Solved Confused on what version of windows 7 to buy.

[sygnus21]

does that require a version of windows already installed, since my new pc has nothing on it,

The upgrade version requires that you OWN a qualifying XP or Vista license. But it does NOT need to be installed.

You can use the upgrade disc on a brand new drive. You will probably have to do the registry workaround to activate it. It's perfectly legal and the way Microsoft designed things.

Sorry but this is confusing as written. What registry hack is required?

If the OP owns/has a qualifying product, they're eligible for the upgrade and no "hacks" are required - Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

 

[seavixen32]

Ok if i find a copy of xp or vista, i am going to go for the digital download from the student site since there cheaper, so the download versions the same but you just have to burn it to disk. Dont have to have retail version to do this?

Read the first paragraph of this tutorial I posted earlier for you.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

 

[theog]

You can order a DVD.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Sorry but this is confusing as written. What registry hack is required?

If the OP owns/has a qualifying product, they're eligible for the upgrade and no "hacks" are required - Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

See option 3

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

He may or may not run need to do it, depending on what method he pursues.

 

[theog]

See Option 4.

 

[gregrocker]

Sorry but this is confusing as written. What registry hack is required?

If the OP owns/has a qualifying product, they're eligible for the upgrade and no "hacks" are required - Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Only if the HD is new or cleaned is one of the workarounds from the above tutorial required.

This is because the installer when booted or run looks for an installed OS and if it sees it will pass a flag allowing the use of Upgrade version key, even if user goes on to use Custom>Drive options to delete and repartition.

If installer sees no underlying OS it rejects Upgrade key so leave the key blank upfront then after install do one of the workarounds given in tutorial to activate on a new or cleaned HD.

This is provided as a convenience for those who replace, wipe, repartition their HD's or don't want to reinstall the qualifying OS - which in the case of XP may not even install any longer to modern SATA HD's.

Option 3 in tutorial is easiest - using the Registry edit only takes minutes.

 

[sygnus21]

Sorry but this is confusing as written. What registry hack is required?

If the OP owns/has a qualifying product, they're eligible for the upgrade and no "hacks" are required - Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

See option 3

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

He may or may not run need to do it, depending on what method he pursues.

Got it, but I've always used option 4.

Double Installing Windows 7

Note
This option is the same that was used to do a clean install of a upgrade copy of Vista. It's more work, but if the options above did not work for you, then this should.

1. Do a clean install of your upgrade Windows 7 at boot without checking the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box during the installation process, and do not activate Windows 7 or install any Windows Updates when finished with this clean install.

2. When finished, do a inplace "upgrade" install with your upgrade Windows 7 installation disk from within the just now finished clean install of Windows 7 from step 1.

3. When the installation is completely finished from step 2, then manually activate Windows 7 with your product key number. You can now also install Windows Updates.
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[wanchoo]

Depends a lot on your computer savviness and what you do on your computer. But the golden mean is either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Pro.

Ok so i just built a brand new pc and since my current pc has oem version of windows 7 installed i cant transfer it across, so i have to buy a new windows 7. My problem is what am i searching for, i dont mean stuck on choosing between home premium and ultimate but what type it is. I need whatevers the cheapest, so do i need oem or downlaodbale version etc. I am confused on what i search for, when buying windows 7 to install on a completely new pc with all new components no os isntalled.

Thanks, Tom

 

[Fruito]

Thanks for all the help guys, i shall now mark as solved.