail release of Windows 7 in upgrade packages.
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
http://www.maximumpc.com/print/8663
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1505&tag=content;col1
So most of the time you are physically able to use upgrade media to install on a machine where Windows is not currently installed, whether you are properly licensed remains a separate matter.
B
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We will only know for sure when these things ship. The deal is through the end of the year so you have plenty of time to stil take advantage of it.
There was a workaround for Vista that involved installing it twice, but this method has apparently been eliminated in 7. Apparently the upgrade editions will require a currently installed, and activated copy of XP or Vista as verification of upgrade eligibility.
B
Here are some of the guides/articles that have been published around this topic after the retail release of Windows 7 in upgrade packages.
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
http://www.maximumpc.com/print/8663
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1505&tag=content;col1
So most of the time you are physically able to use upgrade media to install on a machine where Windows is not currently installed, whether you are properly licensed remains a separate matter.
B
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We will only know for sure when these things ship. The deal is through the end of the year so you have plenty of time to stil take advantage of it.
There was a workaround for Vista that involved installing it twice, but this method has apparently been eliminated in 7. Apparently the upgrade editions will require a currently installed, and activated copy of XP or Vista as verification of upgrade eligibility.
B
interesting. I was looking on the windows website and it said something about doing a custom installation over an upgrade. So I thought maybe it will be possible to do that? Not sure. But thanks for your input!
I actually was able to do this last night. It wasn't on my mac, but on another pc. It wasn't the exact procedure that everyone is talking about, but I still think it will work.
I had used an older AIO Windows 7 CD that I had since RTM was leaked. I used it to do the install. It installed and then came up saying that it was not genuine, yada yada yada. I then took my upgrade DVD (bought through university) inserted it, chose upgrade. It took about an hour, but when it was all said and done, it allowed me to activate using the upgrade key.
I know that this isn't exactly the same thing as using the upgrade cd to do the original install, but I bet it will work just the same. I'm waiting on my second copy to come in to try it using the upgrade cd for both installs.
I had used an older AIO Windows 7 CD that I had since RTM was leaked. I used it to do the install. It installed and then came up saying that it was not genuine, yada yada yada. I then took my upgrade DVD (bought through university) inserted it, chose upgrade. It took about an hour, but when it was all said and done, it allowed me to activate using the upgrade key.
I know that this isn't exactly the same thing as using the upgrade cd to do the original install, but I bet it will work just the same. I'm waiting on my second copy to come in to try it using the upgrade cd for both installs.
balamw
Moderator emeritus
Thanks for the update. Did you activate the install from the AIO disc before doing the upgrade? Did you try from the upgrade DVD directly?
The details are in the yada yada ... ;-)
Here are some instructions on building your own AIO DVD. http://www.windowsvalley.com/blog/c...erge-all-editions-of-windows-7-in-single-dvd/
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balamw
Moderator emeritus
Circumventing technological lockouts does not always mean illegal.
Many of us have existing legal copies of Vista and do not want to be forced to do an upgrade install to Windows 7 if there is a technological means of performing a clean install with the legally obtained upgrade media or upgrade keys. If nothing else this is useful to know for when those of us who upgrade legally to Windows 7 would like to reinstall down the path.
Also for the student $29 Windows 7 deals the only way you find out it is an upgrade is in the really fine print. http://www.win741.com can you find out where it says anything other than "Buy Window 7 for $29" i.e. something explicit like "Upgrade to Windows 7 for $29".
B
I never did any activation on the AIO cd. Suprisingly the very first time that it booted up completely, it somehow knew that it wasn't genuine. Wierd, that I used the same cd on my laptop from when it first came out and it is still going strong with no genuine notifications. It must be from some updates that were automatically downloaded during installation. I was like...whoa...microsoft is getting better at this.
But I digress, I have a legal copy of vista, and upgrade 7. hopefully, it will work just like it did with the AIO. Report back and let us know how it goes.
But I digress, I have a legal copy of vista, and upgrade 7. hopefully, it will work just like it did with the AIO. Report back and let us know how it goes.
masse
macrumors 6502a
That's how they got me. I assumed, wow, just like snow leopard I can pay $30 for the OS. So I buy it and download it without paying attention to anything (like an idiot). Why isn't it an ISO? This is an upgrade? I need to reinstall XP to download it? It's ****ing stupid.
175170
Cancelled
balamw
Moderator emeritus
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)
Even Microsoft learns from its mistakes. They have made an ISO available, I've posted the direct link in other threads.
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Even Microsoft learns from its mistakes. They have made an ISO available, I've posted the direct link in other threads.
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balamw
Moderator emeritus
By now it is generally confirmed that pretty much any copy of Windows can be installed clean using a wide variety of methods, the easiest of which seems to be similar to Vista. Custom Install once without entering a product key, and then do an in-place upgrade of Windows 7 on top of that unactivated one.
The version you linked to substitutes the registry hack/slmgr for the second install.
EDIT: I updated my first post in the thread in case anyone is reading from the top.
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balamw
Moderator emeritus
Thurrott's article is pretty good in that it gives you three options none of whic are mutually exclusive. http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
If the first one doesn't work, I'd jump straight to the last just 'cause I don't want my registry tweaking to mess up what is supposed to be a clean install.
B
His first method seems easy enough. The question is will it work with boot camp? When he says to insert the windows 7 dvd and boot the computer from the dvd, would that be the same step for when you insert the windows dvd when installing through boot camp?
balamw
Moderator emeritus
Insert the DVD.
Restart the Mac.
Hold Option down during boot to select the DVD.
Press any Key when prompted to by the Windows DVD.
Follow the rest of Thurrott's process.
B
Please read the WinSuperSite carefully and also listen to the most recent Windows Weekly podcast with Leo and Paul. He talks about this very issue and why it is NOT illegal to do what he has posted on his site. Also he said MS is killing their PR by making it so cumbersome to follow all the "upgrade" install process.
One CRITICAL point he makes in the podcast is almost EVERYONE has a copy of Windows that either came with their PC at some point or they got long ago. If it's XP or Vista, you qualify no matter what. In other words, you bought a copy at some point. I won't go into more detail, but PLEASE listen to that podcast as it explains a lot on his workaround on the WinSuperSite and why MS should know all this.
Yep that works.
First try to install by input your serial number as it states. If that doesn't work, try the other options listed on his article at WinSuperSite.
Thanks for all of your help. I'm going to order the upgrade material and see what happens.
DDar
macrumors 6502
Would I do this before, or AFTER I've made a partition with bootcamp?
Also, what do you mean by "hold option down"? Is there like an option key or something?
So, this means I can install Windows 7 onto Bootcamp without having to install Vista first, right?
This is my first time installing an OS onto my MBP, so I thought I'd just go straight ahead with Windows 7 since I never got around to installing my Vista CD... A clean install would be so much better than a dirty one... (Been having alot of problems with my dirty install of Snow Leopard...)
balamw
Moderator emeritus
Correct. After you have a place to install Windows to, repartition with Boot Camp Assistant, or just manually in Disk Utility.
The "option" key is usually found between the "control" and "command" keys on the bottom row of the keyboard. "option" is also labeled "alt".
Yes. The goal is a clean install of 7 without Vista or any other Windows OS.
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tardman91
macrumors 65816
I read the article and it seems simple enough. I want to install windows 7 on the MBP I'm getting this week using parallels. My questions is, I have upgrade DVDs that I got in the mail for my free upgrade with my HP PC that I bought over the summer. Can I use those same DVDs to do a clean install on my Mac? I've already used the product key on my HP. Will I run into problems?
I wanted to buy the $29 student deal, but was ticked when I saw it was only an upgrade. Very misleading by Microsoft.