Clean install Or Upgrade only

I built my computer when the beta came out. So I did not buy a new copy of xp or vista. It is strictly running off of win7 RC at this time.
I have never done an upgrade to any of my computers and never will do an upgrade, as I no most of you guys will never do.
I am wondering about the following list.

1. Is the offer for $99 for an upgrade or full version of win 7 professional?
2. Will the upgrade disk do a clean format and a fresh install?
3. Will I have to have xp or vista installed before loading the upgrade disk?
4. Or will I have to wait till the full retail ver. comes out.

The $99 version is an upgrade, not a full version.

I contacted MS tech support this morning They claimed that it would work like a Vista upgrade, which is:

It can do a clean install. (I believe that you can't normally format the install partition, though. See below.)

The installation DVD *must* be started from a working version of an OS that's qualified for an upgrade. (It's a little different if you're switching for a 32 bit version to a 64, or vice-versa.) I believe that an upgrade version won't format the partition, because that would prevent you from having an OS present on it.

That said, if it's like Vista, there is (as far as I know) one installation DVD for all versions. (Actually, there were 2: a 32 bit and a 64 bit.) The installation type is determined by the license, not the DVD.

There's a widely publicized trick: if you install the OS *without entering a license key*, you get a 30 day evaluation version of the OS of your choice. Microsoft made it possible for an evaluation copy to qualify for a clean install of the OS using an upgrade license. So, it's possible to install Vista on a blank hard drive using only an upgrade license: the problem is that you have to install Vista *twice*. You'd be in violating the license if you didn't own a qualifying OS, though.

I don't know whether Win7 will allow the same thing. I expect that it will. Consider someone who bought a commercial (HP, Dell, etc.) PC where the OS re-installation support is by a partition on the system's hard drive. Suppose that person buys a Windows 7 upgrade license and installs it. Sometime later, the hard disk dies. Microsoft could declare that all responsibility for getting back to a working Windows 7 installation would be up to the PC's seller. Or, they could provide a work-around so the system could be brought back up using a blank HD. MS appears to have chosen that way in Vista; perhaps they'll do the same in Win7. I doubt that'll be known until upgrade licenses are in public hands, or at least the hands of testers.

Do you feel lucky?

Why not get upgrade and do a clean install from it. Thats what im doing since my vista is full of junk and i dont want all my old settings coming along with me to 7.

Can the upgrade version do a full clean install with out doing the upgrade?

[QUOTE=dido41;39024]I built my computer when the beta came out. So I did not buy a new copy of xp or vista. It is strictly running off of win7 RC at this time.
I have never done an upgrade to any of my computers and never will do an upgrade, as I no most of you guys will never do.
I am wondering about the following list.


2. Will the upgrade disk do a clean format and a fresh install?
3. Will I have to have xp or vista installed before loading the upgrade disk?

Please refer to this thread for the answer to your questions..

Info regarding Upgrade Media..

Originally Posted by dido41

Can the upgrade version do a full clean install with out doing the upgrade?

Please refer to this thread for the answer to your question..

Info regarding Upgrade Media..

Originally Posted by bobkn

The $99 version is an upgrade, not a full version.

I contacted MS tech support this morning They claimed that it would work like a Vista upgrade, which is:

It can do a clean install. (I believe that you can't normally format the install partition, though. See below.)

The installation DVD *must* be started from a working version of an OS that's qualified for an upgrade. (It's a little different if you're switching for a 32 bit version to a 64, or vice-versa.) I believe that an upgrade version won't format the partition, because that would prevent you from having an OS present on it.

That said, if it's like Vista, there is (as far as I know) one installation DVD for all versions. (Actually, there were 2: a 32 bit and a 64 bit.) The installation type is determined by the license, not the DVD.

There's a widely publicized trick: if you install the OS *without entering a license key*, you get a 30 day evaluation version of the OS of your choice. Microsoft made it possible for an evaluation copy to qualify for a clean install of the OS using an upgrade license. So, it's possible to install Vista on a blank hard drive using only an upgrade license: the problem is that you have to install Vista *twice*. You'd be in violating the license if you didn't own a qualifying OS, though.

I don't know whether Win7 will allow the same thing. I expect that it will. Consider someone who bought a commercial (HP, Dell, etc.) PC where the OS re-installation support is by a partition on the system's hard drive. Suppose that person buys a Windows 7 upgrade license and installs it. Sometime later, the hard disk dies. Microsoft could declare that all responsibility for getting back to a working Windows 7 installation would be up to the PC's seller. Or, they could provide a work-around so the system could be brought back up using a blank HD. MS appears to have chosen that way in Vista; perhaps they'll do the same in Win7. I doubt that'll be known until upgrade licenses are in public hands, or at least the hands of testers.

Do you feel lucky?

The trick you speak of has been posted in the following thread..

Info regarding Upgrade Media..

Dido41,
Windows 7 upgrade will be able to do a clean install as long as you have a valid and legal copy of Windows XP or Windows Vista to show during the install. A prompt will appear asking for the cd-rom and product key.
Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team

JessicaD:

Has the ability to use a Windows 7 upgrade license to install the OS on a blank hard drive been published?

It would be good news for hobbyists. The Vista upgrade license restrictions were inconvenient, to put it mildly.

"Up the creek without a paddle"?

Vista Ultimate qualifies you to use upgrade versions of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. However, only Ultimate permits you to do an upgrade-in-place over Vista Ultimate, which preserves your applications and settings. The lesser versions require a clean install.

"Upgrade" is ambiguous. Windows 2000, XP, and Vista all qualify for the use of the Win7 upgrade versions. (That includes the X86 and X64 versions.) Most "upgrades" require a clean install, which will blow away your settings and applications. (You can transfer the settings, but not applications. There may be third party apps to transfer applications, but I've never tried one.) In other words, you can use an upgrade *license*, but what you get won't be an upgrade. (It'll be a virgin copy of Win7.) If you're confused by that, you're probably not alone.

Even "clean install" is ambiguous. To me, it suggests installing an OS on a blank partition. A Vista upgrade wasn't permitted to do that: you had to launch the DVD from a running OS that qualified for the upgrade. It didn't permit you to format the OS partition. (A full license was needed for that, at least in principle.) The old OS was saved to windows.old. I'm not sure what the rules will be for 7, but the betas could do the same sort of "clean" install. If a Win7 upgrade license permits installation in a blank partition, that'll be a big plus (for me, at least).