Thinking About Upgrading

[QuackPot]

First up, nice forum you guys have here. Looks good and has plenty of good info.

But anyway, next week I start university and I might be getting Windows 7 through MSDNAA for free. Now, I have a laptop that is currently running a 32bit version of Vista premium edition which runs everything I need well enough except I really want Windows 7 for the extra performance and since it's going to be free. Also, I'm wanting to 64bit version too just to be clear.

But before I dive in and upgrade to it I have several questions I'm hoping some people here can help me with. These being:

1. Is it worth upgrading to interms of how stable and how many programs work on it without any problems.

I'm doing web development and so the following programs will be used on a daily basis.

MS Visual Professional 2008
Microsoft Expression 3
Microsoft Office 2007
Adobe Photoshop, flash, dreamweaver, fireworks etc
Bullguard Anti-virus software
Audacity
Sony Sound forge


2. I take it I'll still be able to download all the Acer programs that came with my laptop from their site. Just wondering if anyone else here has upgraded their laptop and to download all the pre-installed programs again.

3. How do games run on Windows 7? Mainly Steam games like CSS, TF2, DoD:S and Battlefield 2.

4. Will it be possible to upgrade the W7 without having to format my HDD which will probably save me having to download and hunt for all my DVD with my files on them.

5. I take it the battery life on laptops is increased in Windows 7 when compared to Windows Vista?

6. Can I still revert back to Vista should I need to for what ever reason?



I'll probably have more questions later but these are my primary concerns. Cheers.

 

[MattMJB0188]

First up, nice forum you guys have here. Looks good and has plenty of good info.

But anyway, next week I start university and I might be getting Windows 7 through MSDNAA for free. Now, I have a laptop that is currently running a 32bit version of Vista premium edition which runs everything I need well enough except I really want Windows 7 for the extra performance and since it's going to be free.

But before I dive in and upgrade to it I have several questions I'm hoping some people here can help me with. These being:

1. Is it worth upgrading to interms of how stable and how many programs work on it without any problems.

I'm doing web development and so the following programs will be used on a daily basis.

MS Visual Professional 2008
Microsoft Expression 3
Microsoft Office 2007
Adobe Photoshop, flash, dreamweaver, fireworks etc
Bullguard Anti-virus software
Audacity
Sony Sound forge


2. I take it I'll still be able to download all the Acer programs that came with my laptop from their site. Just wondering if anyone else here has upgraded their laptop and to download all the pre-installed programs again.

3. How do games run on Windows 7? Mainly Steam games like CSS, TF2, DoD:S and Battlefield 2.

4. Will it be possible to upgrade the W7 without having to format my HDD which will probably save me having to download and hunt for all my DVD with my files on them.

5. I take it the battery life on laptops is increased in Windows 7 when compared to Windows Vista?

6. Can I still revert back to Vista should I need to for what ever reason?



I'll probably have more questions later but these are my primary concerns. Cheers.

I would run the Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser first to check on your programs.

1. Most definitely, it's so stable and so much faster, you'll be so glad you did.

2. Of course you will.

3. That I don't know but I would imagine better if there is support for them yet, but don't worry there will be next month.

4. You can do an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, any other version would require a clean install. Like 32-bit Vista Home Premium, to 64-bit 7 Home Premium. I however recommend no matter what install you do, that you do a CLEAN INSTALL!

5. Yes, it does improve battery life.

6. Of course you can but trust me YOU WON'T EVER NEED TO.

 

[QuackPot]

First up, nice forum you guys have here. Looks good and has plenty of good info.

But anyway, next week I start university and I might be getting Windows 7 through MSDNAA for free. Now, I have a laptop that is currently running a 32bit version of Vista premium edition which runs everything I need well enough except I really want Windows 7 for the extra performance and since it's going to be free.

But before I dive in and upgrade to it I have several questions I'm hoping some people here can help me with. These being:

1. Is it worth upgrading to interms of how stable and how many programs work on it without any problems.

I'm doing web development and so the following programs will be used on a daily basis.

MS Visual Professional 2008
Microsoft Expression 3
Microsoft Office 2007
Adobe Photoshop, flash, dreamweaver, fireworks etc
Bullguard Anti-virus software
Audacity
Sony Sound forge


2. I take it I'll still be able to download all the Acer programs that came with my laptop from their site. Just wondering if anyone else here has upgraded their laptop and to download all the pre-installed programs again.

3. How do games run on Windows 7? Mainly Steam games like CSS, TF2, DoD:S and Battlefield 2.

4. Will it be possible to upgrade the W7 without having to format my HDD which will probably save me having to download and hunt for all my DVD with my files on them.

5. I take it the battery life on laptops is increased in Windows 7 when compared to Windows Vista?

6. Can I still revert back to Vista should I need to for what ever reason?



I'll probably have more questions later but these are my primary concerns. Cheers.

I would run the Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser first to check on your programs.

1. Most definitely, it's so stable and so much faster, you'll be so glad you did.

2. Of course you will.

3. That I don't know but I would imagine better if there is support for them yet, but don't worry there will be next month.

4. You can do an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, any other version would require a clean install. Like 32-bit Vista Home Premium, to 64-bit 7 Home Premium. I however recommend no matter what install you do, that you do a CLEAN INSTALL!

5. Yes, it does improve battery life.

6. Of course you can but trust me YOU WON'T EVER NEED TO.

Cool, thanks.

Also about the product keys. Can they only work once on one machine. Like if I have to format my HDD can I still use the same key? Or if I swtich back to vista, then install windows 7 again will it be good to use? Just that I know some of the dreamspark software I use is real tight when it comes to where, when and how many times you install it.

 

[Tews]

I believe the key does not expire...

 

[MattMJB0188]

Yes only one product key will work on one machine. Whatever key comes with the 7 upgrade you can use as many times and it will not interfere with the Vista one or your hard drive. If you need to install vista again you can use the win 7 upgrade disc as many times as you want.

 

[DeaconFrost]

They key you get with Windows 7 would continue to work. That would get quite costly if you had to buy a new license each time you reinstalled, wouldn't it?

 

[QuackPot]

They key you get with Windows 7 would continue to work. That would get quite costly if you had to buy a new license each time you reinstalled, wouldn't it?

It's the fact that it's free that MS might have attached some strings to it.

 

[DeaconFrost]

It's the fact that it's free that MS might have attached some strings to it.

Check out what the MSDNAA license are about. You may not be paying for it now, but considering your school paid Microsoft for the MSDNAA access, and you are paying tuition to attend that school...you might want to reconsider when you call it free.

 

[The Wise Vivi]

It's the fact that it's free that MS might have attached some strings to it.

Check out what the MSDNAA license are about. You may not be paying for it now, but considering your school paid Microsoft for the MSDNAA access, and you are paying tuition to attend that school...you might want to reconsider when you call it free.

Geez, ruining the guy's delusion that its free.... how dare you... poor guy...

 

[harpua]

May not apply to you but I just thought I'd mention that as hard drives are so cheap these days, I think it's worth considering keeping a recent backup clone of your hard drive after you get it all installed and set up (or you could just do a compressed back up image. I do both, but I like clones better.) Anyway, if you do that, you can always just pop in a recent cloned drive of your installation and then you can avoid reinstalling or reactivating, assuming the clone is going into the same machine that the clone was made from.

 

[QuackPot]

It's the fact that it's free that MS might have attached some strings to it.

Check out what the MSDNAA license are about. You may not be paying for it now, but considering your school paid Microsoft for the MSDNAA access, and you are paying tuition to attend that school...you might want to reconsider when you call it free.

That's what ran through my mind about this. I'll need to see my lecturer about it. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this was the case.

 

[QuackPot]

May not apply to you but I just thought I'd mention that as hard drives are so cheap these days, I think it's worth considering keeping a recent backup clone of your hard drive after you get it all installed and set up (or you could just do a compressed back up image. I do both, but I like clones better.) Anyway, if you do that, you can always just pop in a recent cloned drive of your installation and then you can avoid reinstalling or reactivating, assuming the clone is going into the same machine that the clone was made from.

I have a backup of my laptop just after I loaded up vista for ths first time which is burned to a DVD. I'll be doing the same with W7 if and when I get it.

 

[harpua]

Cool that you can fit everything on a DVD. My backups are over 100 GB so that won't work for me unfortunately. Maybe when huge flash drives/cards get cheap enough, that would be a cool thing to back up to.

But I do like to be able to just swap in a cloned hard drive to get up and running again with everything configured and more or less up to date, in just 3 minutes with a Phillips head screwdriver.

I suppose I should split my partition up but I've never gotten around to it.

Oh, and don't say "if and when" about getting W7. It's awesome. You'll love it. Don't think twice about not doing it.

 

[jfar]

That's very good advice about the backing up, you definitely won't go wrong by doing that.

 

[QuackPot]

Cool that you can fit everything on a DVD. My backups are over 100 GB so that won't work for me unfortunately. Maybe when huge flash drives/cards get cheap enough, that would be a cool thing to back up to.

But I do like to be able to just swap in a cloned hard drive to get up and running again with everything configured and more or less up to date, in just 3 minutes with a Phillips head screwdriver.

I suppose I should split my partition up but I've never gotten around to it.

Oh, and don't say "if and when" about getting W7. It's awesome. You'll love it. Don't think twice about not doing it.

I really want windows 7 but it all depends if my Uni will allow it or not through MSDNAA. But it's going to £20 on a MS deal which I'll get as an xmas present should MSDNAA go tit's up.

 

[harpua]

It's well worth it even if you have to pay a small amount.

I got it from Technet, but I'll soon be getting another FREE less restricted Ultimate license ("Signature Edition," whatever that is) from being a "Confirmed Windows Launch Party Host."

I'm actually looking forward to doing the party thing. Hoping it might give my nascient consulting business a boost.