Windows 7 Student offer Problems

[handscombmp]

My little brothers got a couple of problems in getting the windows 7 student offer and being as i fair amount of you guys are students i thought i'd ask you.

He's currently in a sixth form at the moment (first year) and wants to get the student offer. Now he doesn't have a student email address thingy but he's got a student card and when you try and buy Win 7 Home premium on the webiste it has a form to fill in and attacht your student card picture.
Now the problem is, is that this would work fine but he wants to get the Win 7 Pro (same price, more features so why not) but the website hasn't got a link to order the win 7 version (unless it's in the email MS say they will send you) without a student email address.

Anyone got any idea's.

Plus he's got Vista home Premium at the moment and wants to do a clean install. Can he do this with both of the OS versions.

[Tonka777]

The option to choose pro is on the next page after having your e-mail address validated IIRC, so i would assume it is on the page after submitting the picture etc.

You can do a clean install with both, but with a bit of trickery, i think! link.

[handscombmp]

Originally Posted by Tonka777

You can do a clean install with both, but with a bit of trickery, i think! link.

Thanks.

I thought i read somewhere though that you had the option of also getting it on a disc.

Also whats to stop him using another win 7 install disc and just entering his key code when it asks for it.

[Tonka777]

You have an option to pay an extra £9 and have a back up disc sent to you. I think you can also ask for this to be sent after you have placed the order, so if you need it in a few months you can get it without having to pay again.

I'm not sure about using a different disc, i assume its like previous Microsoft OS's, where you are actually paying for a license for the unique key, not the disc, but wouldn't like to say for sure without someone trying it!

[handscombmp]

Originally Posted by Tonka777

I'm not sure about using a different disc, i assume its like previous Microsoft OS's, where you are actually paying for a license for the unique key, not the disc, but wouldn't like to say for sure without someone trying it!

That what i would have thought this would be.

Also i know it says you need a current OS but is this an upgrade one or a retail one.

Eg can my bro install it on a new pc a year down the line.

[Tonka777]

Originally Posted by handscombmp

Eg can my bro install it on a new pc a year down the line.

I think so, if you go through the trickery above to make an iso to burn to disc. Not 100% sure though, and also not 100% sure of the legalities of doing so. Hope that helps!

[snootyjim]

I thought that they had released an iso in response to the mess that was created by the previous installation system for the student offer.

[ajones]

Whilst you can perform a clean upgrade using the Win7 upgrade package you get through the student offer, I believe you would be technically breaking the license if you installed it on a machine that didn't already have an Win OS licensed for it; I've recently performed a fresh install of Win7Pro for my son through the student scheme onto a new SSD, and it didn't ask for a previous OS license. However, his machine did previously have WinXP on it so from the licensing point of view he's sorted.

This would get even more complicated if further down the line he changed the PC and tried to use the same license key.

[nightkhaos]

Originally Posted by ajones

Whilst you can perform a clean upgrade using the Win7 upgrade package you get through the student offer, I believe you would be technically breaking the license if you installed it on a machine that didn't already have an Win OS licensed for it; I've recently performed a fresh install of Win7Pro for my son through the student scheme onto a new SSD, and it didn't ask for a previous OS license. However, his machine did previously have WinXP on it so from the licensing point of view he's sorted.

This would get even more complicated if further down the line he changed the PC and tried to use the same license key.

Actually the licensing clearly states that an upgrade license is merely an extension of the previous operating system it is replacing. This means that if the orignal operating system on the machine was an OEM copy that he would not be able to move to another machine.

If, however, orignal copy was an Retail copy, then he could happily move machines. What is important to note however is that by using the upgrade copy you invalidate the previous license.

Techincally however there is nothing to prevent tactics to be used to avoid these licensing restrictions, such as the fact that there is no means for Microsoft to invalidate the key of the operating system you upgrade from, and that the upgrade valdiation only checks if there was a flag in the registry set that says there was a previous install of Windows when the operating system was installed. A flag that can be changed prior to entering in the license key.

For example, I have a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium that legally I have no ability to use because the act of installing Windows 7 Professional as an upgrade from has invaldiated that copy, but there is no technical restriction from say installing it on my MacBook via BootCamp.

The ability to do something technically does not mean that it can be done legally. I could take money from the cash register at work technically, but legally I could not, as such act would be breaking the law, an act known as stealing.

So yes, you can install it on another PC a year from now technically. You can also do it legally provided the copy of Windows Vista/XP you are upgrading from is a retail copy.

[nightkhaos]

Originally Posted by snootyjim

I thought that they had released an iso in response to the mess that was created by the previous installation system for the student offer.

Really? Creating an ISO from the data is not hard, further more if you have a large enough USB stick you can create a bootable USB stick from the data. I believe they released it in this form with the intent of making it as flexiable as possible.

What they didn't anticipate is that by giving people such flexiablity you also have to give them INSTRUCTIONS like how to make the make the ISO or bootable USB stick, that I believe was a tactical mistake on Microsofts part.

[handscombmp]

Thanks. He seems to be happy with it but he's got just a small problem that niether of us can get from here or the internet without different stories.

When it comes to installing it he's going to have to do a clean install anyway as he's upgrading from Home premium to Pro (he'd do that anyway) but how about does he do this.

Does he boot from the disk (he's getting the extra disk) and select custom install from the installer menu.

Will this allow him to install ok as i've read reports that you need install the OS without typing in the key until the OS is installed and all update are applied but i've also read that due to this being a Pro version you don't need to do this.

[nightkhaos]

Originally Posted by handscombmp

Thanks. He seems to be happy with it but he's got just a small problem that niether of us can get from here or the internet without different stories.

When it comes to installing it he's going to have to do a clean install anyway as he's upgrading from Home premium to Pro (he'd do that anyway) but how about does he do this.

Does he boot from the disk (he's getting the extra disk) and select custom install from the installer menu.

Will this allow him to install ok as i've read reports that you need install the OS without typing in the key until the OS is installed and all update are applied but i've also read that due to this being a Pro version you don't need to do this.

As the installer interface is starting, before you format the drive if applicable, it checks to see if there is an NTFS volume in order to copy data to. If it finds one, it also checks whether there is a Windows operating system installed. When it installs the operating system there is a flag in the registry it sets that tells the computer that there was a previous OS installed. This flag is ticked regardless if it was done via Upgrade or Custom Install. This flag, if true, allows an Upgrade Key to be used. However, if false, the Upgrade key will be rejected via Windows Activation.

If you tell the operating system to not Activate it straight away, you can, with some googling, find this registry key, and change it manually. Of course, changing this key is not exactly a legal practice, but it is technically possible, and some circumstances may be required. For example, while upgrading your system to Windows 7, you decided to buy a bigger hard drive and use that as primary, when you install the OS onto the drive your previous OS will be on the smaller, older volume you intend to use for backup.

The upgrade path, as in what you can actually use the Upgrade option for, has a few requirements:

1. You must be running Windows Vista.
2. You must be installing an operating system version of equal or greater class (HP to HP, HP to Ult, Ult to Ult, but NOT Ult to HP).
3. Most important, you cannot change from 32-bit to 64-bit or visa versa.

All circumstances that don't meet these conditions require you to do a Custom Install. Please note that the Upgrade open can be started from within the booted operating system, and may reduce the time it takes to install the operating system because the installer is able to copy the installer data directly onto the hard drive.

I also recommend you always do a Custom Install because an Upgrade install requires considerbaly more space and can result in compitablity problems with drivers. For example, if I had done an Upgrade install for my system, I would have found that the currently installed drivers for my Asus Xonar D2X are not supported in Windows 7, and if Windows attempted to load and use them, it would freeze up and be rendered unusable. There were however upgraded drivers on the Asus website that fixed this problem, but they were not supported by Windows Vista. A problem for someone upgrading, naturely.

[handscombmp]

Thanks.

So he can boot using the DVD and select custom install.
Then when it asks where to install he's best to select the drive that Vista is installed on and it should completly wipe the drive (so nothing will be left at all. No files in any place)
And then he can enter the product key during prompt whilst installing.


Just one last question now (i hope). He says on the email that you can't forward it to anyone but he wants to forward it to himself so he can downlaod it at home as the school wont let him do it (and he reckons it would takes weeks instead the hour he could do at home).

[nightkhaos]

Originally Posted by handscombmp

Thanks.

So he can boot using the DVD and select custom install.
Then when it asks where to install he's best to select the drive that Vista is installed on and it should completly wipe the drive (so nothing will be left at all. No files in any place)
And then he can enter the product key during prompt whilst installing.


Just one last question now (i hope). He says on the email that you can't forward it to anyone but he wants to forward it to himself so he can downlaod it at home as the school wont let him do it (and he reckons it would takes weeks instead the hour he could do at home).

You need to ask it to format the drive, but yes, pretty much.

If you can't forward it then you could copy the link, etc, onto a a text file and put it on a pen drive?