Windows 7 Question of the Year, Answered? (No. Updated.)

Does anybody know if you can modify the EI.CFG file to create an Upgrade disc? Or convert an Upgrade disc to Full Version?

I just heard Ballmer say on Engadget that MS is gonna do hardware and software together, because that would bring innovation. OMFG? Does this guy really live in the past? HELLO??? Apple has been doing this for ages.

According to what some are writing, VLK media (which is upgrade-only) is not bootable whatsoever. That means you can't install on a blank drive. I'm curious to know if you could run it from a Windows PE bootable disc tho.... Does Windows PE identify itself as being activated or not? Or is that completely stripped out of PE?

@Waethorn: is right here!!

You can't use a blank drive for upgrading, that is why it is called upgrading, even Apple doesn't allow this. But I just got my $30 Professional upgrade for my desktop, and all I had was win 7 RC on it and I used custom install from the set up folder and it worked fine, you can custom install and have a clean install.

I thought you could use the upgrade disc with a clean hd, but then it prompts you to insert the Dell cd for example?

Well then danieldecker that defeats calling it a upgrade disc then. I repeat you have to have a windows OS on your system, XP, Vista, 7RC, to upgrade, but you do not have to use the upgrade option, you can use custom install which will place the old windows into a folder called windows.old which has all the info of the old machine. Which you can use to restore certain files and such then delete it afterwords. You get the benefits of a clean install without having to format the entire harddrive.

"how dare you try to install your properly licensed operating system the same way it's been done for 20 yrs, how stupid are you?" You mean by using the wrong disc with a mismatched serial number? Go ahead and show proof to your false claim. You can't, so STFU. "I just got my $30 Professional upgrade for my desktop, and all I had was win 7 RC on it and I used custom install from the set up folder and it worked fine" Upgrading from the RC is actually a supported option (as a Custom Upgrade, not in-place). "The Snow Leopard Upgrade disc has been PROVEN time and again as being able to install on a blank drive without providing verification of a Leopard Install. Really, please, get the facts straight." There's a reason for this: Apple makes enough money on their overpriced hardware to compensate for any loss in profit from software. They deal with copy protection on a trust issue. Mackies favour themselves as being more honest and less likely to pirate software, so if you buy the $30 piece of software illegitimately against Apple's trust, then you're just making yourself look bad by misrepresenting the Apple iMage(TM). If Apple ever decides to implement a copy protection method in their software beyond not allowing it to be installed on hardware other than their own, I'll just laugh. Regardless, they already fleeced you out of your hard-earned cash. "I thought you could use the upgrade disc with a clean hd, but then it prompts you to insert the Dell cd for example?" Not anymore. The previous option didn't have any way of confirming the existance of a legitimate Windows installation that's valid for an upgrade. The only way to do that is to confirm a running copy of Windows on the machine that is fully activated. A custom install works just fine, and is still a clean-running Windows on completion. Aside from moving existing files into the Windows.old folder, the only difference is that an upgrade doesn't modify partitions to create a separate System partition to hold the Windows BCD, which is the norm with a stock Windows 7 clean install. I could never find a lot of information from Microsoft as to why they would go this route. The System partition is hidden, so maybe it's to maintain a higher integrity of the BCD, I have no idea. All I know is that this is the way they do it on GPT disks (supported by EFI on IA-64, or UEFI on x86-64 architecture).

Microsoft said on the phone, that in the past they had customers running to their neighbors, borrowing a XP cd to put in during installation of the upgrade-vista. To prevent that, they now insist on an upgrade over a working OS. Brilliant... So again, I am better off with some cracked corporate versions and have fewer problems with that compared to a legally paid license... That’s just wrong. What if my hard disc crashes in the future? Do I have to order the vista restore-discs from ASUS just to install my fully paid windows 7? > Using a product key for a disc that doesn't match is completely your fault. > You never were able to use a upgrade key with a full retail copy With windows 7, you can install with any win7 media, select the proper version (home, pro, ultimate...) and enter the corresponding CD Key afterwards. So RTFM yourself :-) > but blowing away old partitions without copying them is always risky. Remember, it was a crappy preinstallation vista with loads of ad-ware and tryout software which I never would have installed anyway. Why make a backup of ad-ware-junk? @gfryesc1: nice 8-)

"Macs are for 10 yr old kids, Macs are secretly manufactured by Disney :)" Lol !! Which is true in a way !! :D

@jimotr : NOOO!!! Just format your Disk and install Windows 7 Upgrade... thats it...

"Mac is manufactured by Apple, a property of Microsoft... I mean which belong to Microsoft... " Erico has to be the most delusional and ill-informed guy on the planet... In that case should just go to one of Apple board and ask to shut down the whole thing, like Dell once suggested 8 yrs ago or so... !!

"What if my hard disc crashes in the future? Do I have to order the vista restore-discs from ASUS just to install my fully paid windows 7?" Yes. But you should've have blown away your recovery partition ahead of time. That would've saved time reinstalling your Vista copy for future reinstalls. "With windows 7, you can install with any win7 media, select the proper version (home, pro, ultimate...) and enter the corresponding CD Key afterwards." Nope. Doesn't work with upgrades. Only full installs. "Remember, it was a crappy preinstallation vista with loads of ad-ware and tryout software which I never would have installed anyway. Why make a backup of ad-ware-junk?" When you do a custom install, none of that software propogates to the upgrade, so it wouldn't matter. You would have a Windows.old folder with all of those files that you could just safely delete. That's why.

I just listened to Twit live with Paul and Leo and they both said that the upgrade disc will do a full install. I'll know for sure when I try mine.

@Del: Upgrades have to be launched from within the prior version of Windows, and that Windows version has to be a) legit, and b) activated. That's it. You can still do a "clean" install, but it has to be launched from the previous OS. If your system doesn't come with discs for reinstalling the existing Windows installation, you should NOT delete the recovery partition whatsoever. When you do a custom install, the contents of the existing installation (drive C: is what it should be) will be moved to Windows.old - THAT INCLUDES YOUR DATA, if there is any. You have to reinstall your other applications, games, and other software. Do that, then copy any potential data out of C:\Windows.OLD\Documents & Settings\(in the case of XP), or C:\Windows.OLD\Users\ (in the case of Vista) into the respective folders from the root of C:\, or else use Windows Easy Transfer at the start and save yourself some time and headache if you don't understand what I'm talking about. Once you have Windows 7 installed and all of the possible stuff in the Windows.OLD folder is copied out of it, you can delete it. So long as you left the recovery partition intact, you should still be able to hit F10/F11/whatever to boot into that partition and reinstall your old OS prior to reinstalling Windows 7 Upgrade again. There are very few instances where Windows 7's BCD interferes with a pre-existing recovery partition, so sometimes it is a good idea to have the discs on hand. The other advantage with having discs for reinstalling is that you can save on the space by nuking the recovery partition, but subsequent reinstalls will be slower (CD's/DVD's are slower than just copying from one partition on your hard drive to another). Regardless of what you have on the system prior to install, if you do a custom install, the resultant Windows 7 installation is clean. Your hard drive may not be, but all the old crap is safely isolated in Windows.old, and the Windows 7 installation won't migrate any programs over when you choose the custom option, as programs are also moved into Windows.OLD\Program Files What you do with your recovery partition is your own choice - delete it for extra space, or leave it and make future reinstalls faster. Up to you. Just make sure you have reinstall DVD's for the original software before you blow it away. FYI: As I already said: I believe you can do a custom upgrade install from the RC, as I read somewhere that Microsoft said that was going to be supported. That's a hint, people.

WH Tech it is an upgrade digital media and it works fine, you don't need an ISO for that it runs from within the old operating system, I came directly from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 Pro fine with it, and it works fine, you double click it say custom install and away you go.

"Not manufactured by Disney!!... Mac is manufactured by Apple, a property of Microsoft... I mean which belong to Microsoft... How much share of Apple is owned by Microsoft exactly??" Oh, isn't that cute! Mr. "All your base are belong to us" is back with his fractured English to make another ridiculous claim. Here are the facts, Homer: Microsoft's investment of 150,000 shares of non-voting Apple stock were sold off years ago. They did, for a time, own a miniscule percentage of Apple stock through a Private Capital Management fund that no longer invests in Apple stock. Microsoft owns 0% of Apple.

Wae, I have the Dell Vista Business Restore DVD, but I beleive the recovery partition is blown away. ANd I am running the Win7 RC1. So, I'll do the customer install for the .old folder. Would be nice if I could just blow everythign away and be prompted to put the Vista cd when prompted like it use to be.

I downloaded Win7 Pro 32bit from Digital River (UK student edition) this morning, and got a 32bit 'upgrade' key by email. It took me ten minutes to follow the many instructions and convert the .exe to an ISO. I have a test laptop which was installed with RC (build 7100). I've just placed the 32bit ISO disc into the drive and booted from it, and from the Windows setup deleted all partitions on the hard drive before installing completely fresh. I used the 32bit 'upgrade' key from the email I received this morning and all installed fine. Now the only reservation I have on this is that I haven't ACTIVATED this copy yet, as this isn't the machine that I want this licence on, but I'll try that a desktop - hopefully tomorrow if I find the time. I don't THINK this will be a problem though, as upgrade key problems usually exhibit at key entry, rather than activation, don't they? I've used the 'double install' method to successfully install Vista from an upgrade disc before, so I know how that works. With my install this evening, that was NOT NECESSARY. Also, most opinions I've seen online is that "all DVD's and ISOs are the same, regardless of version". Well I'm sorry, but this cannot be true. I ordered Professional, and when I installed it, that's what I got, and the installer had identified itself as Professional long before I put any key in. Of course retail copies might be different, but this is the case for the DR student editions.

@ lotsamystuff: Ho! I thought that microsoft was still shares of Apple... Sorry! My error! Also, I wonder if you could be more unpleasant with me? Esti de mangeux de graines... lotsagay...

I think what Paul wants to know is if you can simply do a clean install from booting from the disc, with no OS on the drive already, and skip the step of having to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 7 when you're done. In my case I have RC1, but I want to be able to boot to disc, reformat that partition RC1 is on, and then be able to use my Upgrade Key without having to upgrade 7 again for the key to work. I know people keep saying you can do a custom install, but that is without booting from disc, which creates the Windows.old folder. Smart people don't want that, we WANT to wipe our drive clean and remove ANY clutter, and have no Windows.old folder when all done. Make sense?

Waethorn said: "What is friggin' harddrive based installer??" "An executable (.EXE) program file." Ho! Shit They give Windows Student in a EXE file... Noo!! Come on... WE need an iso...

"I'm fairly certain the student Upgrade 29.99 deal is RETAIL not VLK. " Student versions sold through "The Ultimate Steal" are retail, but they're an upgrade only. They are not full versions. VLK is short for "Volume License Key/Kit". That's what businesses buy. "So people who opted for the disc got BOOTABLE media" What I was saying is that if the retail upgrade works the same as the VLK versions, it isn't bootable either, so no, they didn't.

@redunion1940 I realize this, yes - and know how to delete it. But Paul knows this too. But when Paul says clean install, he means reformatting the drive before installing Windows 7. The type of install you speak of does NOT reformat your drive. I realize all you have to do is delete Windows.Old, but you never actually reformat your drive. Paul knows this is the case, but his opinion is that EVERYONE should do a true clean install and REFORMAT your drive. Prior to Paul's posting today he documents the option to still do this with Windows 7 Upgrade media using the same Vista trick he links in tis blog post. But it's a pain. Paul here, is hoping that you can actually USE your UPGRADE KEY to activate a TRUE REFORMAT or Clean 0% containing Previous OS aka "Cleaan Install" and avoid Upgrading 7 to 7 when you're done.

Dam this is funny. Its launch day and we still dont knwo this? @redunion1940 the snow leopard DVD will upgrade anything, or at least I know that it will upgrade Tiger, Leopard or a blank drive. The "family pack" or "Single upgrade" media is exactly the same. There is no key. There is one version.