Some questions on windows 7 release

[geeve420]

I am a little confused about a couple thing when 7 is released and I hope you folks can help me out. I hope this is the right place to pose these questions and I hope they haven't been asked and answered before. so here we go:

Can I use the W7 upgrade disc to go from WXP Pro to W7 Home or does it have to be Pro to Pro? ( I know it will require a clean install)

If I do this I know it'll need my XP disc, no problem I have the Dell OEM that has it on there, will this kill my key as to not be able to use this disc again should I decide to go duel boot or revert (incase my home recording software doesn't like W7 Home)?

That is all I got right now. Thanks again all

Geeve

 

[Stranger]

First question would be how do you have the Dell OEM?

As for your other questions, if you do a clean install, and use a new partition, then you can install any version of Windows 7 you have.

If you want a dual boot system then make sure that your XP partition is already installed as it is bloody difficult to create an XP partition after the W7 install

 

[geeve420]

Perhaps OEM is the wrong term here It is the green labled Dell XP pro SP2 disc. I am not sure what you call them (recovery maybe) All I know is the ones that came with my wife's Dell were Blue and the one that came with our laptop was blue as well. However the one I got with my Optiplex is Green and it has never asked for the product key on the numerous Clean Installs I have done on this machine over the years. Sorry if I used the wrong terminology. Here is the disc I have:

So If I understand you correctly I can buy the upgrade to W7 home and have no trouble using my XP Pro disc to verify I have a legal copy? I can also use this disc down the road if I need to go back to XP?

I know, I'm a little slow

Geeve

Edit: Still not sure if this disc is truly "recovery" It does perform a complete fresh install of XP.

 

[Mark Phelps]

According to a recently published Windows 7 upgrade chart, there is no in-place upgrade from any version of XP, so it basically doesn't matter what version you have installed now. From what I recall, the in-place upgrades were only from Vista.

Also, from what I read, you will need your XP key, not the CD. That key should be on a sticker attached to the PC case somewhere.

If anyone KNOWS that this second part is not correct, please speak up -- as I have several XP systems I will be looking to "upgrade" too.

 

[geeve420]

Thanks for the reply Mark and Stranger, I know there is no in place upgrade, I have no problem doing a full install.

I have also read several different things about how you will need to upgrade. Some sites say you will need to pop in your XP disc to verify legality at some point during the upgrade, some say you have to start the upgrade from with in XP again so it can see your genuine. I am so confused right now I don't even know where to begin anymore

Edit:The other reason I need to know this is my wife's desktop also has the original Dell XP install and so that makes two pc's. I really don't want to buy 2 full install dics if that is the only way. I will buy two upgrades though if that is an option.

 

[geeve420]

sorry for double post

Ok got an answer from Microsoft:

The operating system from your recovery disk Windows XP or 2000 Professional must be installed to qualify to use the upgrade disk:



In summary:

1. A qualifying Windows operating system must be installed.
2. The qualifying Windows operating system must have a genuine license (product key) and it must be activated.
3. To upgrade, boot to the qualifying Windows desktop, insert the Windows 7 Upgrade disc in the DVD drive.
4. When the setup menu appears, select Custom (advanced) to initiate a clean install procedure

 

[Dave76]

OEMs, including Dell, keep the OS key stored on the hard dive. The OS is tied to that computer. This is why when you re-install an OEM OS with an OEM disk it won't even ask for the key, it already has it.
Looks like you already found your answer.
As far as I understand it, with XP Pro (installed and activated) you can use the Win7 upgrade disk and do a clean install of Win7 Home Premium.

 

[geeve420]

Yeah that's what I understood as well. I thank all who tried to help and I hope this can help someone else. Now if only I could get October here faster

I don't know how to change this to solved, can someone help me with that plaese?!

Thanks again,

Geeve

 

[mabecane]

That's helpful for me too, I have XP pro on a dell laptop, and Vista on a Lenovo laptop, I have contacted them to send me the disk. Dell is actually sending me one, Lenovo told me to burn it out of the Hard drive with the 'Create and rescue recovery media program" from the Lenovo Vantage recovery program.
I did read online that you could install the Retail windows7 upgrade over Windows7 RC without having to show a previous OS, the catch is, it's all good if you only use the "Repair system" action in the future, if you want to do a clean installation with Windows7 retail you will have to insert the disk from your licenced XP or vista to do the clean install.
Am I right, does anyone knows more or can verify this?