The Windows and Windows Software Megathread - The Something Awful Forums

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Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

The win741 deal sounds so good there must be a catch. Am I right in understanding that I can upgrade my Windows XP Home 32-bit machine to Windows 7 Professional 64-bit for $30? That is, assuming there's no reason not to get Professional.

Also, since I didn't see it in the OP: how many installs does a single 7 license allow?

# ¿ Sep 19, 2009 19:53

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# ¿ May 21, 2013 10:34

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

kri kri posted:

The catch is you need a .edu email address

Not a problem.

fishmech posted:

THe only reason oyu wouldnt get professional is that you already have ultimate or you really need bitlocker for some reason.

A single 7 license works on a single computer - that's why it's a single license. Microsoft does sell that family pack of 3 home premium 7 upgrade licenses for $149 though - its $209.98 cheaper than buying 3 home premium upgrades separately.

Ah, thank you for this. I was referring to getting Professional instead of Home, but it sounds like Pro is Home and then some; for some reason, I thought Pro was for workstations, Home was for gaming, and Ultimate was Pro+Home.

The rest of my household will have to get the Home family pack, but we skipped over Vista entirely so it shouldn't be an issue.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Sep 19, 2009 around 20:14

# ¿ Sep 19, 2009 20:11

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

univbee posted:

Q: How will upgrade installs work? Will the previous OS have to be installed?

A: Apparently, whatever OS you had originally will have to be installed AND ACTIVATED prior to upgrading. The Windows Vista reinstall trick will apparently NOT be in here. (This is according to this link, and it's possible the information may not be entirely accurate).

With upgrade licenses, I get that, if my HDD explodes, I'll need to reinstall XP onto a replacement drive before I can reinstall 7. But if my computer starts running sluggishly and the solution is to do a clean 7 install over itself, do I still have to wipe, reinstall XP, and wipe again, or does 7 Home -> 7 Home count as an "upgrade"?

EDIT: or "insert XP CD and type in license when prompted during 7 install" in place of "reinstall XP" as that link suggests, assuming that works.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Sep 21, 2009 around 17:39

# ¿ Sep 21, 2009 17:35

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Sorry, I should've said "becomes infected" instead of "runs sluggishly." I'm more concerned about my parents' machine.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Sep 21, 2009 around 17:58

# ¿ Sep 21, 2009 17:54

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

So, is the RTM only for clean installs or would it remember that I had XP installed if I upgraded to 7? I'd love to get 7 up and running without having to wait for my Home Premium Upgrade license, but not if it means I'll have to wipe, reinstall XP, wipe again, and reinstall 7 in 10 days.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2009 18:52

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

A friend and I both bought Windows 7 Pro Upgrades through the 741 deal, but he bought the 32-bit version by mistake. If I send him the 64-bit files that my DLMWin7Pro64US.exe is downloading, will he be able to use his license with it?

For that matter, can I just send him DLMWin7Pro64US.exe and have him download from that?

# ¿ Oct 22, 2009 12:25

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

I can't even get the install DVD to boot.

Bought the 7 Pro Upgrade through the 741 deal, downloaded and unboxed it, used the oscdimg.exe fix to build the ISO, burned it with Nero Express. I know it burned successfully because 32-bit XP Home gives me poo poo about how it won't let me install from there.

Put the DVD in, reboot the computer, it boots to XP. Hit F8 during start-up, select my DVD-ROM drive as the boot device, it boots to XP. Went into the BIOS, set CD-ROM as the first device and no second device, restart the computer, it boots to XP. Reach into the computer and unplug my HDD, restart the computer, "DISK BOOT FAILURE." It's like it pretends the Windows 7 DVD doesn't exist

I know it's not a problem with my computer because my XP Home DVD boots up fine. What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: power-cycling the computer instead of just restarting it fixed the problem, somehow.

EDIT EDIT: Also, I had the wrong drive selected for install and now I have to reinstall on the correct drive. Oh well, I never wanted those files anyway.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Oct 23, 2009 around 00:46

# ¿ Oct 22, 2009 23:37

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

EDIT: Never mind!

Footboy fucked around with this message at Oct 22, 2009 around 23:54

# ¿ Oct 22, 2009 23:44

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

EDIT: never mind.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Oct 23, 2009 around 00:45

# ¿ Oct 23, 2009 00:01

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Unless you're on 32-bit XP, in which case the installer doesn't work and the only way to install 7 is to make and boot into the .iso and do a Clean Install. Which is where I'm at now; I didn't format, so 7 is up and running and my old Windows stuff is in a folder called "Windows.old", but I haven't put my key in yet because I don't want to accidentally upgrade wrong and screw everything up and have a useless key.

Did I do it right?

Footboy fucked around with this message at Oct 23, 2009 around 01:41

# ¿ Oct 23, 2009 01:38

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Dickeye posted:

I did it in 32 bit XP and it ran perfectly, I dunno what the hell you people are doing

If you're at the part where you put the key in, you're fine

Oh.

Yay, it worked! Deleted Windows.old and gave it the finger, to make this install feel more funky-fresh.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2009 01:56

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

I had some issues with my Creative X-Fi sound card last night, and after several failed attempts at finding drivers, the solution the following morning was "didn't I buy a motherboard with onboard sound?"

I'm waiting to move the front-panel audio connectors to the motherboard just in case Creative gets their heads out of their asses, but I've already discovered that Windows 7 lets you route Line-In audio from one device to Line-Out on another device, which I've never been able to do before. Now I'm using USB Headphones to listen to Halo 3.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Oct 23, 2009 around 17:10

# ¿ Oct 23, 2009 17:07

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

You can also just put oscdimg.exe into C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\expandedSetup\ and substitute .\ for C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\expandedSetup\ in a batch file in that directory.

Ajax 99 posted:

If you haven't given up yet, you might want to try the X-Fi installer package put together by Daniel_k on this page:

http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound...009/td-p/527485

Maybe it's the just the way his installer works and decides which files from the package to install in a particular order, but these worked perfectly for me (Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit, & X-Fi Extreme Music).

I saw that when I was poking around, but I'm a little wary about downloading executables from RapidShare. I'll give it a shot.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2009 06:52

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

You point Backup and Restore at the drive you'd like to back up to. I didn't have my external drive plugged in, so it (correctly, in my case) selected my largest internal drive.

I'm still kind of floored at all the scheduled tasks in Windows 7 that I no longer have to do on my own.

Chimp_On_Stilts posted:

It was high time to abandon XP, so I'm not regretting the switch, but I was expecting some kind of "oh hey neato" response (if not outright "WOW!") from the new OS. I feel like maybe I just haven't found some of the new features and stuff that are neat.

On the contrary, I wish sites weren't prone to writing "what's new in Windows 7" articles comparing it to Vista. I want to see all of the features I missed out on in the last iteration that I now get in this one as well. For example, I only today discovered the Games Explorer.

Alex007 posted:

I'm trying to upgrade either my old XP (32bit) or Win7 beta (32bit) but both are giving me errors when I pop in the Win7 64bit DVD for an upgrade, so I said gently caress it, installed my new HDD (and unplugged the old one) and did the install.

But I can't activate

How do you do a 32 -> 64 upgrade then ?

Sounds like you unplugged the HDD that contained Windows XP, which Windows 7 needs to know exists for an Upgrade activation.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2009 18:29

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

m2pt5 posted:

Well that's lovely.

Here's a bit summing it up that should go in the OP:

32-bit versions can not be upgraded to 64-bit versions.
Vista Home (Basic or Premium) can only upgrade to 7 Home Premium or Ultimate.
Vista Business can only upgrade to 7 Professional or Ultimate.
Vista Ultimate can only upgrade to 7 Ultimate.

At the same time, the OP should clarify what "upgrade" means in this context. I clean-installed 64-bit 7 Professional over a 32-bit XP Home installation, my old files were moved to C:\Windows.old, and I activated 7 with my Upgrade license.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2009 01:46

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Ajax 99 posted:

If you haven't given up yet, you might want to try the X-Fi installer package put together by Daniel_k on this page:

http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound...009/td-p/527485

Maybe it's the just the way his installer works and decides which files from the package to install in a particular order, but these worked perfectly for me (Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit, & X-Fi Extreme Music).

The setup.exe included in DK's support pack didn't work, but Windows was able to install the correct driver when I pointed the New Hardware Wizard at the extracted folder. It looks like I have to choose between having Line-In showing up in my Playback Volume Mixer and having it pass-through directly to my speakers without any latency problems, which is what I wanted in the first place.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Nov 4, 2009 around 17:19

# ¿ Nov 4, 2009 17:17

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

The Windows Performance Evaluator means absolutely ZERO in real world computing.

Hey, I'd rather people flaunt Windows Experience Index numbers than go back to 3dmark dickwaving.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Nov 5, 2009 around 18:55

# ¿ Nov 5, 2009 18:43

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Chimp_On_Stilts posted:

I'm using the included backup software to make a weekly backup and image of my drives.

Does this system work like Time Machine on OS X where you can replace an individual lost file, as opposed to simply restoring everything at once?

Yeah! If you still have the file and want to roll it back, there's a Previous Versions tab in its Properties that pulls from shadow copies as well as Backups. If not, the "Restore My Files" button in Backup & Restore, you can browse for files or folders to roll back.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Nov 9, 2009 around 08:18

# ¿ Nov 9, 2009 08:15

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Yossarko posted:

Oh, and since I skipped Vista, is there any article on the internet that outlines everything that is new on 7 comming from XP ?

I'm guessing in 8 years and two full OS versions a lot is new, but I'm either getting articles from "XP to Vista" with lots of UAC bashing, or "Vista to 7" articles where I'm sure lots of things are missed.

I definately know I'm not the only one that has gone from XP to 7, in fact I know 4 people with 7 and all of them came from XP. There must be some good reading somewhere to know exactly what's new and how things work differently ?

Here's the skinny on that, from Microsoft.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2009 08:19

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

I'm sure I'm not the first to ask, but has anyone else who went through win741 not received their DVD from DigitalRiver yet? I'm starting to worry.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2009 17:56

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

DarthBlingBling posted:

EDIT:: Of course it's not an excuse to not expect the backup media that you paid for.

Pretty much this. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who hasn't got theirs, though. We can suffer together!

# ¿ Nov 9, 2009 18:29

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Footboy posted:

I'm sure I'm not the first to ask, but has anyone else who went through win741 not received their DVD from DigitalRiver yet? I'm starting to worry.

Update: it finally came in the mail. I've had 7 installed from the ISO since launch day, but I wanted to have an official-looking disc and license sticker, so it's nice to see that my $13 didn't go to waste.

WebDog posted:

It's from an old series of concepts for the OS's interface overhaul.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/05/2...han-they-sound/

That article is hilarious.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Nov 18, 2009 around 21:33

# ¿ Nov 18, 2009 21:29

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

To those running the Office 2010 preview: I'm currently running the Office H&S 2007 trial, which expires at the end of January 2010. At this point in time, would I be better off buying an Office H&S 2007 license, or should I hold off and wait for 2010?

EDIT: Thanks for the advice. Downloading Office 2010; uninstalling Office 2007 for now.

Footboy fucked around with this message at Nov 20, 2009 around 20:28

# ¿ Nov 20, 2009 19:39

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

Jadus posted:

Can anyone recommend a good walkthrough of new Windows 7/Vista features for a regular user?

drcru posted:

I'm sure there was a few change logs posted in this thread

Here's an XP-Vista-7 comparison from Microsoft. It's a little vague and buzzword-heavy in places, though.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2009 02:04

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# ¿ May 21, 2013 10:34

Footboy: Feb 3, 2003

For anyone else who didn't snatch up the Office 2010 beta due to issues with the Java-based downloader or not wanting the full Professional Plus suite, the Office Home & Business 2010 beta is live.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2009 12:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware / Software Crap > The Windows and Windows Software Megathread