Is Windows 7 the new Windows XP?

tommycahir

cormie wrote: »

Could I not just use the XP license I will be getting if I buy a new laptop though? Don't want to buy it twice...?

If you are buying a new laptop you will almost 100% get Win 7 installed as default, if you are using an older laptop then you can use the older license once you meet the specific licensing requirements (eg only installed on 1 pc at time etc)

cormie wrote: »

Is that nlite thing easy enough to use? I wouldn't be too technical but could do basic stuff I guess as long as everything is explained from within the program.

What way does it work, do you use nlite as a boot disc and choose all these options before, or do you need an OS installed, then set it up on the OS program, then it somehow formats and reinstalls with your choices?

There is a pretty comprehensive guide here (Link).
It is very straightforward when you follow the guide but in summary:
1) extract the files from your cd to a folder on your machine
2) add drives, service packs and customise install
3) package the changes back into an ISO
4) Burn ISO file to a dvd and use as per normal

The crucial point here is to have a copy of the install media needed for your windows license.

tommycahir

cormie wrote: »

is it possible to get the same type of retail copy, free of any extras and that will work on any new system if I cease use of the old?

This very much depends on what type of license you have for the OS that is installed on the new laptop you get if you decide to cease use. Here is some info on Windows licencing

Windows Licensing Guide
When acquiring new computers, you may be confused about how to
legitimately license your Microsoft® Windows® operating systems. Here
are a few guidelines to help clarify Microsoft licensing rules and to help
protect you from piracy or unlicensed software.
• There are two ways to acquire your initial Windows license.
1. An OEM version from your PC manufacturer where the Windows software
is preinstalled and supported by that PC manufacturer.
2. A retail version. This version is generally the most expensive option and is
supported by Microsoft via phone and web.
• Preinstalled OEM software is the least expensive method.
Acquiring your Windows operating system preinstalled from your OEM or
system builder is the least expensive and most efficient way to acquire a
genuine Windows operating system license.
• Volume License Agreements (including Software Assurance)
offer Windows upgrades only.
The initial full Windows operating system license is not available via any
Microsoft Volume License Program (Open, Select, Enterprise Agreement,
Software Assurance) including Academic Volume License Programs (Campus,
School Agreements) and programs designed for governmental acquiring.
These Volume License Programs offer Windows upgrades only.
Upgrades are designed to upgrade previously acquired full Windows licenses.
You must first acquire the full Windows license via the OEM or retail channel.
• OEM software cannot be transferred.
An OEM Windows operating system license cannot be transferred from one
computer system to another, even if the computer system on which it was
originally installed is no longer in use. It is tied to the initial computer on
which it was installed.*
For more information, please see
www.microsoft.com/genuinewindows

Link

cormie

Thanks a lot for that. So it's just a case of dragging all files from the Windows 7 CD I get from dell, to a folder on the computer and following the steps, then it creates a bootable disc which will do the custom format and install? Sounds great and I like the sound of the "unattended" option too

One question, if I make a nice customisable CD and want to install this on someone elses computer, do they only need their own OEM license that matches their computer/retail license, or would they need to do the whole thing over, dragging the files from their own manufacturer supplied disc?

cormie

Hi again,
I received my new laptop today but I can't see a Windows 7 install CD with it at all. Only a drivers and software CD. How would I go about getting the Windows 7 software to use with the nlite software?

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

Hi again,
I received my new laptop today but I can't see a Windows 7 install CD with it at all. Only a drivers and software CD. How would I go about getting the Windows 7 software to use with the nlite software?

The OS is probably stored on a hidden partition, some manufacturers allow you to burn a copy of the OS to a DVD or 2 so look for an option to make recovery discs usually has the manufacturers name I.e: Dell recovery disc, HP recovery disc, Sony etc. A Microsoft Windows recovery disc is not the same thing, it can be done from within the backup centre in control panel but does not record the whole OS

Nick

cormie

Thanks yoyo, that's strange, haven't come across that before. Would it be the same as buying a retail version of Windows home and just using that disc, other than the license of course, as in, same files etc?

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

Thanks yoyo, that's strange, haven't come across that before. Would it be the same as buying a retail version of Windows home and just using that disc, other than the license of course, as in, same files etc?

Very common unfortunately these days, the bizare thing is they give you a driver disc and no OS disc, surely if they include one why not the other, you should be able to download the disc here and use the license key on the back of the machine to activate it. Btw nLite has been surpassed by Vlite so you may wish to check that one out

Nick

cormie

That's brilliant yoyo, a clean iso is much preferred over a dell pack I think!

Thanks for letting me know about vlite too, so it's still the same as above?

1) extract the files from your cd (or ISO in this case) to a folder on your machine
2) add drives, service packs and customise install
3) package the changes back into an ISO
4) Burn ISO file to a dvd and use as per normal

The crucial point here is to have a copy of the install media needed for your windows license.

Where would I get the service pack and drives mentioned though?

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

That's brilliant yoyo, a clean iso is much preferred over a dell pack I think!

Thanks for letting me know about vlite too, so it's still the same as above?




Where would I get the service pack and drives mentioned though?

Yeah definitely, Its great Microsoft finally allow you do this. Yeah vLite should work the same, always look for the full servicepacks, for 7 it should be here (KB976932). I havn't used vLite, but as the setup routine for Windows Vista and 7 are the same, and XP vastly different, you shouldn't run into any issues with vLite, sure try an install on a virtual machine before burning it if worried about wasting a DVD :P

Nick

Nick

cormie

Thanks a lot Nick, so from the page you linked to, do you have any idea what files I should get? I'm guessing the 1.9gb one at the top and then one of the .exe's at the bottom? I've icore Q7 processor with 6gb ram and windows 64 bit if that makes a difference?

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

Thanks a lot Nick, so from the page you linked to, do you have any idea what files I should get? I'm guessing the 1.9gb one at the top and then one of the .exe's at the bottom? I've icore Q7 processor with 6gb ram and windows 64 bit if that makes a difference?

windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe

This is the one for your system. You'd only need the .iso if you were deploying on 32 & 64 bit machines, but the one above will work for you:
x86=32bit
x64=64bit
ix64=Itanium based CPUs I think

Nick

cormie

Thanks AGAIN nick will download that and try run it with vlite and see how I get on

westcoast1

Tallon wrote: »

Stick with XP

My laptop and backup PC run it.

I LOVE W7 but, it makes no sense to install it on a machine that is much better suited to XP

Good thinking I agree

cormie

I ended up buying a legitimate copy of Windows Ultimate off a friend at a very good price. It's a full retail license So I'm planning to install THAT with vlite but I tried open up vlite and it's saying something about features being needed, "File system filter manager" and "Wim filter", there's an install button beside each but the FSFM is greyed out and the WIM one takes me to a 1.03gb file to download, I did download it but it's just an iso, not too sure where to go from here

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

I ended up buying a legitimate copy of Windows Ultimate off a friend at a very good price. It's a full retail license So I'm planning to install THAT with vlite but I tried open up vlite and it's saying something about features being needed, "File system filter manager" and "Wim filter", there's an install button beside each but the FSFM is greyed out and the WIM one takes me to a 1.03gb file to download, I did download it but it's just an iso, not too sure where to go from here

You will need to download (Google) and install the Wim Filter into the VLite program folder, apparently Microsoft didn't want it to be included with VLite

Nick

cormie

Thanks a lot Nick will give it a go! What about the file system filter manager issue?

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

Thanks a lot Nick will give it a go! What about the file system filter manager issue?

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/137330-fltmgrsys-vlite-wont-run/

This may assist

Nick

demanufactured

Why are you bothering with vlite at all??
Just go ahead and install the ultimate edition you bought.
During install pick custom install and you can format the hard drive and do a clean install.

Your making this way more complicated for yourself.

cormie

Thanks for the advice you're not the first to say not to bother with vlite but to be honest, if I can set it up exactly how I want and just create an ISO from that which I can use again in the future on any machine now I have an ultimate retail version, I'd rather spend the time tweaking it to my preferences now. Probably won't even tweak too much Just as long as I don't mess anything up!

cormie

Just got a chance to start with Vlite now, have made a few adjustments and got rid of a few things like accessibility/mobility etc so hopefully that won't be an issue in future. Now I'm at the unattended section and I see the only option in UI language is English (United States), now always in XP, I've chosen English (irish) but can't see this option here?

Time and currency and keyboard can both be set as Irish so I'm not sure why UI can't be either?

cormie

Damn, just tried the vlite install and it gave an error, I didn't even change that much, was using the SP1 ultimate iso. I think I might just have to install it without vlite as looking through the vlite forums, there seems a lot of people's custom installs are throwing up all kinds of different errors, could end up burning a lot of DVD's and spending hours trying to get an error free install in this case

demanufactured

Not to say I told you so but.......


I am a qualified tech and i struggled to get vlite to work.

Best thing to do would be this.

Install windows fresch from the DVD.

Install any anti virus/utilities and programs that you will use.

Use something like acronis true image to make an image of the machine afterwards.


I worked in an IT dept that did this...and they had all the know how and tools to set up unattended installs..but it was more work than it was worth for the company. (they had about 250 different machines on the domain)

cormie

Thanks for the advice, ended up just going the regular install route, kinda good in a way as I get to see exactly what's on W7 anyway, doesn't seem to be much crap anyway. I just have to install a load of programs that I used on XP now and eventually will have everything set up and tweaked the way I like it. A daunting task lies ahead though as I imagine it's going to take forever!

cormie

demanufactured, with the likes of Acronis and everything, how did it deal with computers with different components, for example a copy of the windows installation originally made on a pc with different spec to 30 other PC's that you were also using the acronis image to put windows on? Does it cause problems with driver and device settings?

Can anyone advise the best way to go about the next step, basically I'm still using my old laptop as it has all my personal files, email client, bookmarks, bookkeeping files etc which I may update daily. What's the best way to go about a seamless transfer to the new laptop?

Also, I may have mentioned that I'm quite obsessive when it comes to the organisation of my files. On the old laptop, I basically have ONE folder on the desktop, called "Temp", which holds everything (music, accounts, photos, videos and all other personal files) as well as containing paths which are associated with other programs. So for example, my mp3 tagging software is defaulted to a path within the temp folder (lets say windows > desktop > temp > music > tag) which is where music that is awaiting tagging would go.

I'd actually like to change the main folder name from "Temp" to just something simple like "Files", Temp was in itself, a temporary name but ended up sticking. If I do that, will all file and path associations be messed up from within the programs?

Of course, this would only be the case if I somehow managed to take all the settings from the programs from the old laptop to the new one, I know these are contained in a .ini file in the tag software so as far as I know, I only need to copy that, can do a fresh install on new laptop and then paste it into the program folder. Is this the case with ALL programs? Are all user settings stored in a .ini file and this is all I need to do after doing a fresh install, or is there a better way to go about it, or hopefully not, a more complicated way it'll need to be done?

Other file associations may include: Winamp program being associated with library, map files and shortcuts etc, which files are all stored in sub folders of "temp".

Have kind of been stalling on installing these programs on the new laptop as I'm not too sure the best way to go about it so any help would be greatly appreciated

demanufactured

With acronis we only made images for specific machines if we had enough of them.

On the issue of your files...
There is the.easy transfer wizard in windows 7 .


Or if both laptops are on the same network you can just copy everything across manually.

cormie

Thanks for that, have never used a transfer wizard, I just don't want it to be the case where I'm copying over loads of incompatible files that may cause problems?

would you have any idea on the folder name issue, for example, if I change the Desktop > Temp to Desktop > Files, could this cause issues or should windows automatically adjust all file paths? What if for example I even did it on my old laptop BEFORE putting everything on the new one? If I change the name of the folder now, will all the programs I have associated within that folder need new associations I wonder?

demanufactured

Shouldnt mess up any associations
I have found the best way to copy is do each folder one at a time.

Desktop > Desktop
My Documents > Documents
My Pictures > Pictures

Just copy the folder contents and not the folders themselves.

Are both machines connected to your broadband router??
If they are you can just share the entire C: Drive on your old XP machine and you can access it from the newer windows 7 machine.

cormie

Thanks for that, connected over wifi, yeah, but I have an external drive and I may aswell back it up while I'm at it. I've never done the network sharing so wouldn't be comfortable with that

So you reckon changing a folder name doesn't ruin the associations from within programs etc? That's great !

demanufactured

No because the files are associated with the programs, not the folders....and its a freshly installed systems so your gonna have to set the associations yourself anyway.

Back it all up to your external drive then copy across the network...simples.

cormie

Thanks a lot for the help, hopefully won't run into any problems