buy vista get windows 7 free?

[ymee]

Hi Guys,

I was planning on buying Vista Ultimate from Newegg, the OEM version for $189 and they claim that I get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it's released. Is this true? If so, isn't this a cheaper way of getting Windows 7 ultimate? Are there any gotchas? Just want to make sure before I plonk the money down.

Thanks

[Joe Average]

Some resellers are now offering such deals, yep. But realize that what you're getting is the full version of Vista (whichever one you choose) and when Windows 7 is released you'll get the upgrade version of whichever version of Windows 7 matches that Vista version you purchased.

It's not a full retail copy of Windows 7, just an upgrade version just like what people buying laptops and desktops now will get; they're paying for a machine with a full copy of Vista whatever on it, with the later upgrade version of Windows 7 to come along "for free" once it's out.

[ymee]

Does that mean I can't do a clean install of Win 7 with the upgrade version? I have to install vista first and then Win 7 on top?

[serpretetsky]

you should still be able to do a clean install. However, the win7 has to detect that activated-vista is on their first.

edit: in case there's some confusion, windows 7 will look on your drive, find vista, then reformat and reinstall win7 over it.

[ymee]

thats a PITA, I was hoping the serial number would be good enough for win7 to recognize it's an upgrade version.

[achensherd]

Anyone know yet whether the "upgrade the upgrade" trick that could be done with Vista still works with 7?

[pingjockey]

Well it's not too big of a deal with proper planning. Do a base install of vista, activate it and then use something like ghost or acronis to make a image of the machine and store it on a extrenal hard drive or dvd or whatever.

Then install 7 as you would normally and go from there. If you ever have to reinstall both ghost and acronis true image allow you to make a bootable cd to mount and restore your vista pre 7 image.

With modern hardware your looking at about 1/2 hour for the image restoration and maybe another 1/2 to 45 mins to install 7. Not the end of the world in my book...

[ymee]

good point! saves a couple hundred bucks as well.

[entropism]

or just get in on MSDNAA for $20 and get a non-upgrade copy of Win7 Pro. Not like Ultimate offers anything worthwhile over it anyways.

[ymee]

what is MSDNAA?

[Azhar]

what is MSDNAA?

MSDN Academic Alliance - for students.