Microsoft to ease Windows 7 upgrades to netbooks......

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    Microsoft to ease Windows 7 upgrades to netbooks......


    Posted: 24 Oct 2009
    October 22nd, 2009

    Microsoft to ease Windows 7 upgrades to netbooks with USB key solution

    Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:19 am

    Remember the rumors earlier this year that Microsoft was going to deliver Windows 7 on a thumb drive? Well, the rumors were correct — sort of…
    On October 22, Microsoft announced it will enable netbook users who want to upgrade from XP (or Vista) to Windows 7 to use a special version of Windows 7 preloaded on a USB stick.
    (I have no idea whether this has any connection to the rumored “StartKey” project I wrote about back in 2008. StartKey, the way it was originally portrayed to me, was more of an initiative to put Windows and Windows Live settings on a USB stick.)
    Microsoft officials confirmed to News.com that it will make available an online tool, starting on October 22, “that will walk users through the process of moving a downloaded copy of Windows 7 onto a USB drive, be that a memory stick or portable hard drive.”
    More at: Microsoft to ease Windows 7 upgrades to netbooks with USB key solution | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
    Night Hawk's Avatar Posted By: Night Hawk
    24 Oct 2009



  1. Posts : 8,375
    W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
       #1

    The article doesn't point to any premade usb key but explains that MS will provide instructions for something already very familiar to people here on how to go about creating a usb key with the download of 7 for installation purposes. Instead of this being the betas or RCs those who have the finished retail version of 7 being subscribers at MSDN and TechNet have already beeing using this method.

    The usb key method would be the only actual method for any upgrade or clean on a netbook since you don't have any optical drive to work with only usb input. The thing to pay the closest attention to in the article there is...

    Microsoft officials confirmed to News.com that it will make available an online tool, starting on October 22, “that will walk users through the process of moving a downloaded copy of Windows 7 onto a USB drive, be that a memory stick or portable hard drive.”
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 63
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
       #2

    I recieved a dell netbook from Microsoft yesterday with windows 7 ultimate preloaded on it. It also included the disk. No USB key. C'est la vie.

    Snarks
    Last edited by SnarkyTwit; 24 Oct 2009 at 02:35. Reason: Duhh... said usb drive when I meant key
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  3. Posts : 8,375
    W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #3

    7 of course was preinstalled and likely has a recovery parition as well as restoration option there. For a clean upgrade once a netbook is wiped of a Vista installation however MS has decided to provide their own tool probably very close in some ways to UltraISO but only enough to format and make bootable a usb flash drive for the purpose once you purchase 7 electronically at their online store.
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 1,112
    XP_Pro, W7_7201, W7RC.vhd, SciLinux5.3, Fedora12, Fedora9_2x, OpenSolaris_09-06
       #4

    Night Hawk said:
    October 22nd, 2009

    Microsoft to ease Windows 7 upgrades to netbooks with USB key solution

    Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:19 am

    Remember the rumors earlier this year that Microsoft was going to deliver Windows 7 on a thumb drive? Well, the rumors were correct — sort of…
    On October 22, Microsoft announced it will enable netbook users who want to upgrade from XP (or Vista) to Windows 7 to use a special version of Windows 7 preloaded on a USB stick.
    (I have no idea whether this has any connection to the rumored “StartKey” project I wrote about back in 2008. StartKey, the way it was originally portrayed to me, was more of an initiative to put Windows and Windows Live settings on a USB stick.)
    Microsoft officials confirmed to News.com that it will make available an online tool, starting on October 22, “that will walk users through the process of moving a downloaded copy of Windows 7 onto a USB drive, be that a memory stick or portable hard drive.”
    Many thanks to member "Teerex", from Croatia, (and Airbot) for his post here:

    Microsoft tool for installing Windows 7 from USB drive

    who posted this link to capture the file Windows7-USB-DVD-tool.exe from:
    Thanks, Teerex, and Airbot...

    This should help...
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 154
    Windows XP-Pro-SP3, Windows 7
       #5

    I've been building bootable Flash Drives with various programs on them, for some time, using the USB Flash Drive format tool from HP.
    USBFormat.exe - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

    I've not had any reason to try it yet, but I don't see the difference in making a Flash Drive boot to Ghost or Partition Magic or boot to the Windows Setup.
    The only real diff is the size of the Program you're putting on the FD.

    It's a big world and I suspect that someone has already done this and just not reporting it here.

    I have an Acer Aspire ONE, Netbook, with (of course) no CD/DVD drive.
    So I just connected a standard DVD Rom drive via an IDE to USB adapter and loaded Win-7 directly from the boot DVD. Going the Flash Drive route, was not necessary.

    Yes, the netbook will boot from any USB device. I used Partition Magic 8 on a bootable flash drive, to repartition my netbook Hard Drive.
    And Ghost 11.5 on a bootable flash drive to make a Ghost backup Image of my XP OS prior to installing Win-7.

    Using bootable flash drives to run programs on Netbooks, certainly makes life a lot easier.

    Cheers Mates!
    The Doctor
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 202
    Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
       #6

    is it out for download now?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,112
    XP_Pro, W7_7201, W7RC.vhd, SciLinux5.3, Fedora12, Fedora9_2x, OpenSolaris_09-06
       #7

    F1FAN said:
    is it out for download now?
    Did you try the link provided in the above message # 5 ?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 8,375
    W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #8

    It is available and goes on fast! I posted some screens of how that looks and works in post #13 in the thread seen at Microsoft tool for installing Windows 7 from USB drive
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 93
    Windows 7 (Build 7068)
       #9

    Without reading this...simple, get a 4GB USB stick, and use UltraISO to "write" a copy of your DVD (from ISO) to the USB stick using USB+HDD (correct the mode if I am wrong). No need to pay a special price if they do bring a USB edition out, takes like 8 minutes to do if you have a good fast flash stick, and anyone can do it.
      My Computer


 
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