Tushman Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 (edited) I found a great deal online for Windows 7 for $30 the other day and just installed it today. I've been running XP Pro and I was going to stick with it until the end of this year but $30 was just too good to pass up. After having worked on several computers with Vista, I wasn't sure how I was going to like 7....So far so good. The UAC is far less annoying than Vista and it's actually a good thing.Win 7 Pro (64-bit)Total Install Time: 37 minSize on Disk: Approx. 10.6 GB (before updates)Base index score: 5.7I found it odd that it never asked for a copy or proof of ownership of a previous windows OS during the upgrade. After booting up with the upgrade disc, I chose the custom' install option & formatted the C: drive. I don't know how it could have detected that XP was already on there considering I had chosen the format option before the install/upgrade process.... Has anyone had a similar experience or run into any different? Edited September 9, 2010 by Tushman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbdietz Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I found a great deal online for Windows 7 for $30 the other day and just installed it today.Wow. That's cheap - scary cheap. You're sure it's a legit copy? If so, care to share a link? I found it odd that it never asked for a copy or proof of ownership of a previous windows OS during the upgrade. After booting up with the upgrade disc, I chose the custom' install option & formatted the C: drive. I don't know how it could have detected that XP was already on there considering I had chosen the format option before the install/upgrade process.... Has anyone had a similar experience or run into any different?If you chose the format option from a menu of choices after booting up with the Win7 upgrade DVD, no doubt "format" included a check for legit Windows XP prior to the format and then secretly recorded a key to validate the upgrade somewhere on the HD after the format operation but prior to a necessary reboot with the Win7 upgrade DVD???Maybe Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows:Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media page sheds some light on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Congrats on the new Win7 install! Yes, much better than Vista! I actually like Win7. I don't want to talk about my feelings for Vista, they aren't pretty. ;)Like rbdietz, if it is a legit site, please share, bujt it does sound scary cheap to me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted September 9, 2010 Author Share Posted September 9, 2010 (edited) Congrats on the new Win7 install! Yes, much better than Vista! I actually like Win7. I don't want to talk about my feelings for Vista, they aren't pretty. LOL! I think I can empathize.Like rbdietz, if it is a legit site, please share, bujt it does sound scary cheap to me too.It was a promotion for students with a valid edu domain e-mail address. You had to enter it on their website in order to get the download link. Luckily for me, I have a couple of friends who are still in school so I asked one of them to purchase it for me and I cut him a check.As far as I could tell, it seemed to be legit. I think it was Microsoft's online store - I remember the URL had the words "digital river" it in... I'll have to look through my e-mails to see if I can post the link or not. If I cannot post it, you guys can search for it on Fatwallet - it was posted recently (maybe 5 days ago).Edit:OK, nevermind - I just found the thread on FW.http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1018453/http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/us/win...ow/default.aspx Edited September 9, 2010 by Tushman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Ah, that is a great deal for students that Microsoft is doing.Brings it down to the price of the Mac OS X operating system install disk. or within a few cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac Posted September 10, 2010 Share Posted September 10, 2010 My wife works for a high school here and purchased 2 upgrade copies (a 32bit pro, and a 64bit pro) on DVD from a site that caters to educational institutions. $39 per, plus $4.99 shipping. I clean installed the 64 bit onto a new HDD as a dual-boot with XP Pro (I have two (old) hardware devices that don't, and probably won't ever, have drivers for 64bit WIN7). I upgraded her PC from Vista Business 32bit to WIN7 32 bit Pro. Both installs went smoothly. This is the first MS O/S install I've ever done (going all the way back to WIN3.1) that the O/S installed all the hardware drivers during the install. When I manually turned on (woke up) my networked laser printer, WIN7 on my new 64bit install offered to, and did, install the correct driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 10, 2010 Share Posted September 10, 2010 Yep, for the most part it works very much like a Mac OS X system in recognizing hardware and just installing it. LOL!When it doesn't 'get' the hardware drivers, or more importantly doesn't support some fairly new hardware ...it can get really interesting.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patio Posted September 10, 2010 Share Posted September 10, 2010 Tush you may as well grab the latest ver of Office for that deal... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted September 10, 2010 Share Posted September 10, 2010 Yep, for the most part it works very much like a Mac OS X system in recognizing hardware and just installing it. LOL!When it doesn't 'get' the hardware drivers, or more importantly doesn't support some fairly new hardware ...it can get really interesting....As everyone knows, I'm not much of a Redmond fan, but it isn't quite fair to compare the driver situation of the Mac OS, when only Apple hardware need apply, and that of Win7, which has to support hardware from hundreds of third party vendors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 10, 2010 Share Posted September 10, 2010 Overall regarding internal hardware, I totally agree lewmur.But I was referring to printers and other peripherals. I should have specified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted September 10, 2010 Share Posted September 10, 2010 Are you guys saying that after around 15 years they have finally got something close to Plug and Play to actually work?They introduced this feature with Windows 95, I think. We used to call it 'Plug and Pray' for a reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted September 10, 2010 Author Share Posted September 10, 2010 Yep, for the most part it works very much like a Mac OS X system in recognizing hardware and just installing it. LOL!When it doesn't 'get' the hardware drivers, or more importantly doesn't support some fairly new hardware ...it can get really interesting....Bambi - this is the first time that I've ever done an installation of Win7. Can you elaborate what you meant by that?My wife works for a high school here and purchased 2 upgrade copies (a 32bit pro, and a 64bit pro) on DVD from a site that caters to educational institutions. $39 per, plus $4.99 shipping. I clean installed the 64 bit onto a new HDD as a dual-boot with XP Pro (I have two (old) hardware devices that don't, and probably won't ever, have drivers for 64bit WIN7). I upgraded her PC from Vista Business 32bit to WIN7 32 bit Pro. Both installs went smoothly. This is the first MS O/S install I've ever done (going all the way back to WIN3.1) that the O/S installed all the hardware drivers during the install. When I manually turned on (woke up) my networked laser printer, WIN7 on my new 64bit install offered to, and did, install the correct driver. I agree with you Mac - installation of hardware with the exception of one device was a breeze for me too. I have a HP Photosmart printer that is approximately 5 years old and Win7 installed it (driver) w/out a hiccup. Surprisingly, the information on HP's website said that they did not have a 64-bit version available & instructed to use the driver that comes with Win7 should. *actually* that reminds me.... I should actually print out some stuff today to see if the darn thing works or not. Although it installed my printer & webcam just fine, device manager lists my WD external drive in the "other category". Rather odd. This is the first time that I've used an external device via a firewire connection, so not sure if it's considered normal or not. When I updated Win 7, i noticed there was an update related to this WD drive but opted not to install it because I've always been in the habit of downloading drivers directly from the hardware manufacturer.Tush you may as well grab the latest ver of Office for that deal...Yep, I was tempted to jump in on the deal but ultimately decided not to for several reasons. First of all, I already have 2 copies of the 2007 version and I'm fine with it. It took me forever to get used to the ribbon, and I'm just getting to the point of being "comfy" with '07. I played around with the 2010 trial version - I didn't see that much difference really. For the few minor improvements, I didn't feel like shelling out the extra bucks. There was actually a thread on FW forums recently talking about how you can purchase the 2010 version for like $10.... I'm not going there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 11, 2010 Share Posted September 11, 2010 Well...let me see... specifically, I had a client that bought the 64-bit Win7 Ultimate with a new Dell computer right after Win7 came out.HP took months to get updated drivers, particularly for 64-bit, for many of their printers...one of which was the all in one printer my client had.It just wouldn't work with the HP drivers for Win7 at all and many of the features that he bought it for wouldn't work at all.He got a new HP all in one printer that stated it worked for Win7 and all was well with the new updated drivers from the HP website.That was one specific case...there are others.Win7 has gotten much better at drivers since it has been out for a while now.Oh, and in many cases, if there are not drivers for Win7 for your peripheral, don't think you can use a Vista driver... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted September 11, 2010 Author Share Posted September 11, 2010 Win7 has gotten much better at drivers since it has been out for a while now.Oh, and in many cases, if there are not drivers for Win7 for your peripheral, don't think you can use a Vista driver...I've heard that before. I find it so odd considering that Win7 is based on the same code as Vista, that the drivers won't work. At any rate, I'm sort of glad I waited to upgrade to Win7 .... not that EVGA (my motherboard & video card manufacturer) is bad at releasing updated drivers... but it's good to let the OS mature for a little while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted September 12, 2010 Share Posted September 12, 2010 Hello,I think it really depends on the class of device. If the driver model changed significantly between Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7, then you would need an updated device driver. Some hardware companies ship "universal" device driver packs for all supported versions of Microsoft Windows, and some also release the Windows Vista and Windows 7 drivers in the same package, so it can be a little difficult to determine if a particular piece of hardware has different device drivers. For example, there are three versions of NDIS (the Network Driver Interface Specification) to be supported across Windows Vista, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7. Likewise, some software programs that rely on device drivers for low-level access to disks for purposes like security, backup, CD/DVD/BD burning may require file system filter drivers specific to the operating system in which they are installed.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky I've heard that before. I find it so odd considering that Win7 is based on the same code as Vista, that the drivers won't work. At any rate, I'm sort of glad I waited to upgrade to Win7 .... not that EVGA (my motherboard & video card manufacturer) is bad at releasing updated drivers... but it's good to let the OS mature for a little while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted September 12, 2010 Author Share Posted September 12, 2010 Hello,I think it really depends on the class of device. If the driver model changed significantly between Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7, then you would need an updated device driver. Some hardware companies ship "universal" device driver packs for all supported versions of Microsoft Windows, and some also release the Windows Vista and Windows 7 drivers in the same package, so it can be a little difficult to determine if a particular piece of hardware has different device drivers. For example, there are three versions of NDIS (the Network Driver Interface Specification) to be supported across Windows Vista, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7. Likewise, some software programs that rely on device drivers for low-level access to disks for purposes like security, backup, CD/DVD/BD burning may require file system filter drivers specific to the operating system in which they are installed.Regards,Aryeh GoretskyThat's helpful information. Thanks Goretsky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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