More at: 'Surprised' Microsoft reacts to Windows 7 upgrade snag'Surprised' Microsoft reacts to Windows 7 upgrade snag
Offers customers option to download disk image after error stymies upgrade
By Gregg Keizer
October 27, 2009 06:31 AM ET
Computerworld - Microsoft executives yesterday acknowledged that they were surprised by the snafu that prevented some college students from upgrading their Vista PCs to Windows 7, but they said the company has taken steps to remedy the problem.
"I would say that the way that customers were taking advantage of the student offer was somewhat of a surprise," said Ben Bennett, director of Microsoft's Windows consumer global support group. "We didn't think there would be a large demand for upgrades from 32-bit to 64-bit."
The problem, which Bennett confirmed has been one of the leading issues Microsoft's support staff has faced since Windows 7's launch last Thursday, popped up when students tried to upgrade a 32-bit version of Vista to a 64-bit edition of the new operating system. The copy of Windows 7 they had downloaded from Minneapolis-based Digital River -- which fulfills download orders for Microsoft's $29.99 Windows 7 upgrade offer available to students -- stalled with an error message when users tried to upgrade.
Microsoft does not support an "in-place" upgrade from 32- to 64-bit, or vice versa, on any edition of Windows 7. In a message posted to the company's support forum last weekend, a Microsoft support engineer said that the error, which appeared when the downloaded .exe file would not "unpack," was part of a "by design" process to block impossible upgrades.
Hmmmmmm......which one......."I would say that the way that customers were taking advantage of the student offer was somewhat of a surprise,"
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/educatio...r/default.aspx
Microsoft MS Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit Upgrade DVD on eBay (end time 01-Nov-09 20:28:39 GMT)
You have to consider the writer's location there most likely near Redding, WA.? Meanwhile there is one point to take more notice of.
"In hindsight, we think we responded fairly quickly to the problem," Bennett contended. Microsoft has contacted, or is in the process of contacting, customers affected by the problem and has offered them an .iso version they can burn to DVD. Microsoft will also modify the student offer to make it clearer which version users should download.
I think MS realized that further clarification on the inability to upgrade across different platforms was necessary. But you can see that some of the problem there was also due to 3rd party involvement where no guidlines were to be seen like any warning about this there.
MS should actually go one step further and insist that 3rd party sources like schools provide adequate instructions or direct references to MS pages to prevent these situations from the start. The schools would then have to treat each student as a first time novice user and simply what works and what doesn't.
The article should note that no other OS platforms offer 32 > 64 upgrades.
Heck Apple hasnt even figured out how to bring a totally 64 bit compatible OS to the market yet.
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