Windows 7

jamieh

Hi all,

I bought a Sony Vaio TT laptop from laptopsdirect.ie yesterday.

Will I be entitled to a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out or do I have to fork out for it?

cpu-dude

jamieh wrote: »

Hi all,

I bought a Sony Vaio TT laptop from laptopsdirect.ie yesterday.

Will I be entitled to a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out or do I have to fork out for it?

If it's not using Windows Vista Home Basic or Starter Edition, then yes you are entitled to the free upgrade.

Overview Of The Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program

The Windows 7 Upgrade Program is designed to assist Microsoft's OEM partners in minimizing the number of end users who may postpone acquiring a new computer because of the impending release of the Windows 7 operating system. This program allows OEMs to offer an upgrade to Windows 7 to end users who qualify.

This is a consumer-oriented program targeted at individual consumers and small businesses that have purchased eligible PCs during the Program Eligibility Period. End users will have to meet these requirements to be deemed eligible for the upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released :

* End users must purchase a new PC that is pre-installed with an eligible Windows Vista Operating System (OS), during the program eligibility window.

* The PC must have a valid Certificate of Authenticity (COA) attached.

* The only Windows Vista® versions eligible for the program are:

1. Windows Vista® Home Premium
2. Windows Vista® Business
3. Windows Vista® Ultimate

* Microsoft Windows Vista® Home Basic, Windows Vista® Starter Edition, and Windows® XP (all editions) are not qualifying products under the program.

* The Program does not support multiple upgrades for medium, large, or enterprise customers. Customers that want to upgrade multiple PCs should use the appropriate Microsoft Volume Licensing program. See www.microsoft.com/licensing for more details.

* The following are the only valid upgrade paths under the program:

1. Windows Vista® Home Premium -> Windows® 7 Home Premium
2. Windows Vista® Business -> Windows® 7 Professional
3. Windows Vista® Ultimate -> Windows® 7 Ultimate

Do note that this is an optional program, so not all OEMs may choose to participate. OEMs that choose to participate in this upgrade program will have the freedom to determine how to best provide qualifying end users with the details.

jamieh

cpu-dude wrote: »

If it's not using Windows Vista Home Basic or Starter Edition, then yes you are entitled to the free upgrade.

Hey,

Thanks for your reply.

It's Vista Business so looks like I'm good.

Do I go through Sony, Microsoft or Laptops Direct to get the upgrade when it's available?

ScumLord

Installing win7 was absolutely painless, it just casually slid onto the hard drive, even got my wireless card working (couldn't do that the last time I tried). In use I found it very speedy even though I'm down to only 2gb of ram. Haven't really put it under any pressure yet though.

Has anyone used more than 4gb of ram to take advantage of the new higher limits? I want to buy another 4gb and put it in, will I notice much of a difference?

Ginger

I am using it with 4GB tho I am using x64 so ...

x86 (32bit editions) are still limited to 4GB or 3.XGB depending on your config

Different x64 editions can use between 8Gb and 192GB

Starter: 8GB
Home Basic: 8GB
Home Premium: 16GB
Professional: 192GB
Enterprise: 192GB
Ultimate: 192GB

ScumLord

Ginger wrote: »

I am using it with 4GB tho I am using x64 so ...

x86 (32bit editions) are still limited to 4GB or 3.XGB depending on your config

Different x64 editions can use between 8Gb and 192GB

Starter: 8GB
Home Basic: 8GB
Home Premium: 16GB
Professional: 192GB
Enterprise: 192GB
Ultimate: 192GB

I'm on 64bit too, ram is so cheap online it seems silly not to take advantage of the higher, limits.

ynotdu

Late yesterday Microsoft revealed that it had made available Release Candidate software allowing Windows 7 users to operate a virtual edition of its still very popular Windows XP.
The news is good for those of us still hesitant to make the upgrade to Windows 7. Although most of us won't know for sure how well 'XP Mode' will work until Windows 7 is released on October 22, many faithful XP users will be happy to hear that they can switch back in time if the Win7 interface isn't to their liking.
CPU Virtualization Required

Windows XP Mode Release Candidate is currently available for download from Microsoft's Windows web site, but the software does require a CPU (Central Processing Unit) be equipped with virtualization capabilities. Both AMD and Intel offer their own brand of virtualization technology and not all CPUs have this capability. A brief list of CPUs with virtualization support are listed via wikipedia and include both AMD and Intel.
Microsoft's decision to release XP Mode was spurred on by popular demand. Because Windows Vista had so much trouble with compatibility issues when it was released in 2007, frightened but prospective Win7 users asked that an alternative OS be built into the highly-anticipated operating system.
Business Users Bark Loudest

Amongst the loudest advocates of XP Mode were business users, who became immediately concerned when Microsoft revealed that Windows 7 would be built on the same kernel as its predecessor, Windows Vista. To many, that sounded like a warning that compatibility issues could follow. (Source: pcworld.com)

In a statement yesterday, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger Brandon LeBlanc appeared to confirm that XP Mode was intended to ease the fears of business users concerned about compatibility issues. "Windows XP Mode is specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses to help ease the migration process to Windows 7 by providing additional compatibility for their older productivity applications," LeBlanc said. (Source: informationweek.com)

Rattlehead_ie

Well todays the day that Technet and MSDN subs get their hands on the RTM! It'll probably be up around 6pm GMT once all America has woken up.

I'll be downloading this straight away Ive been using build the Pre Beta build (old school) and I have had one crash and thats cause I was messing around with the registry and deleted the wrong thing.

Anyone else gona be watching the technet download centre?

Jonathan

I'm hoping it will be up on my MSDNAA account later.

ScumLord

What's this now, do I need to upgrade Win7. I only downloaded it last week.

JohnK

Lucky feckers and your msdn/technet!!!

Stephen

Scumlord: its the final release they're talking about. Microsoft won't be making it available to regular punters until the official release date.

MrSparkle

I've been watching technet since 1.30 or so. No sign of it yet. Why are they only putting it up around 6 GMT?


Here's voucher codes for 25% off Technet. Comes out at 340 for a years subscription. I'm not sure if they're still working, they worked for me 2 weeks ago.

TMSAM01
TMSAM02

Jonathan

MrSparkle wrote: »

I've been watching technet since 1.30 or so. No sign of it yet. Why are they only putting it up around 6 GMT?

Around noon us time.

ScumLord

Stephen wrote: »

Scumlord: its the final release they're talking about. Microsoft won't be making it available to regular punters until the official release date.

Sound, so it's nothing I need to worry myself with then?

I assume they'll be keeping this RC version up to date until I'm forced to buy?


Win7 really is a better OS from what I can tell, I just realised I'm working with half the ram (2gig instead of 4) and it's still faster than XP was. Granted the ram was faulty and the version of XP I had installed had probably become bloated over the years, still though, tis fast.

Rattlehead_ie

Its alive.....its alive or sorry live on Technet and MSDN now

Jonathan

No sign of it on MSDNAA yet.

kaizersoze

MrSparkle wrote: »

I've been watching technet since 1.30 or so. No sign of it yet. Why are they only putting it up around 6 GMT?


Here's voucher codes for 25% off Technet. Comes out at 340 for a years subscription. I'm not sure if they're still working, they worked for me 2 weeks ago.

TMSAM01
TMSAM02

Thanks for the codes. They're still working...well the second one is anyway. That's the one I used.

MrSparkle

kaizersoze wrote: »

Thanks for the codes. They're still working...well the second one is anyway. That's the one I used.

No problem kaisersoze, it's a fairly good deal for the amount of software they have up there, I'm after getting Server 2003, 2008, Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 in the last few days. had a few of them before but it's all above board this time! It's after paying for itself already.

Ok why is Windows 7 Ultimate only available to Technet Guest? No keys up for it either. - Other people are having the same problem. No Windows 7 keys

Downloading Windows 7 Professional in the meantime. Something to play with for the weekend.

Sconsey

Same as that now, I just went to grab a copy from Technet and all versions are available except Ultimate, there are keys for it but the iso is not available for download.

Meh, I guess home premium will do me!

Rattlehead_ie

MSDN for the win

Downloaded and installed last night after doing a back up from Pre Beta v7000. It actually is smoother than my original install which is fantastic and there seems to be less "odd" occurrences, but didn't get to play with it fully.

feylya

Have the 32 and 64 bit versions downloading from Technet at the moment, with keys for both

Jonathan

Just emailed my sysadmin.

Win7 Pro should be up on MSDNAA on the 16th. Or so he is told.

Sconsey

Sconsey wrote: »

Same as that now, I just went to grab a copy from Technet and all versions are available except Ultimate, there are keys for it but the iso is not available for download.

Meh, I guess home premium will do me!

If you have a key and just need the Ultimate media then you can modify an existing ISO from another version. Use an editor such as UltraISO to delete the \sources\ei.cfg file and burn the modified image. Then during setup you'll be prompted to choose the version you want to install.

weeder

which build is this?

Rattlehead_ie

The build is 7600 which is the same as RTM which is the build that people will be buying , installing and manufacturers will be supplying with their machines i.e. the final build

Jonathan

Could ye not just download Windows 7 Enterprise instead?

Very little differences between that and Ultimate (unlike Vista Enterprise and Ultimate.)

griffdaddy

Installed Windows 7 64 Ultimate Edition yesterday, moved from Vista home premium 32. I've a fairly bog standard Dell Vostro 1000 that I beefed up with 4gb of ram, still only have an AMD 64 dual-core TK-53 1.7GHz and ATI xpress on-board graphics but the difference in speed is ridiculous. 7 runs way way smoother than vista, although this could be because it recognises all the ram whereas Vista 32 didn't. It seems like this could be the operating system that really grabs the everyday user as well, it's light enough to multi-task well and the big, user-friendly toolbar really makes having a few things going, (openoffice, messenger, firefox, winamp) easily manageable and uncomplicated. I'll be sticking with it anyway!

calex71

tried it in the beta , and hated it.

A week into giving it another chance, and im getting used to it.
Every thing just seems to take more clicks regards the taskbar and system tray, which i don't like, restoring the quick launch tool bar from it's hiding place was a must for me. Also setting some short cut's to vista compatibility so that they acted like I expected in the tray.

Another minor niggle due to my setup is the network and sharing center, again takes more clicks to get to where I want and now it seem's theres no clicky to set the network to private which is a bit annoying.

Over all though file transfers from external devices are better than vista as are the load times of folders with a lot of files like pics or music.

Guess it would be more or a shock to the system if someone went to it from xp

ynotdu

Hi,
I use various websites to watch streaming/p2p.
one i know i can mention is justin.tv but its happening on other sites i use as well.

The problem is i am getting no audio.The speaker symbol is red.
I have added them to compatible mode on IE8,made no diffrience.
I have tried them on Firefox and have the same problem.
I am using RC build 7100 on a Dell inspiron 1720.

i have a desktop running windows XP and have tested the sites on it and have no sound problems on that.

Anybody know what the problem might be using windows 7?
cheers.

P.S this problem does not affect youtube etc,so i dont think its a hardware problem.