The full version will create the "Windows.old" folder even when no previous installation is present during the install. If you see one created with the upgrade media or full version you can rename it to "Windows Personal" for use as a backup/storage folder.
Where would one look for the "Windows.old" folder? I can`t seem to locate it anywhere on the system drive. I did a "custom install" of Windows 7 home premium x64 full version (retail) on a drive that had Vista home premium x64. During the install process I deleted the Vista partitian then created a new partition plus format.
The easiest way and the most trouble-free to do a clean install is to buy the full version :P
And, that, I will do! ...once I have the money.
The easiet way is to pay attention to the MS announcement linked in the article there that easily sums things up.
Microsoft SMB Community Blog
Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know.
First, the feedback, excitement, etc. we’ve been seeing since the launch of Windows 7 last week has been phenomenal! Thank you to all of you for providing your feedback to us to let us know how your Windows 7 experience is going.
Unfortunately, it looks like it is time to have this conversation again though. Over the past several days there have been various posts, etc. across a variety of social media engines stating that some “hack” (be it a person or a procedure) shows that a Windows 7 Upgrade disc can perform a “clean” installation of Windows 7 on a blank drive from a technical perspective. Of course, from the posts I saw, they often forgot to mention a very basic, yet very important piece of information… “Technically possible” does not always mean legal. Let me explain what I mean:
Here are some very basic facts:
To put it simply, here is a graphical representation of what this means:
- When you purchase software, you are purchasing the rights to run the software according to the terms of the End User License Agreement (EULA) that comes with that software.
- When you install that software, you are agreeing to the terms included in the EULA you purchased.
- a. For instance, in the Windows 7 EULA it states, “By using the software, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the software. Instead, return it to the retailer for a refund or credit.”
- When you purchase an Upgrade license, the included EULA states that you must already own a qualifying full license to upgrade from in order to use the Upgrade license, hence the term “Upgrade.”
- a. For instance, in the Windows 7 EULA it states, “To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligible for the upgrade.”
You can see the images and read through the rest of that at http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/arc...d-to-know.aspx
Getting back to you, pat247, you may or may not end up finding the Windows.old folder when performing a clean install of 7. But with the clean install of the RCs and just this week the retail 7 full version of Ultimate being the edition the Windows.old was simply found empty as expected at the root of C and was renamed "Windows Personal" for consideration of the Windows Easy Transfer to back up the user account information being about 5.8gb in size.
(When trying to create a full system image the shared folders option apparently was adding another drive in seeing a 1.2tb total larger then either of the two 1tb storage drives!)
Emphasis mine.
I see this as Microsoft simply posturing against piracy. They are clearly not talking to the average honest and legal purchaser of an upgrade version doing a "clean install", while actually owning a legally activated previous version of Windows. They are talking directly to the people who would subvert the EULA by buying an upgrade copy without a previous valid version and thus activating it using a "hack".
I highly doubt that Microsoft is going to deactivate any copy of Windows installed this way by a valid owner of a previous version. They may demand proof of the previous version's validity in some way, and in my case, they are welcome to inspect my valid key and media any time they wish, and they can look on my old Vista hard disk to see that it's been re-partitioned and formatted.
As for the little pirates doing these bogus, hacked installs... If I hear of any people that I know doing it, I'm going to report them to Microsoft, simply for the fact that people like that make it difficult for all of us to legally buy and install legitimate software without jumping through hoops.
An added note to the above (which I agree with)
If you buy a system from HP, Dell, etc., it comes loaded with crapware. I had a "Recovery" partition on my laptop that took almost half of the HD. I ran "KillDisk" and did a low-level reformat, then loaded in Windows 7 Upgrade (twice).
The laptop came with Vista, and all the garbage. I can show a license, if I ever have to, but there was NO WAY to get rid of all the Toshiba "help" other than slicking the HD.
Microsoft is getting semi-smart by selling "clean" systems - albeit with their load of stuff installed. The computer makers will not sell clean systems - there's too much money in loading on Norton, Symantec, etc., etc. "tryout" versions.
One added thought - How many PCs in existence do NOT have a version of a Microsoft OS on them that they would be upgrading? The *inux folks couldn't care less, and would not be changing to Windows if you paid them (mostly).
I feel your pain, man. My mother-in-law's new laptop took me eight hours to get set up and remove all the bloatware, crapware, trialware, uselessware, and crippleware that Toshiba felt she needed. If I had a spare license around, I would have just nuked the HD and done a new install in a hour and been done with it.
When are these guys gonna get with it and let you install all that junk as an option? You might actually want to have something they offer, but making you do an uninstall, which always still leaves junk on the HD no matter what you do, just isn't nice, and leaves a bad taste in your mouth for the inconvenience.
Why do you think I've always stayed with custom building and "stayed away from" factory preinstalls whenever possible? I know if I went out and bought a new laptop for example I would end up voiding the warranty by first nuking the drive and using a separate disk bought in order to custom install Windows fresh on it without all of the crap including McAfee or whatever trial softwares were stuffed on it.
MS has stepped upto the plate however with their new stores and decided to sell "bloatware less" pcs without all the crap to start with. You may actually spend a little more there then at a Walmart, Target, Best Buy, CompUSA, whoever but end up with a good clean install of Windows and none of the useless nonsense piled onto that. From there you decide what trialwares or crud you put on yourself.
Quote