February 8, 201016 yr I feel like an idiot for not being able to figure this out, but Microsoft is not explicitly stating what software you must have in order to use an "upgrade" copy of Windows 7 anywhere that I can find. It appears to me that you need to upgrade from Windows Vista and Windows XP users will need to by a "full" copy of Windows 7. I just can't find this clearly laid out anywhere. So, that's the question. I'm running Windows XP Home 32 bit. Can I use an "upgrade" version or do I need a "full" version of Windows 7? Also, I could get a student discount on the Windows 7 Profesisonal Upgrade. If I can use an upgrade package, can I mix the XP Home I already have and the 7 Professional I could get? Thanks.Hello ESzczesniak,In case you are not aware, it would be also wise to run the Microsoft "Windows Compatibility Advisor" on your current Windows XP to see which of you existing programs and hardware/drivers will work, which may have some "known issues" and which are downright "incompatible" with Win7. Here is the link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows...upgrade-advisorThis installs and runs and then generates a pretty detailed report on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 and its compatibility with many of your installed software and hardware. It may not be "perfect" in its assessment, but will still give you a good idea about what will work. By the way, you can run this whether or not you are doing a clean install or an upgrade. It won't matter. The Windows 7 installation DVD contains ALL THE VERSIONS of Windows 7 as an image. This is very different from the previous versions of Windows which contained only one version on each disk you purchased. With Win7, depending on what "option" you pick to install during your installation and the key that you enter, the correct version of Win 7 is then selected from the installation DVD and setup on your PC.Hope this helps.John I love flying my "iddy biddy Jumbo" CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, socket 775/3GHz/1333MHz bus/6MB cache MOBO: Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP@n/Intel X38 chipset RAM: 4GB Kingston HyperX 1333MHz. rated 7-7-7-20, matched pair (2 x 2GB) GRAPHICS: Sapphire Radeon 5770HD 1GB (w/ fan) MONITOR: Samsung 24", 2494HM LCD wide-screen 1920x1080 SOUND: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS HARD DRIVES: 1xWestern Digital WD1600JD SATA 160GB (primary/Windows XP and system boot drive) 1xWestern Digital WD3200AAJS SATA2 320GB (secondary/Flight Simulator 2004 running off WinXP Pro 32-bit, games video editing drive) 1xWestern Digital 500GB Black series SATA2 (Windows 7 64-bit: FSX is running off Win7; Windows XP Professional 32-bit) CASE: Antec Sonata III 500W OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit for FSX; Windows XP Pro 32-bit for other things.
February 8, 201016 yr I did a clean install of Windows 7 last week using a Windows 7 "Student upgrade" bought legitimately for under Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D Full Tower OS: Window 7 Ultimate 64-bit Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-E CPU: I7 920 @ 4405.1MHz as of 30/06/2011 RAM: Corsair 6Gb CPU Cooler: Corsair H50 PSU: Corsair HX850w SSD OS: Crucial 64GB RealSSD C300 SSD SSD FSX: Crucial 256GB RealSSD C300 SSD Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black 1TB Video Card: Gainward GTX 470 Sound Card: ASUS Xonar D2X And: Case: Corsair 600T OS: Window 7 Ultimate 64-bit Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V Pro CPU: I5 2500K @ 4600MHz RAM: Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 PSU: Antec Truepower 650 SSD OS: Crucial 128GB RealSSD C300 SSD SSD FSX: Crucial 256GB RealSSD M225 SSD Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black 1TB Video Card: 1536MB MSI GTX 580 Twin FrozR II/OC Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Titanium
February 9, 201016 yr And for you guys who are doing the "upgrade" install on a fresh disk I have one suggestion. To save yourself the problems like you had this time doing registry tweaks or double installs. Image your drive after installation, so next time you need to install you can simply re-image the drive and skip all that garbage. Look up Macrium Reflect it's free and works very very nice!
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