Windows 7

[blackdragonsdg]

Originally Posted by vales

Good news:
MSDN, Technet and MS sites will have it available to download on July 24th.

The RTM is already on a handful of sites, but I'm going to wait on this one.


Bad news:
This is for the cheap $100 upgrade version, instead of the full-price one, of course. I sure as hell ain't paying them a few hundred for the OS.

The thing that gets me though, is the activation process. They royally screwed everyone over on this one. They made it so now you have to have a previously activated version installed every single time you install the OS. WHY?! Do they know how much of a pain that's going to be? Although Windows 7 Home Premium comes with disk imaging software that's included with it, it's still a freaking pain to have to go through a lenghty process just to install the damn thing.

Bottom line is that if you own a legit version of an OS you have previously bought, you have to install it, activate it online (or by phone yikes!), and then you can install Windows 7 once it's verified. So since they're ending support on Windows XP and eventually Vista, your legit cd key is going to be invalid once they stop supporting it. Then you have nothing left but to purchase the full-priced FULL version of the OS for a few hundred dollars.

See where this is going?

As far as I know the activation process MS uses doesn't really distinguish between an upgrade copy and a full version of windows it just checks for a valid cd key. That being said there is no reason why you can't install a full version of the OS using your legally obtained cd key. That should not violate any laws if you legally own the software. I am pretty sure that MS offers a trial version of windows on there website that you should be able to download and activate using your cd key. Just select the correct version during install and it should work fine.