Windows 7 OEM version?

[CDH]

Okay - here's the problem. My employer offers site-licenses that give me a Windows 7 Pro upgrade for a home computer. I had a computer running Windows XP, used the upgrade (which of course did a "clean" installation because there is no direct XP->7 path). Now that it is installed the system claims the installation code won't work "because it is only valid for an upgrade." Under the old Microsoft system one verified the upgrade with the disc media or product installation code from your previous version. Clearly that isn't the case for Windows 7.

The office tech support folks bascially say "whoops", and their work-around is for them to give me a version of Vista, of which I'd have to do a clean install, then use the disc they gave me before to upgrade that Vista install to Windows 7 - very convoluted and time-consuming.

The alternative is to break down and pay for a full license version of Windows 7 Pro which runs $300 retail (annoying when one can buy a budget desktop with Windows 7 Pro for just over $400).

Anyway, I see on Pricegrabber that there are many places offering "OEM" versions of Windows 7 Professional for as little as half the price.

Does anyone have experience with those? Would I be able to buy one of those and use the Installation code to validate my current Windows 7 installation?

There is also a place claiming to have "full" versions of Windows 7 professional for $180 - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional FULL Version - $179.00 : Special Discount And Free Shipping

Anyone have any experience with something like that? The site seems pretty fly-by-night.

CDH.

 

[diogen]

When tech support says "Whoops!" does it mean they screwed up and it wasn't suppose to work or they have no clue why and won't look into it?

Upgrade license should work on clean install.

What brand box do you have?

Diogen.

 

[meStevo]

With OEM you get no support from MS (as it's intended for those who build computers) and you can't install it on multiple machines (albeit one at a time), just the first one it's installed on and then that's it. It's all I ever buy for my machines, just built a machine for my wife and used Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - Operating Systems.. Full versions also contain both the 32 and 64bit, OEM you have to order one or the other specifically.

You may still have some options though, but I haven't tried it myself and just went with a legit OEM version. http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

Haven't read that article, you may still be stuck because you're on XP, but poke around, you may be able to still use your upgrade.

 

[CDH]

When tech support says "Whoops!" does it mean they screwed up and it wasn't suppose to work or they have no clue why and won't look into it?

Upgrade license should work on clean install.

What brand box do you have?

Diogen.

Office tech support says the license won't work for the clean install (which is what Windows itself says when I enter the license code: "this license is only valid for an upgrade", or something similar). They acknowledge that they screwed up, but their solution means me backing up all my files again, installing Vista, upgrading the Vista install to 7 and then reinstalling data and applications.

Could be that the upgrade version they have is only supposed to go on top of Vista? (I have a friend who had a similar issue when trying to install a free upgrade they received from MS - they backed up data and tried to do a free Windows 7 install but the license key wouldn't work so they had to reinstall Vista and then "upgrade" it. It took him several hours.)

I'm using a Dell Dimension E520 series - from early Vista era but I only had XP on it and it works great with Windows 7.

CDH.

 

[CDH]

You may still have some options though, but I haven't tried it myself and just went with a legit OEM version. http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

Haven't read that article, you may still be stuck because you're on XP, but poke around, you may be able to still use your upgrade.

Thanks a lot!

This looks like EXACTLY the information I was looking for. I'm going to try the "Method 3" and see if it works (hoping it won't make me reinstall applications because I already used the Office 2007 key and I don't want to be locked out of using that on this PC).

CDH.

 

[CDH]

Their Method 3 (doing a second "upgrade" installation over the top of the existing Windows 7 installation) worked. It took about 2 hours (compared to the original 30-40 minutes of a clean installation), but preserved all data, applications, and settings, and most importantly finally allowed me to activate Windows.

It also appears to me that this method should allow anyone to use Windows 7 upgrade license/media with an unactivated upgrade key to do a clean install of Windows 7 on any system.

Thank you thank you!

CDH.

 

[meStevo]

Their Method 3 (doing a second "upgrade" installation over the top of the existing Windows 7 installation) worked. It took about 2 hours (compared to the original 30-40 minutes of a clean installation), but preserved all data, applications, and settings, and most importantly finally allowed me to activate Windows.

It also appears to me that this method should allow anyone to use Windows 7 upgrade license/media with an unactivated upgrade key to do a clean install of Windows 7 on any system.

Thank you thank you!

CDH.

Sweet, glad it worked out!

 

[JAG72]

It also appears to me that this method should allow anyone to use Windows 7 upgrade license/media with an unactivated upgrade key to do a clean install of Windows 7 on any system.

This was also the same method that you had to use if you wanted to Upgrade to Vista but with a clean installation.

 

[CDH]

This was also the same method that you had to use if you wanted to Upgrade to Vista but with a clean installation.

I skipped Vista, but I understand that is true. Interestingly it seems that anyone could potentially buy just an upgrade license and use this method to do an install on a newly-built PC, for example. Not an issue for me since I was doing a legal upgrade from XP, but still interesting none-the-less.

CDH.

 

[diogen]

This issue was raised with Microsoft about Vista shortly after it was discovered.
MS not only never made a move to plug this hole with Vista, it left it even in Win7.

Diogen.

 

[meStevo]

Yeah, basically honor system.

 

[mike123abc]

It probably has not been closed since it is a real pain to fix computers if you first have to install XP then install vista. MS probably figures they have most the computers shipped with a windows license anyways. Even if you are working around OEM, the OEM is the same cost as the upgrade anyways so they are not really out any money.

 

[maxmoto]

from my experience you need to start the win7 upgrade from within xp do not boot from the dvd. that is when it should ask for the key.

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