Know this about a Windows 7 Upgrade

Frank Jr. · Oct 23, 2009

rockymtnhigh said:
I had purchased a Windows 7 Professional upgrade for my Quad Core Desktop, which is currently running Vista Home Premium. I put the DVD in the drive and started the upgrade. Windows informed me I could only do a clean install from Home Premium to W7 Pro. There is absolutely nothing on the W7 package that says that, but I confirmed it online.

Very irritating. I am not in the mood to do a complete cleansing of the computer, and just wanted to do the upgrade. What I have learned is that you can only do Version to Version upgrades, unless you are upgrading to Ultimate (then it would apparently be ok). Otherwise, you need to use the clean install route.

As a result, for the time being I have a Professional update set (which I now cannot return to Amazon since I opened the package), that is a $99 waste of money.

I'll probably just put it on the classifieds and try to unload it for about $85 or $90, to recoup most of my investment.

Damn that is a p*sser. Mine will be premium to premium. After you simmer down for a while you may want to go ahead and install it. What a PIA that is though. Hang in there!

tigerfan33 · Oct 23, 2009

How much RAM do you need to run Windows 7?

rockymtnhigh · Oct 23, 2009

tigerfan33 said:
How much RAM do you need to run Windows 7?

I don't know. I have 4GB on my new W7 laptop. But I think 2GB is the minimum, but I could be wrong.

rockymtnhigh · Oct 23, 2009

Another irritant -- tried to setup my wife's printer with my laptop; no go. HP has not released drivers yet. Its not like they have NOT had access to the betas and release candidates.

JAG72 · Oct 23, 2009

rockymtnhigh said:
I had purchased a Windows 7 Professional upgrade for my Quad Core Desktop, which is currently running Vista Home Premium. I put the DVD in the drive and started the upgrade. Windows informed me I could only do a clean install from Home Premium to W7 Pro. There is absolutely nothing on the W7 package that says that, but I confirmed it online.

Very irritating. I am not in the mood to do a complete cleansing of the computer, and just wanted to do the upgrade. What I have learned is that you can only do Version to Version upgrades, unless you are upgrading to Ultimate (then it would apparently be ok). Otherwise, you need to use the clean install route.

As a result, for the time being I have a Professional update set (which I now cannot return to Amazon since I opened the package), that is a $99 waste of money.

I'll probably just put it on the classifieds and try to unload it for about $85 or $90, to recoup most of my investment.

W7 Pro is pretty much a waste unless you need to join your computer to a domain or want automatic data backup to a server.

JAG72 · Oct 23, 2009

Right now one of the best upgrade deals retail is the W7 Premium Family Pack. You can upgrade 3 computers for a total of $150.

JAG72 · Oct 23, 2009

tigerfan33 said:
How much RAM do you need to run Windows 7?

1GB for 32 bit and 2GB for 64 bit.

DodgerKing · Oct 23, 2009

Not a waste if you can get free copies...

Pepper · Oct 23, 2009

rockymtnhigh said:
I had purchased a Windows 7 Professional upgrade for my Quad Core Desktop, which is currently running Vista Home Premium. I put the DVD in the drive and started the upgrade. Windows informed me I could only do a clean install from Home Premium to W7 Pro. There is absolutely nothing on the W7 package that says that, but I confirmed it online.

Very irritating. I am not in the mood to do a complete cleansing of the computer, and just wanted to do the upgrade. What I have learned is that you can only do Version to Version upgrades, unless you are upgrading to Ultimate (then it would apparently be ok). Otherwise, you need to use the clean install route.

As a result, for the time being I have a Professional update set (which I now cannot return to Amazon since I opened the package), that is a $99 waste of money.

I'll probably just put it on the classifieds and try to unload it for about $85 or $90, to recoup most of my investment.

interesting. Here's a possible upgrade path, untested by me but who knows it might work. If you have a good image backup it's worth a shot.
- copy the content of your DVD to a folder
- delete sources\ei.cfg - (interesting fact: all retail discs are the same and contain all editions, with the exception of this one file which determines what edition to install, with it gone you will be able to choose the one you want)
- run setup
- choose to upgrade to home premium.
- don't enter a key.
- once it's finished run setup again. upgrade to Pro.
- put in your key, activate, done!

For what it's worth, Ultimate is only $20 more than Pro, not quite the ridiculous extra cost it used to be. Worth it to avoid this hassle, plus you get bitlocker and can install additional languages.

rockymtnhigh · Oct 23, 2009

Pepper said:
interesting. Here's a possible upgrade path, untested by me but who knows it might work. If you have a good image backup it's worth a shot.
- copy the content of your DVD to a folder
- delete sources\ei.cfg - (interesting fact: all retail discs are the same and contain all editions, with the exception of this one file which determines what edition to install, with it gone you will be able to choose the one you want)
- run setup
- choose to upgrade to home premium.
- don't enter a key.
- once it's finished run setup again. upgrade to Pro.
- put in your key, activate, done!

For what it's worth, Ultimate is only $20 more than Pro, not quite the ridiculous extra cost it used to be. Worth it to avoid this hassle, plus you get bitlocker and can install additional languages.

That is interesting, no idea if it would work. But I am not willing to risk trashing my existing setup, at least not right now.

I also realize that I probably did not need Pro; the differences are minor for sure; I just wish I had realized all of this BEFORE I opened that box. I could have returned it to Amazon.

Out of curiosity on my new laptop I went into the upgrade anytime to see what they are charging to go from HP to Pro. $85. A bit high if you ask me.

JAG72 · Oct 23, 2009

rockymtnhigh said:
Out of curiosity on my new laptop I went into the upgrade anytime to see what they are charging to go from HP to Pro. $85. A bit high if you ask me.

Just another way to get more money out of businesses that need the one extra feature.

rockymtnhigh · Oct 23, 2009

JAG72 said:
Just another way to get more money out of businesses that need the one extra feature.

Yeah, absolutely.

One other piece of information on the original topic: once I realized Pro was out, I pulled one of the two copies of Home Premium I have, and the setup did work - but it told me to deauthorize itunes, and uninstall Windows Mobile Device Center, the ATI Catalyst Control Center, and three or four other things -- some of which were specific to the desktop's configuration; ofcourse if I do what they suggest, I'll need to be able to find the original install software. That will probably slow me down upgrading for a bit, as I am not sure where half of that stuff is.

Pepper · Oct 23, 2009

ok then, *if* you have not activated it yet, you could probably just upgrade what you have to professional and be where you originally wanted to be, then just use that copy of home premium where you originally intended.

you might want to check the websites for those things it complained about and see if there is a newer version available, might be easier than hunting down old files.

BuddyBoy · Oct 24, 2009

rockymtnhigh said:
Another irritant -- tried to setup my wife's printer with my laptop; no go. HP has not released drivers yet. Its not like they have NOT had access to the betas and release candidates.

What printer do you have? Just because there are no drivers to download doesn't mean the printer isn't usable in WIndows 7. For example, HP hasn't released a driver package for the OfficeJet 6500, but Windows 7 comes with a basic printer driver for it that allows me to print. If I want to scan, I either go into an XP virtual machine that has the entire driver package installed, or do a web scan.

meStevo · Oct 24, 2009

Yeah there are a ton of drivers available via Windows Update.

rockymtnhigh · Oct 24, 2009

Pepper said:
ok then, *if* you have not activated it yet, you could probably just upgrade what you have to professional and be where you originally wanted to be, then just use that copy of home premium where you originally intended.

you might want to check the websites for those things it complained about and see if there is a newer version available, might be easier than hunting down old files.

Not cheap at all to upgrade vista to a higher version and then the W7 upgrade.

rockymtnhigh · Oct 24, 2009

BuddyBoy said:
What printer do you have? Just because there are no drivers to download doesn't mean the printer isn't usable in WIndows 7. For example, HP hasn't released a driver package for the OfficeJet 6500, but Windows 7 comes with a basic printer driver for it that allows me to print. If I want to scan, I either go into an XP virtual machine that has the entire driver package installed, or do a web scan.

I still find it annoying that they haven't released drivers yet, but I also did not spend a lot of time on this issue last night. And will pursue other options.

mike123abc · Oct 24, 2009

I bought 6 of the Professional upgrades when they were $99 in June. I went to a Microsoft event and snagged 2 of the Ultimate for free (well there was a $49 facility fee).

I wanted the professional/ultimate for the XP mode. I finally should be able to get rid of XP. I use ultimate on the laptops to get the bitlocker.

When I build machines I usually put ultimate on them since the price difference on OEM is not that large.

If you need a bunch of upgrades you might consider the enterprise version, at least then you get 4 VM licenses per license if you want to set up VMs.

diogen · Oct 24, 2009

BuddyBoy said:
Just because there are no drivers to download doesn't mean the printer isn't usable in WIndows 7.

The very first (beta) Windows 7 install wasn't printing to an Lexmark Optra E310 (10 years old) printer, was refusing every driver I tried.
Until I tried the Windows 2000 PostScript driver - that worked...

This won't work with PCL5/6. But PostScript is a universal language and if your printer understands it, you should be able to find a driver.
Anybody remembers the time when Sun Microsystems was making printers? Those would print any legit PostScript stream... and nothing else.

Diogen.

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