Clean install with Windows 7 Upgrade media: How does that work exactly?

Paul has described himself as a complainer. It is his job to pick nits and complain, as he exposes as many of the fine details as possible. This however, does not change the fact that from time to time, the presentation goes through one's head like a nail. Nails on a chalkboard, I tell ya... nails on a chalkboard. Some days I wish he'd spend as much time railing against the move of the reliability monitor out of Computer Management and into the Action Center only - despite leaving all others logs and instrumentation in CM's snap in. The discovery of which was def a Pffft...face palm moment... OT alert: By the by…. Windows 7 is not entirely as compatible with many medical/dental practice management suites as Vista is – despite the two OSs’ similarities and shared driver model. In fact, many can’t use XP Mode to work around incompatibilities – sorry to come OT, but XP and Vista users beware, despite 7’s reported goodness, there is still a lot of work to be done. XP users most especially, are going to be on a very steep ramp that will be nearly as challenging as those experienced by XP to Vista users. Baselines, be they in small business, or busy homes with multiple PC’s are going to be as important as they ever were.

The difference between Vista and 7 with this process is that Vista did _not_ have to be activated before the 2nd install. It appears that from the qualifiers above, the prior OS _must_ be activated, which throws a money wrench into the already discovered process. I totally understand why they are doing this, however it's very inconvenient and not particularly fair to legitimate users.

Upgrade editions have always been a PITA. If I want the convenience of booting of my USB flash drive to start setup, I have no choice but to buy the full version. Imagine the nightware when service packs start coming and they aren't cumulative anymore. 1. Install earlier qualifying OS or Windows 7 itself. 2. Start the real upgrade you want to do from that OS. 3. Install SP1. 4. Install SP2. What's the point of reducing the time setup takes then?

What bugs me about this logic is that anyone like me who installed the Win7 RC will need to reinstall and reactivate their previous OS in order to install their upgrade. I'm guessing that's a large number of us who will be forced to do a second install. It would be nice if we could just have inserted our previous media, but obviously the new "must be activated" requirement gives them a much better test of whether you are actually eligible for upgrade pricing. Too bad we can't just buy a full version at an upgrade price based on proof of previous licensing.

How much more expensive generally is an OEM version of Windows next to an Upgrade version?

>>What sucks is that all this activation crap is a direct result of people not paying for software<< Yeah...bollucks to Linux for giving people the idea that software should be free...

"I'm using 7 RC as my only OS at this point (the laptop came with Vista Home Premium SP1 (OEM)) and it will be a PITA to reinstall Vista " Ya, cuz 15 minutes of your time is really a PITA.... All you need to do is install Vista, add a network driver in, and activate it. Then upgrade. And it takes 15 minutes to install Vista from scratch off the DVD.

I'm wondering if the clean install approach is overrated here. I've found that upgrading has improved with each OS release. For example, I installed Windows 7 RC as an upgrade on top of Vista Ultimate which was also an upgrade from XP. A recipe for disaster you say? I actually worked very well - but of course took longer. After, I tried a clean install of Windows 7 then reinstalled my files and programs. What was the difference in performance? Frankly, it was identical. Also, remember with a clean install, Windows 7 will keep a copy of your files and programs in a folder called windows.old. From here you can simply drag and drop your files into your new folders but you will not be able to do this for programs; these will have to reinstalled manually. After this, you can delete the windows.old files through the disk cleanup tool. So here's what I'm hoping to do: keep running Windows 7 RC (from the clean install and activated) until October then upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. Does anyone think this should work fine?

roblind, I don't think we will be able to upgrade from Win7 RC to Final. Makes sense if the purpose of the activation requirement is to ensure that you are eligible for the upgrade; having an activated RC basically proves nothing except that the Win7 activation system works.

I think a simpler approach would be to allow a clean installation, but upon activation of the new OS, the software should require that you put in your previous disc, along with the old product key. Requiring it AFTER installation allows the user the opportunity to install a network driver, or otherwise establish their internet connection so that Microsoft can check the old product key online to see if the activation matches the current hardware as it would normally. And then just activate the new Windows with the new product key. That would work, in theory anyway, but the big problem is that major OEM's have SLP (system-locked protection) copies of Windows installed that don't require activation by the end user. The method I propose above would only work for retail and generic System Builder installations, which are far less in number than with direct OEM's.

Let's say I have an HP that came with Vista Home Premium 64, and the Recovery partition. But now has Win7 RC on it. Can I just reload the pc from scratch with the recovery image and then use upgrade media for Win7? I don't have a product key or at least I don't know how to find it in the OS? Do I need the Key at this point?

"Let's say I have an HP that came with Vista Home Premium 64, and the Recovery partition. But now has Win7 RC on it. Can I just reload the pc from scratch with the recovery image and then use upgrade media for Win7?" So long as you didn't remove the recovery partition when you installed Windows 7 RTM, yes, although depending on how your recovery partition works, the Windows 7 install may have destroyed your bootloader. Can you hit the Fx-whatever key to still get into the recovery partition? If not, you'll need your OEM discs. "I don't have a product key or at least I don't know how to find it in the OS? Do I need the Key at this point?" Your HP computer would've come with a product key sticker on a certificate of authenticity attached to the side, top, or back of the computer. You don't need the product key for an HP software reinstallation though. If you need to order discs from HP, you just have to have the computer registered, or have the ownership transfered (see my note about Dell though), and give them the serial number and part number on the black and white HP sticker that is attached somewhere on your PC.

It still amazes me that with this possibly corporate image improving release for Microsoft they are still releasing information like it has to be declassified by the NSA/CIA for public release.

I'm not sure why people are making a stink about this. This is why it's called an "UPGRADE EDITION" Buy the full version when it comes out then you don't have to worry about any of these problems.

"Buy the full version when it comes out then you don't have to worry about any of these problems." My opinion is that if you have a computer than can't run Windows Vista already, it's not likely going to run Windows 7 that well, *some* Atom netbooks notwithstanding (I would completely rule out running it on any of the Z-series Atom's - I know - I've tried - it's ugly). Windows Vista users with SP2 (everybody should be on that already) won't notice a big performance increase on an average machine. Are the features worth spending that much on an upgrade if you already own Windows Vista? Honestly, I don't think so. If your computer can't run Windows Vista that well, Windows 7 isn't going to be some kind of miracle-maker either. My advice is to buy a new system that includes it. Most customers probably will anyway. Netbooks that can't run Windows Vista well will still be better suited to Windows 7 Starter, and new netbooks will ship with the new Atom dual-core mobile chips later this year anyway, which is going to be a much better experience with multimedia on Home Premium (HD video isn't workable on existing GMA 950-based machines). So to sum up: Is Windows 7 good? YES Is it better than Vista? YES Is it vastly superior to Vista? IMHO NO, but YMMV. There are unique features that Vista doesn't have that certain folks will like (such as XP Mode) - I like the new deployment refinements ;) Is it worth the upgrade for Windows Vista users? IMHO, not really, unless you can get some kind of deal on the upgrade Is it worth the upgrade for XP users? YES, but only if your computer is at least Vista Premium compliant but you've been holding out on Vista Will it improve your systems performance? NO Will it run on netbooks? YES Will it run faster than Vista? Only on Atom-based netbooks because Vista wasn't optimized for them and XP has much lower requirements than Vista. On mainstream systems, NO, although UI animations have been sped up from Vista so it'll seem faster to move around. There are shortcuts to certain areas (like wireless network connections) that weren't present in Vista, so that may be "faster" from a workflow perspective. Will it run well on all netbooks? IMHO, only N series Atom netbooks Should you wait to buy a netbook? YES - wait for the dual-core processors with HD video support later this year, or else an Ion netbook system now, which are still not widely available (Lenovo S12 Ion is the only one I know of off-hand but it's not due out until close to September, and shortly after the dual-cores will be shipping) Should I wait and just replace my aging computer instead of upgrading it to Windows 7? IMHO if you have an XP-era computer, YES - you'll have a much better experience that way Should you wait to buy a computer until after Windows 7 ships? NO, unless you want a netbook (see my above note - it's more for the hardware than the software). MAKE SURE the system includes the free Windows 7 Upgrade Option though.

So how about those of us running the Windows 7 RC. Is their any scenarios by Microsoft that allows those of us with RC to go from the RC to the final version without having to revert back to Vista? I do have a disk with Vista, incase that was my only option. However, I'd like to see if I could either use the upgrade disk or possibly the anytime upgrade disk to bring the RC up to the final version. Paul, is their any upgrade scenarios for the millions of folks with the RC?

@sub: Because the RC is pre-release code, I would guess not. Grab your copy of Easy Transfer (or USMT), backup, and reinstall Vista. "Can you "upgrade" Vista Ultimate to Win 7 Pro?" Yes.

@whip: Do you mean "upgrade" as in install over top? I don't imagine so, but I don't know, since nobody seems to have any information about how the RTM upgrade media will react. You can, at the very least, do an edition "step-down" AFAIK though, but that may require a clean install....again, there is no clear indication if you can install over top of a trial install of Windows 7. If they actually require that the previously licensed OS be activated, I don't see how that is possible though. Maybe it's possible to get one of those 90-day promotional trial keys and activate the trial with that - I don't know.

@Wae, I have my Vista Ultimate on the previous hard drive ready to go, so all I'd have to do is buy the upgrade disk and upgrade. That was my failsafe plan. I just thought it would be easier to bring the Pre-Release code to RTM code. But I guess not since it was not possible on previous Windows versions. However, I thought since you could upgrade the beta to the RC, they would have a way to upgrade the RC up to RTM. I still haven't gotten an official answer to that question. But assuming that it is possible, I thought Microsoft might throw the RC and Beta testers a bone here and allow us to upgrade or have a discount.

@Waethorn You have come up with some good idea's about how this whole upgrade\clean install could be made easier for users. Putting in the O\S installation disk and product key to verify you have a genuine version of Windows has merit.

" It also means that Microsoft is inflicting this mess---and that's the only word for it---on 98% of the users because of a 2% effect on sales. Nice." Ask one of your friends running Windows when was the last time they had to enter a product key. (I doubt you have any - you've probably converted some of them and killed off the rest.) For 95% of the people, the answer is never.

The problem with needing the old OS install disk is so many OEMs don't include them. Its not like in the Win98 days when you always got a OS disk. Now people either have to burn their own, or worse just have the hidden partition with the system restore on it. Its easy to format the whole drive when doing a clean install, in fact its probably advisable if you think there might be stuff on the computer.

You might be one of those persons, fervently running Windows 7 on their day-to-day laptop (like me) and