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A few days ago we released our Windows 7 upgrade guide with the hopes of answering all your burning questions regarding the inexpensive upgrade editions that so many of us have pre-ordered. One of the questions that we couldn’t answer at the time however, was how Windows 7 would handle the verification process to ensure that you were eligible to update. In Windows XP upgrade editions, you simply needed to insert an older install disk. Vista upped the ante considerably by requiring you to have a previous version installed (no activation required). Windows 7 on the other hand, will now require an activated previous version to be installed and not even the workaround found in the Vista version will be permitted.
This will no doubt become a point of controversy among Maximum PC readers since to be honest, this is a real hassle. As PC enthusiasts we tend to be fond of frequent re-installs either due to constantly changing hardware, or perhaps even just to regain performance lost after experimenting with too many of Murphy’s Freeware picks. The only good news I learned from all of this, is that the Windows 7 RC will serve as a qualifying previous version (assuming of course that it’s activated). I would highly advise readers who purchased the upgrade edition run an imaging program such as Acronis True Image, to take a snapshot of your drive before you install the Windows 7 upgrade. You’ll need to decompress the image back onto the drive each time you do a fresh install, but it will certainly save you a great deal of time compared to installing and activating two separate OSs each time you want to start over.
Comments are closed on this article
Techrocket9
July 11, 2009 at 4:31pm
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Microsoft is evil again!
_____________________________________________________
An army of pacifists can be defeated by one man with the will to fight.
Nowak1981
July 11, 2009 at 4:25pm
I cancelled my preorder as well, I wonder if microsoft is watching their sales numbers drop from that announcement.
narnith
July 11, 2009 at 4:23pm
"If you are running the Windows 7 Release Candidate, and you have activated it, you will not need to reinstall an older version of Windows before using an Windows 7 upgrade disk.
However,
you will not be able to do an upgrade installation, in which your
existing programs and data are left in place. Instead, you'll have to
do what Microsoft calls a custom installation. This is
essentially a clean install, but your existing operating system,
programs and data are squirreled away in a folder labeled WINDOWS.OLD.
You end up with a fresh Windows 7 setup, but you can access that folder
to get to any needed data. (Sorry, the programs in there won't work -
you'll need to reinstall them.)"
Quoted from the link. Does that mean we can use our upgrade discs with Win7 being the previous validated version?
Rob86
July 11, 2009 at 4:50pm
If this is the case i wouldn't mind as much. but having to spend 2x as long to reinstall windows 7 i think is enough to kill this for me....
Looksback
July 11, 2009 at 4:18pm
You mean I have to reinstall and reactivate XP before I can do a clean install?
Glad I didn't jump on the pre-order. I like MS but this seems a bit draconian.
Rob86
July 11, 2009 at 4:13pm
Now the question is do I cancel my preorder...........
that sounds like a total pain in the ass that i don't really want to deal with.
Crawfish
July 11, 2009 at 4:07pm
Looks like a good time to cancel your pre-order if you can. What a lame policy.
kowal
July 11, 2009 at 3:49pm
I wish i knew this 2 weeks ago........glad i didn't buy that second copy today.....seriously!
pellier
July 11, 2009 at 3:48pm
I am a little confused so let me see if I understand this. I have to reinstall windows xp/vista in order to reinstall win7.
jrocknyc
July 12, 2009 at 5:30am
or you can install the win7 rc, then upgrade...
i really like 7 but i think i might give Ubuntu another shot.
DJ_Smoke
July 11, 2009 at 3:43pm
Isn't it amazing that this information just happens to come out just a few hours before the end of the greatest(or possibly the only one good) deal MS has ever offered is about to expire. Congrats microsoft you suckered me again. i would have gladly paid more to avoid the headaches that this policy is going to bring into my life. So far i think the rc rocks and couldn't help but think ms was turning over a new leaf.... Nope same greedy a-holes!!! thanks for nothin'
mushpuppy
July 21, 2009 at 6:55pm
Just stupid, as it only will penalize MSFT's real customers. Pirates will get copies that have this idiocy edited out.
Vegan
July 12, 2009 at 2:44am
Yes, it certainly is convenient timing that they waited until they had milked as many pre-orders as possible.
jrocknyc
July 12, 2009 at 5:31am
you can cancel your pre-order yanno! you can even wait three months, and THEN cancel it if this situation doesn't change.
