Windows 7 - Microsoft blames Windows 7 upgrade mess on .....

**Night Hawk** · 10-26-2009

Quote:

Microsoft blames Windows 7 upgrade mess on user confusion

Error is 'by design' when users try to upgrade from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit Windows 7

By Gregg Keizer
October 26, 2009 12:41 PM ET

Computerworld - Microsoft yesterday blamed user confusion for the problems many have encountered trying to move from Vista to Windows 7 after buying a discounted upgrade offered to college students.
"Digital River and Microsoft are aware that some customers from the Windows 7 Academic Store had difficulties completing the download or installation of the product," said a Microsoft support engineer identified as "Michael" in a message posted Sunday to the company's support forum.
Minneapolis, Minn.-based Digital River fulfills download orders for Microsoft's $29.99 Windows 7 upgrade offer to students. Several hundred users have said that they were unable to upgrade from Windows Vista to the new operating system after purchasing, then downloading, a Windows 7 upgrade, from Digital River.
"We are aware that consumers are encountering difficulties installing Windows 7 where the customer is currently running a 32-bit version of Windows such as Windows Vista, but purchased the 64-bit version of Windows 7," Michael said.

Last week, users reported that an error message prevented them from unpacking files downloaded from Digital River. The message read: "We are unable to create or save new files in the folder in which this application was downloaded."
"This error occurs when you are in the unloading phase of the 64-bit Windows 7 download process and are running a 32-bit version of Windows such as Windows XP or Windows Vista 32-bit," Michael added. "This is by design, as you cannot launch setup for the 64-bit version of Widows 7 while running a 32-bit operating system."

More at: Microsoft blames Windows 7 upgrade mess on user confusion

**2Cold Scorpio** · 10-26-2009

Wow, that's kinda low.

Still, I didn't really find the whole upgrade process of Windows 7 complicated at all. *shrugs*

**MrDeviance** · 10-26-2009

Upgrading is the most useless feature microsoft has ever put in their windows oeses.
I never used it.
I rather format drive C and install anew.
Who doesn't have at least 2 partitions, one for windows and one for the other things, deserves to lose every file!

**pparks1** · 10-26-2009

The whole upgrade process is not difficult, it was more the fact that Digital River didn't provide an ISO file which could be easily used to make a bootable cd. Instead, the installation was intended to start from within a running copy of Vista....and thus the problems since a 64-bit app cannot run in a 32-bit only OS.

**DarkNovaGamer** · 10-26-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by MrDeviance

Upgrading is the most useless feature microsoft has ever put in their windows oeses.
I never used it.
I rather format drive C and install anew.
Who doesn't have at least 2 partitions, one for windows and one for the other things, deserves to lose every file!

Thats a bit harsh, most average users don't even know how to, or want to do that kind of thing.

Most would rather just do an upgrade to save themselves the trouble. Think of how many people would complain if there wasn't an upgrade feature at all.

**jimbo45** · 10-27-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by MrDeviance

Upgrading is the most useless feature microsoft has ever put in their windows oeses.
I never used it.
I rather format drive C and install anew.
Who doesn't have at least 2 partitions, one for windows and one for the other things, deserves to lose every file!

Hi there - Guten Morgen

I think you missed the point here.

The user was complaining he couldn't run the application to unpack the 64 bit files on a 32 bit system. Never mind about actually installing the stuff. (Setup.exe needs a 64 bit system to run).

Why digital river didn't make these as bootable ISO's I don't know -- but as an ex militiary Engineer what do I know about installing software.

A possible get around is to extract the boot record and create a bootable ISO / usb thumb drive as shown in the tutorials in these boards, and then boot from that to install the product.

Cheers
jimbo

**z3r010** · 10-27-2009

From what I have observed over the last few days, I think MS really should stop Digital River giving out the download in the current format as that alone has been the only stain on an otherwise perfect launch.

**Dinesh** · 10-27-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by z3r010

From what I have observed over the last few days, I think MS really should stop Digital River giving out the download in the current format as that alone has been the only stain on an otherwise perfect launch.

This is exactly what I feel. Digital River is creating a bad impression on new users who are trying Windows 7.

**smarteyeball** · 10-27-2009

It wouldn't be a MS release without some sort of shenanigans somewhere

**Tommyd** · 10-27-2009

Well, I went from 32 bit Vista to 32 bit Win 7 with the student offer, and had no problems at all.
However, on the Digital River site, I saw no warning that the 64 bit download would not work on 32 bit machines, and would need the disk kit to make it work.

Windows 7 - Microsoft blames Windows 7 upgrade mess on .....

Microsoft blames Windows 7 upgrade mess on ..... problems?