[Solved] Windows 7 'Upgrade' - Student Purchase Question

Im in the middle of building a new gaming PC and wanted to put windows 7 on it. Found out that if your a student you can get either Home Premium or Professional for $30. I qualified for it and am about to purchase it online, but was kinda worried. Both states that they are an upgrade and have instructions for a 'custom' install. Will an 'upgrade' version work on a new pc without already having vista installed?

At first after reading, I thought it might since it came with instructions for the custom install, but i want to be positive before I shell out $30 bucks...

But hey.. $30 for a $199 OS is not a bad gamble... hmmm..

What do you all think?

I would say it wont work without Vista.

YAY!!!

After doing a little research, I found out anyone who buys the student 'Upgrade' will NOT have to have a previous version of XP or Vista! I read the step by step procedure for the installation and it only asks for the Windows 7 serial key recieved when purchased.

Here is the actual web site: (on the right, click custom install and follow step by step)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us [...] #section_2

I copyed and pasted the important part:

If your computer doesn't have an operating system installed—or if you want to create, extend, delete, or format partitions—you need to restart your computer with the installation disc inserted into your DVD drive or use a USB flash drive if you purchased and downloaded Windows 7 online. This causes your computer to start (or "boot" ) from the installation disc. If you are asked to press a key to boot from DVD or CD, press any key. If the Install Windows page appears, go to step 2.

Man that kinda sucks, I ordered windows vista business, with win 7 upgrade, i also ordered the student academic version thinking it was retail, so im stuck with a oem vista and 2 windows pro upgrades, 1 of which i cant use because it wont upgrade from xp, i gotta start reading the fine print.

was that through digital river?

I called MS Store because at first I ordered the Win 7 Pro upgrade for $99 when the pre-order thing happened. Then the student deal came out so I called to cancel the $99 pre-order and got the $30 full install. The rep asked me if I wanted the upgrade or clean install so I guess you can just ask them and its no big dea.l Maybe a bonus for calling in because I dont see the clean install version offered on any website, just upgrade. Btw everytime I called I got some young sounding rep from the US.

Yeah, there's no beating around the bush, just call and say I'm a student (with valid school email of course) who wants Win 7 Pro for 30 bucks and can I please get the clean install dvd and not the upgrade. Should be that simple.

sweeet. but why do we have to pay an extra $13 for the disk thing? i thought the $30 was already for the disk? o_o im not complaining lol. just wondering.

oh well not for me i dl at like 3mb/s but i still would prefer the disk since i'm on an old PC that doesnt have a DVD burner

this is more but I personally think it is an awsome deal; http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us [...] fault.aspx

Cracked version of Vista... Lol!

After searching the web, seems were the first to seriously take action to find out 'officially' if the upgrade is in fact the full version. All the other info floating around is just people speculating based on their knowledge of how MS 7 Beta is installed. Since Digital River hasn't released their copies, which is where our student copies are coming from, the only way to know for sure is to email them yourself get an additional confirmation. They were pretty quick in responding to my email, less than 12 hrs, but I emailed them at 1am I will post what I wrote to them below so you can use it as a reference. You should also include the response from Joanna at Customer Service I posted earlier. Dont forget to come back and post their reply on here so others can see that this is confirmed as I did. Hopefully we can spread this correct information out to the public.

btw.. I would go for the Professional version.. its the exact same price.

Here is where you you can email the question(not an actual email address, more of fill in the form) :
https://windows7.digitalriver.com/s [...] eID=mswpus

Here is a copy of the email I sent:
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Me and other students have the same question about The
Windows 7 Academic Offer since we just noticed that the sale was for an
'Upgrade' package. Will it be able to do a full install on a PC that
does not have pre-existing Vista or XP?

The web sites you provided show the following:

windows741.com- Full Version

http://windows7.digitalriver.com/s [...] ayHomePage -
Full Version

Full Terms and Conditions:
http://drh.img.digitalriver.com/st [...] Page.Terms -
Full Version of either Premium or Professional

The link provided by Digital River during purchase: http://windows7.digitalriver.com/s [...] eID=mswpus
-Shows 'Upgrade' BUT the 'click here' link on that page for a custom
install basicly states that all you will have to do in order to install
windows on a pc not already having an operating system is to preform
their 'Custom' install. Here is the link that you provide: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us [...] ng-Windows

Additionaly on the reciept, it shows it as an Upgrade.

As you can see, we are very confused and would like to know if your
website is correct by saying that the 'Upgrade' will be able to install
on pc's that do not have an existing OS by preforming a custom install.
And that it will NOT verify that existing Vista or XP is installed.
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-

Not sure which link your talking about. Where to email Digital River? If that one is not going thru, you can just use www.win741.com (click 'buy' 'buy now' and on the bottom it says contact Customer Support, just click on that and it will get you to the right screen)

You said you recieved a response from their support, for me the post ends in the questions

O, its about half way down on this thread.. but here it is again in case you didnt see it..
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Dear Customer,

Thank you for choosing Windows 7 Online store.

We understand that you are interested to purchase Windows 7 Upgrade
through our online store.

We apologize for the confusion.

The Windows 7 offered in this promotion is a full version. You can
install this product even though
you do not have a previous Operating System installed in your computer
or if you want to make a multi
boot using Windows 7. The "Upgrade" included in the product name is just
because Windows 7 is the
latest Operating System Windows developed.

Sincerely,
Joanna A.
Windows 7 Offer online store
Customer Service
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-
-

LOL, just received another email from a different person from microsoft seal who said it's just an upgrade

Thanks for the info, but unfortunately, it pretty complicated, my school doesn't assign edu addresses, so i had to send a copy of my schedule(which i did approx 3 weeks ago) digital river customer service is horrible, im frankly getting a little frustrated. I have vista business with a win 7 upgrade, but i dont want to have to load vista, then the upgrade everytime i need to do a clean install, thats why i want the windows 7 copy, cant get it from microsft because of the edu issue.

I am currently at university in the UK so not sure if this is worldwide but i got windows 7 professional edition for free under academic license. it may be available to anyway at university, ask your lecturers or something at university. here is the link of where you can find out more.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/academic/default.aspx

i can get xp pro, vista pro almost anything off there for free

The dvd has both 32 and 64 bit versions on it. If you download it you will probably be able to select which version you want.

So very glad I found this thread. I have a legit xp key from several years ago but it got lost at some point or another. So needless to say, ive had to run a cracked version for the last year or so. I'd been wanting to get a full retail version of Win7 when it comes out without having to worry about any of the upgrade stuff hassling me. So I called up the microsoft store, gave them my student email, and bam. Windows 7 pro for 30 bucks! Next day air and tax bumped up the total to about 50 bucks, but im pretty happy now

PCRAYZ is on the money! I called them just now and was honest with them.

I said "I bought windows 7 pro upgrade on YOUR windows7 student site but I've been told that if I go through you guys directly you can get me the FULL version of windows7 pro at the student discount. Is that true?"

The lady was kind and confirmed. 5 minutes later I know have a confirmed copy of the FULL version of Windows 7 Professional for $30!!! Excellent customer service!

I forgot to specify what version I want (32bit or 64bit) can someone confirm that BOTH versions are in one disc? Im assuming the fact that she didnt ask me which one means that both are on the disk...

Awesome! Yeah, the DVD has BOTH 32 and 64 bit versions on it.

Well if that's truly the case then I still gotta better deal going through MS Store because the shipping is only $4.99 vs $13.00 that digital river wants for the DVD version.

Well I still have my purchase from DigitalRiver as well from the MS Store so I'll find out which one is the real deal come release day : )

Alrighty then!