Installation of Windows 7 from digital river download

I've just registered to get a copy of windows 7 pro 64 bit when its been released from the UK student program and am wondering what format the download will be in. My friends who have got their copies using the MSDN AA have had theirs as iso files which they have been able to burn and install from there. Will the download from here be in the same format or will it be the same as the ultimate 64 bit download (3 seperate files)

marshalex said:

I've just registered to get a copy of windows 7 pro 64 bit when its been released from the UK student program and am wondering what format the download will be in. My friends who have got their copies using the MSDN AA have had theirs as iso files which they have been able to burn and install from there. Will the download from here be in the same format or will it be the same as the ultimate 64 bit download (3 seperate files)

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It will not be in three seperate files. that was a torrented fiel. It will come in either an ISO (most likely) or a vhd (doubtful). to burn you take the ISO file and burn it to dvd using an app like IMGburn, or powerISO, etc

thats good then as to burn my 64bit vista ultimate download was a royal pain in the a*se. already got img burn installed on the computer so hopefully wont take too long at all. thanks

Good luck and we will be here if you need us

thanks. roll on 22 october!

How long till the iso happens?

Sounds like a ridiculous title I know, but it seems the only way for MS to save themselves in this debacle is to let digital river offer the iso for download. I know that running 32-bit XP and trying to upgrade to 64-bit Win7 might be impossible unless they either change the install .exe or offer an iso.

Is it possible to use the keys to upgrade from another version of Win7 like the RC or RTM (or trial version)? If so, anyone have a link to a trial version other than the Enterprise edition?

Well, here is a petition to sign if anyone cares:
Digital River Should Provide New Windows 7 Installer Petition

I guess I am confused. The digital river program was intended to provide an "upgrade" of your operating system, correct?

And people do understand that you cannot upgrade a 32-bit version of the software with 64-bit....according to Microsoft's definition of upgrade. Instead, a full upgrade is required.

So, why would people have purchased 64-bit upgrades for their currently 32-bit OS's?

Because they thought they could get away with it ... not...

Seriously, no upgrade from 32 to 64-bit? I didn't see that in the fine print. Looking in the fine print from Windows you can see " Cross-architecture in-place upgrades (for example, x86 to x64) are not supported" but still, why not? Just because I am running 32-bit shouldn't mean I can't upgrade to 64-bit, when it is the same installation files? A simple .iso would resolve this and still be an upgrade. Seems crappy to me, and I wasn't trying to get away with anything.

Apples and oranges, upgrade current system or upgrade DVD. There is nothing wrong with ordering a 64 bit upgrade version of the DVD instead of the 32 bit. I would be willing to bet, if they had ordered the actual DVD, which they could have done, it would have booted and worked fine.

neely615 said:

Seriously, no upgrade from 32 to 64-bit? I didn't see that in the fine print. Looking in the fine print from Windows you can see " Cross-architecture in-place upgrades (for example, x86 to x64) are not supported" but still, why not? Just because I am running 32-bit shouldn't mean I can't upgrade to 64-bit, when it is the same installation files? A simple .iso would resolve this and still be an upgrade. Seems crappy to me, and I wasn't trying to get away with anything.

Click to expand...

It's not the same installation files, that's why you can't use the upgrade-in-place method.

One of the differences between a 32 bit and 64 bit is that a 32 bit system has 4gb of space for addressing which means that the 32 bit system has a limit of 4GB RAM to process data where as the 64 bit operating system has 2^64 bits of space to address and can support 16 million terrabyte of RAM to process data.

Going from 32 bit to 64 bit is not an upgrade. Going from Vista Home Premium or Windows 7 Ultimate is. When I ordered a 64 bit version of Vista since it only came with a 32 bit version, they only charged me $10 for the DVD, not the full price of an upgrade.

Well, 32 bit is less efficient at a lot of stuff, and 64 bit is better.

It's a "Legal" upgrade, but it won't "Run" from the installer.


The problem is on windows part for not building a clean method of upgrading.


That aside, the download comes in a set of 3 peices, and is just a folder of the install.


I was going from vista x32 to windows 7 pro x64, pain in the arse.

The download itself won't extract on a 32 bit system that I know of, so I had to copy the files to a spare machine running xp 64, which miraculously not only could extract but offered a direct upgrade via the installer.

Wrong system, but anyways the custom install instructions require an ISO or bootable, so i ended up having to download Windows AIK (Automated Installation kit), which was another 2 gigabytes, installed that, ran a command line that turned the files into an ISO (seriously google is awsome), then I used the microsoft utility to put the ISO onto a bootable Flash Disk (USB).


Did the install, low and behold when through but wouldn't accept the upgrade key.

Called microsoft tech support, they had this to say:

HK_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/SETUP/OOBE

I changed the value of MediaBootInstall to 0 (It was set to 1)

Then I had to run the command prompt AS ADMINISTRATOR (very important):

cd \windows\system32

cscript.exe simgr.vbs -rearm


After running those 2 lines, I rebooted. I was able to register my product key no problems.


Not sure if this helps anyone else, but yeah, that downloadable distribution blew.



**EDIT** - With those changes, I'd imagine it opens a number of possibilities with downloadable ISO's or using a friends disk. Good luck to ya.


***EDIT*** - It appears someone already posted the instructions to make a bootable here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html#post320334