Bruce Baker

(Did you get a nice new PC for Christmas…..)

Let then know at their blog: Windows 7 Team Blog

Check out these tips, hacks, and secrets to make it easier to get around your desktop and increase your computer’s power efficiency

via Windows 7 tricks: 20 top tips and tweaks | Windows – InfoWorld.

So I had an in-person discussion yesterday with Microsoft about how its Windows 7 Upgrade media does (or does not) work. I'm going to update my Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media article to include this information, but I wanted to communicate it to you as quickly as possible. So here are some data points to consider…

If you run Setup from an existing install of Windows … Windows 7 will always activate.

If you boot your PC with Windows 7 Upgrade media … and there is an existing install of Windows on the first partition, Windows 7 will always activate. If the existing install of Windows is on some other partition, Windows 7 should still activate. There are instances in which this won't work–especially when people really muck around with directory structures and so on, but it should activate.

There is one major and important change between Windows Vista and Windows 7 Setup with regards to compliance checking … In Windows Vista, Setup did the compliance check (to see whether you have a valid prior version of Windows and thus qualify for the Upgrade version) after the phase where you can format the disk. This means you could actually format the disk, thus destroying your previous install, and then fail the compliance check. Microsoft fixed this in Windows 7. That means you can format the disk during Setup: Windows 7 will still activate because the compliance check occurred earlier.

A recovery partition will never qualify you for the Upgrade version. Setup does not understand or parse recovery partitions.

If you clean install Windows 7 with Upgrade media and it does not work for some reason, Microsoft's recommendation is that you call Microsoft Support immediately … They will get you activated immediately, no questions asked, and the call is free. You're provided with free support calls as part of your purchase.

The Full and Upgrade media for Windows 7 are indeed identical. The only difference is the product key. The code on the discs is the same.

The double-install trick is documented and supported by Microsoft. It's dumb and slow, but Microsoft does support the double-install method (Method #3 in my Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media article) for clean installing Windows 7 with Upgrade media. They do not support the Registry hack (Method #2 in my Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media article) but couldn't think of a reason why it should be avoided otherwise. (I think they just don't like it.) The vibe I got was that if you ever had problems later, you could always call Microsoft support for free and they'd just fix it.

Published Nov 04 2009, 12:31 PM by pthurrott

Filed under: Windows 7, Commentary

via Talking Windows 7 Upgrade Media with Microsoft – SuperSite Blog.

By Rick Broida

November 03, 2009 — PC World —

Free Tools for Fine-Tuning Your Windows 7 Setup – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership.

There’s a bit of a tempest in a teapot brewing over what one can and can’t do with a Windows 7 upgrade disk.

My hope with this post is to help things simmer down as opposed to boiling over, but we’ll see. So here goes.

The upgrade version of Windows 7 (as opposed to the higher-price full version) lets one move from any properly licensed version of Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 on that same computer. Only certain of these upgrades, however, can be done as a simple update–what Microsoft calls an “in-place upgrade.” Users moving from Windows XP, switching from 32-bit to 64-bit versions, or moving from a higher-end version of Vista to a lower-end version of Windows 7 can use an upgrade disc but will have to do a more cumbersome upgrade, known as a custom, or “clean,” installation.

The difference between an in-place upgrade and a “clean” installation, in this instance, means backing up one’s data, installing Windows 7, restoring the data, and reinstalling all Windows programs. Windows 7 upgrade disks can be used to do this clean installation and will recognize the previously installed version of Windows. So if you don’t have any previously installed Windows on the machine, you will want to get yourself a full copy of Windows 7.

While it might be technically possible to use the upgrade disks to do an installation of Windows 7 without a previous version, doing so, as Microsoft points out, is not properly licensed.

Some of the confusion has come after enthusiasts noted a way to get an upgrade disc to install on a fully erased hard drive.

Again, the main issue here is whether one is properly licensed to do so. If you have a licensed copy of Windows XP or Vista for that computer, you are good to go, and Microsoft technical support should be able to help you activate that machine. If not, you may be able to get it to install, but you could well run into technical or legal hurdles.

I think that ZDNet blogger Ed Bott put it well in his post on this topic:

The answer is really simple. If you qualify for an upgrade license, then yes, you can use any number of work-arounds to install the operating system legally. If you don’t qualify for an upgrade license, then those same workarounds might technically succeed, but your license is not valid.

Will you get away with it? Probably. But if you’re running a business, you run the risk that an employee will turn you in to the Business Software Alliance, which could lead to an audit, civil charges, and eventually some stiff penalties.

It should also be pointed out that beta test and pre-release versions of Windows don’t count as a previously licensed version of Windows, but if you have the RC installed over a previous version, for example, you can do a custom upgrade rather than having to reinstall XP or Vista before installing 7. (The upgrade version can detect the previous versions used before Windows 7.)

Nor is it allowed to count the version of Windows that came installed on a previously bought PC, if that’s not the machine you’re upgrading. (Retail boxed copies can be transferred from one machine to another; ones that came pre-installed on the PC are licensed only for that machine.)

This is also relevant to Mac users who want to run Windows 7 on their machines. Such users also need to have a previously licensed full copy of Windows to properly qualify for upgrade pricing, whether they are using Windows in Boot Camp or using a virtualization product like Parallels or VMWare’s Fusion.

I hope that this overview helps more than it adds to the confusion. Either way, please let me know.

During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.

Windows 7 upgrade version: The dos and don’ts | Beyond Binary – CNET News.

Microsoft appears to be getting relatively strong early adoption of Windows 7 in the 10 days since its official launch.

According to Net Applications, more than 3 percent of PCs accessing the Web in the past two days have been doing so using the new operating system. Usage of the operating system has been growing strong in recent days, though Windows 7 already accounted for 2 percent of global Web traffic in the days ahead of its formal launch.

“The early adoption of Windows 7 looks very strong, and I don’t believe Vista enjoyed the same early success,” said Vince Vizzaccaro, an executive vice president at Net Applications. “Plus, we’ve seen surges the past two weekend days, and Windows has historically seen much higher usage market share on weekdays than on weekends.”

However, weekends tend to see stronger usage by consumers. And consumers are more likely to move quickly to a new version of Windows than businesses, which tend to do extensive testing before adopting a new operating system.

The news is not all positive for Microsoft, though. As a whole, the Mac OS continues to gain on Windows. As of October, Windows had 92.5 percent of the worldwide operating system market, but Mac OS reached 5.27 percent, up from 5.12 percent in September. (Past numbers from Net Applications showed the Mac OS with significantly higher market share, though the market research firm says it has changed its methodology to better reflect the relative traffic of the countries from which it is getting data.)

Apple’s recent anti-Windows 7 advertising has touted that if users are going to upgrade their Windows XP machines and have to transfer their data anyway, they might as well move to a Mac. Vizzaccaro said the early numbers suggest that the Mac might indeed be benefiting from such a trend but said it is too early to know for sure.

“We’ll know much more in the months ahead,” he said.

During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.

via Windows 7 usage growing quickly | Beyond Binary – CNET News.

Users should wait for Microsoft to work out the bugs in Windows 7 before jumping on the new operating system, computer support firm Rescuecom said today.

October 30, 2009 — Computerworld —

via Users Should Delay Windows 7 Upgrade, Support Firm Warns – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership.

Upgrade type: Custom

While there were once valid reasons for skipping 64-bit versions of Windows, those reasons have disappeared over the past year or so. As a result, it should come as no surprise that many Windows users are now interested in upgrading their 32-bit version of Windows XP or Vista to a 64-bit version of Windows 7. And because all retail versions of Windows 7 Upgrade come with both 32-bit and 64-bit Setup discs, it would seem that doing so is both supported and straightforward.

Well, it’s neither: Microsoft does not support a traditional, in-place upgrade of any 32-bit version of Windows to any 64-bit version of Windows. (Well, I guess that statement is technically straightforward. So maybe they’re 1 for 2.)

Here’s what you’ll see if you try to use your Upgrade version of Windows 7 Setup media to go from a 32-bit version of Windows Vista/XP to a 64-bit version of Windows 7.

But don’t despair. If you are the owner of a valid, activated copy of Windows XP or Vista (32-bit), you can still migrate to a 64-bit version of Windows 7. As with other Windows migrations, this process involves four steps:

1. Backup your valuable data, settings, and other information. You can use the Windows Easy Transfer utility, included on the Windows 7 Setup disc, to accomplish this.

2. Boot the PC with the 64-bit Windows 7 Upgrade media and perform a “Custom” install type, wiping out your old Windows install in the process and replacing it with a new Windows 7 install.

3. Reapply your data, settings, and other information to the new Windows 7 install by using the Windows Easy Transfer utility, which is included with Windows 7.

4. Manually reinstall all of the applications you were previously using.

The big difference between this type of migration and the one we discussed in Scenario 1 (Upgrade from a Higher-End Vista/XP Version to a Lower-End Windows 7 Version) is that, this time, you’ll launch Setup by booting the PC with the Windows 7 Upgrade media. In the previous scenario, we started Setup from within the previous OS.

Triggering Setup this way changes a few things. When you reach the “Where do you want to install Windows?” phase, where you choose between Upgrade and Custom, you will still need to choose Custom. But, unlike with Scenario 1, you get the advanced options (delete, format, and so on) in the disk partitioning phase. What you choose here is important. If you simply choose the system disk (e.g. the disk on which your previous OS is currently installed), you’ll get the familiar warning message noting that Setup will backup your old install in the Windows.old folder structure. However, if you wipe out the disk by formatting and/or deleting it, no Windows.old folder structure will be created. And there are worries that Windows 7 won’t activate if you do wipe out the old install.

Fortunately, I’ve tried it both ways. And both ways have worked for me. That is, Windows 7 activates in both cases, which is what you’re looking for. However, I recommend not wiping out the previous install by formatting or deleting the partition with the current Windows version. Instead, simply choose the existing partition and let Setup create windows.old. Once Windows 7 is up, running, and activated, you can choose to delete windows.old to regain the disk space (which could be many, many gigabytes.) It’s better to be safe than sorry. (Imagine how awful it would be if you wiped out the old install and then Windows 7 wouldn’t activate. Well. I actually do have two workarounds for that too. See Methods 2 and 3 in this article.)

More soon…

–Paul Thurrott
October 28, 2009

Company adds Twitter support wrinkle, but “endless reboot” problem remains unresolved

By Gregg Keizer | Computerworld

Microsoft today touted the new self-help support baked into Windows 7, even as its engineers continue to wrestle with an “endless reboot” problem that has crippled some computers being upgraded from Vista.

The company’s revamped technical support relies heavily on a new feature in Windows 7, dubbed “Action Center,” said Lori Brownell, general manager of product quality and online support, in a long statement Microsoft issued Wednesday. Action Center is Windows 7’s version of Vista’s Security Center, but it also offers more than 20 automated troubleshooters that are accessed either at the user’s request, or automatically by the OS.

[ Get InfoWorld's 21-page hands-on look at the new version of Windows. | The real-world state of Windows: Check out InfoWorld's live Windows Pulse monitors of users' app preferences and PC configurations. ]

“These troubleshooters can diagnose and solve the most common problems reported by Windows users, including set-up and compatibility issues, hardware defects and the like,” said Brownell.

Two other Microsoft executives also called out the Action Center as a cornerstone for the support changes the company’s instituted with Windows 7.

“One of the things we’ve put together is a[n] Action Center script that helps users migrate [data files] out of the Windows.old folder,” Ben Bennett, the director of Microsoft’s Windows consumer global support group, said in an interview earlier this week. Some users, he added, have been unable to access, or even find, critical documents after upgrading to Windows 7.

“Assuming you didn’t completely reformat your drive — and only a few customers do — you still have the old folders on the machine,” Bennet continued.

“The Action Center is based on PowerShell,” added Paul Aaron, Microsoft’s senior group manager for Windows supportability, talking about the command line- and scripting language-based tool integrated into Windows 7. “If customers call in, we can run that script by getting them to download it.”

Microsoft is using feedback from more traditional support venues — phone- and e-mail-based support — to create new Action Center scripts, said Aaron. “Once we’ve proved them, and hit the quality bar that we want, we’ll post them to the Download Center,” he said, referring to Microsoft’s centralized download site.

Other new support moves Microsoft’s made for the launch of Windows 7 include a Twitter account — MicrosoftHelps — that it’s using to take support queries.

“We’re using it more as a routing function,” said Aaron. “We have a team looking for those tweets, and they try to look for answers in the Microsoft support properties. If they can find an answer, they’ll do a TinyURL for answers. If not, they’ll post the question on behalf of the user on Microsoft Answers,” he continued, referring to the new umbrella moniker for Microsoft’s consumer support. “It’s not intended to directly answer questions, but to get people the right answers.”

Bennett seconded that. “Every day, we’re coming up with new ways to get the word back up to users,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve been able almost to get real-time help to users. I think we’re moving faster than we’ve ever been able to move before.”

via Microsoft highlights Windows 7 support options, response speed | Windows – InfoWorld.