Windows 7 preorders begin in the US, Canada, and Japan

[Night Hawk]

what is a double install?

I think this has been one question repeatedly answered. Clean Install From Upgrade Vista - Vista Forums

The same guide seen there for a clean install with a Vista upgrade disk should work as well for any 7 upgrade disk as well once 7 is available.

 

[jim84]

I talked with a M$ rep other day, because I had the same question. I was told, we do qualify for the upgrade. I do think however we might have to do the double install.

I emailed the M$ store, and they replied and told me I couldn't Yay... Well I ordered it anyways... If I have to find an oem xp cd somewhere I guess that's what I'll have to do... I bought my new PC custom built, as the RC was coming out, so I don'y have another windows running I can use.

 

[Night Hawk]

The order won't even go through if the MS store itself doesn't ship to Canada. Generally that for domestic orders while outside locations need to go through their own domestic vendors. And an XP disk would be useless for the 7 upgrade to start with. You would need a Vista installation or simply follow the instructions in the tutorial.

 

[jim84]

I'm not sure your point? I ordered from a Canadian retailer....

As far as XP goes, this was part of the reply from the M$ Store,

"If you are currently running the Windows 7 RC version, in order to be eligible for the upgrade to Windows 7 it will require you to re-install your previous operating system (Windows XP or Windows Vista)."

Also on the faq page on the windows store preorder,

"How do I know if I am eligible for this offer?
To be eligible for the offer, you need to be running a genuine copy of the Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems."

So the "And an XP disk would be useless for the 7 upgrade to start with. You would need a Vista installation" Seems like misinformation.

As far as my understanding of this goes.

As far as the installing the upgrade over the unactivated upgrade, that seems like pure speculation that Microsoft hasn't disallowed that with the Windows 7 Upgrade discs, more then fact?

 

[RandyMyers]

I ordered Home Premium from MS store for both mine and my wife's PCs. Unlike Vista or XP I do not see any reason for Pro or Ultimate. I have my original Vista Ultimate DVDs. If I read correct I can do a clean install of 7 when my disks arrive and will just insert the Vista DVDs to verify that I own a previous version at some point during the install process. Is this correct?

 

[Night Hawk]

Read the tutorial seen there. You boot up from the upgrade disk for a fast install where you "DO NOT" enter the product key the first time around. You won't be activating Windows for the first install since you will be upgrading over that where you then enter everything.

Once the second install is complete you simply see that activated as you would with any other normal installation. No previous version's disk required. The 7 installer on the 7 upgrade disk is still going to be a Windows installer.

The difference between a full install version and an upgrade is simply the upgrade needs to upgrade something while the full version only needs the initial installation for everything there.

 

[jim84]

That's how it worked with Vista anyways...

Isn't the difference more of a licensing matter, you can do a clean install from the upgrade disc, but you need to be upgrading from a licensed copy of windows... Or that's the plan, I think with Vista it was a flaw how that was allowed and it may be corrected with 7?

 

[Night Hawk]

The only way anyone will know for sure without seeing if that will work is when 7 is actually out. For those with prebuilt machines on a tight budget the preorder offer makes sense to them if they are presently running Vista especially.

Even if I have to buy an oem disk rather retail I'll simply staying with the 64bit Ultimate edition with a full install disk to start with for this build or the retail for the next build whichever comes first being due for an upgrade here later this year anyways.

 

[RandyMyers]

I spoke with Microsoft today. She said how it will work is this, if you have a higher version, say Vista Ultimate and installing Windows 7 Home Premium than you will need to do a clean install, if doing version for version than you can do an upgrade install. The best way to do a clean install will be to put a basic install of Vista (or XP) on your machine from your disk. No need to update drivers or install upgrades. Install Windows 7 and choose clean install and it will wipe the Vista install and perform a clean install. It has to start from a Vista (or XP) install however.

 

[xan K]

I'm ordering the home premium upgrade from amazon.com in the USA. I will be using it in my country, the Dominican Republic. will I have any problem activating it because of the location? I'm doing this, because I need the English version, which is not available here.

 

[Night Hawk]

The option would be custom install rather then upgrade. The upgrade compresses the previously installation where you see the rollback option upto a point there. The custom install however packs everything up into the Windows.old folder that started with Vista.

If you had asked the MS rep about a Vista upgrade disk I can assure you that you would have most likely heard the exact same thing about the need for a previous version's disk like ME, 2000, XP for the same reasons.

But as I was saying before We'll just have to wait until someone actually has an upgrade for 7 to look at first before that can be fully answered.