Ready to take the leap? Windows 7 upgrade available for Pre-Order

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx

Home Premium $49 USD
Professional $99 USD

Available at a handful of partners with free shipping the day of release (October 22nd).

 

Technically this belongs in the windows section.
but
If the discussion is limited to Gateway lappies runnign Win7 then i wont complain any.


I've been running Win7 since the RC and i love it on my 6860. As soon as i get home i'll be ordering Win7 professional (dont need ultimate because 35 languages and bitlocker arent top priorities for me)

 

RE: Appropriate section, I was directing my findings to 78xx users - Windows 7 upgrade advisor loves our setup

RE: Your comment on editions, my thoughts exactly... PRO all the way.

 

I'm seriously considering going 7 on both my desktop and my 7805u, but I'm curious as to how well it performs on our beloved laptops before I take the plunge for it.

Kamin_Majere, have you noticed any significant performance improvements over vista? I know that 7 runs great on my desktop, but I want to know if it's worth the cash to grab the extra copy for my laptop.

Also, if you pre-order at Amazon, you may be qualified to get it release day, depending on where you live.

/offtopic

First time posting here but I wanted to say that it's because of this site that I bought the 7805u to begin with. I haven't used a Gateway in like a decade and I'm glad I made the purchase So thanks to you guys I own an awesome laptop without a huge dent in my wallet.

/offtopic

 

Actually i have noticed a pretty decent improvement running Win VII. I hate to rag on vista, but i think most of the talk is true... This is the OS that Vista should have been.

Its very stable and ALOT smaller and more efficent. My default vista install was 22GB, my default Win7 install is only 15GB. Thats nice because it gives all of the features that vista did, plus more, plus a virtualized XP install all for 7GB LESS space.

I also think its faster in general. Nothing that will blow your mind, but its noticable and nice to have.

All in all i cant complain about it. I think for the first time since NT microsoft will release a completely up to date and fully stable OS that doesnt need Service pack 1 to make it operate decently.


/offtopic
Welcome to the gateway forums, stay and hang out a while. We're always here in one form or another

 

W7 worked fine with one of my comps and didnt with another, hit or miss, but its an awesome OS when its working correctly, and Batman is right, this is what Vista should have been.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

I know I'm in the minority when I say that I love Vista, but I agree with you in that 7 is what vista should've been. I've noticed a trend since NT in that for MSFT they release a junk OS, then a great one shortly thereafter, 98>98se>NT ME>2k>XP Vista>7. Interesting trend if you think about it.

I pre-ordered 2 Pro versions, I learned my lesson from Vista Ultimate about buying the "best" version of Windows. I won't use any of that extra stuff, plus it's not on sale for 1/2 price

 

Definitely a more "Complete" operating system. Leaner, faster, more polished. Just better in general.

 

Not a freakin' chance. Regardless of how well or how poorly the new OS runs, it'll once again take away support for things we used to be able to do.

Case in point, I'm unable to record sound from my desktop using a video capture application (and I freakin' need to right now). Why? MS removed the support for that in an XP service pack, because playing a CD on your computer and simultaneously recording the music from it was obviously everyone's first choice for obtaining illegal music, instead of just downloading a ripping program.

I cannot even guess what W7 will not run, esp. since they're out-and-out dropping support for older applications, unless you buy the expensive one with a Windows XP virtual machine built in.

 

You mean the 90 dollar Win7 Pro?
Not that expensive

Though it is true... win7 will not be able to use 8bit applications. So i guess you are out of luck there. all thos old native pong emulators are just straight out

 

I do note that they aren't offering Win 7 Ultimate.

Wonder why.

 

I think because for the first time in ALONG time they are acting like they care about the customers

The only things that ultimate gets that pro doesn't is Bitlocker and 35 language support... no one in personal computing needs that, so they are largely just removing the option so it doesn't cause further confusion.

Using Ultimate currently and bitlocker is just useless (to me) but would be very useful in a business environment where you can encrypt your data archives. Home users dont typically need that

 

Exactly, looking at the comparison on ye olde wikipedia, there isn't anything that Ultimate has that would entice me to purchase 7ultimate, especially when they're giving you such a nice discount on the other versions of the OS. Ultimate this time around is definitely for businesses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions

 

ive been thinking about getting this but ive never had to install a OS. Is it as simple as poping in the CD's? will everything i have be erased?

 

I have to wait till 15th July before i get the chance to pre-order; not to mention the fact that i will have to fork out £80 (approx. $160?) for Windows 7 sans IE8.

 

already ordered home premium 64bit for my 7805U...probably order the Business Vista from Newegg which gets you a free copy of Windows 7.

 

I just ordered from Amazon as well... $49.99 free shipping and ya cannot beat that.... .... just gonna use the RC till its released

 

Like ZP asked, will installing it erase everything?

But oh man- 7805 + Windows 7= win

 

if it is upgrade.... that is exactly what it should do... upgrade from vista with all your info/docs to W7.... but you should still def backup all of your important things... Im gonna try to upgrade from the RC to the RTM... which is kinda dumb but im not worried about it... better than formating... then vista... then W7 again... so i dunno what im gonna do yet, ill wait till I come to that bridge

 

i would suggest a clean install, just back up your data to an external and reload everything. I've heard it's possible with these upgrades though a bit clunkier than when you would do it with an XP machine.

 

Upgrades to XP PCs to Vista allowed you to either "upgrade in place", do a complete re-format and instal, or instal to a second partition or HD.

I did that with my Vista upgrade and had a dual-boot PC.

I would think we'll be able to do the same things with this upgrade to W7.

 

I'd recommend doing a clean install as well. I know that upgrading from XP>Vista was a pain, and you had that stupid windows.old folder.

My plan is to do a clean install after I RAID my drives together. I bought an extra hdd when I first bought the laptop, which coincidently was the exact same model that came with the laptop, but was too lazy to RAID them and have to reinstall windows. Now that I'm pretty much forced to I may as well take that extra step and get the performance boost.

 

can you do a clean install if you don't have any recovery cds...does it just check the OS that's already installed? (in which case i'll just leave my OS intact until the upgrade comes out)....can't make them from my 7805U and i failed at buying them from Gateway.

 

2 things I require to move to windows 7.
Everything must still work as it does on Vista. FLAWLESS or I won't bother.

It must give me faster framerates in games. If there is no visible improvement I won't waste my time. I personally love Vista 64 SP1 and have had 0 problems with it.

 

How about our vista recovery partition? Will it be erased? on the p7805? So all the drivers are gone?

How do you do a clean install anyway? Pop the 7 CD in, install the OS, then what to do with the drivers?

 

I'm going to back up the entire hdd on an external hard drive just incase something goes horribly wrong, like writing to the recovery partition, which I'm thinking will happen when I raid my drives together. Anyone have any info on what happens when you raid laptop hdd's together with a recovery partition? I've only ever done it on a desktop.

You'd have to use the vista drivers until they release 7 versions, at least that's what I did on my desktop and it worked fine. Now that may not work the same on the laptop, things such as the webcam&card reader may or may not work. I haven't tried 7 on my laptop. Can someone comment on this?

EDIT: @Krighton. If you're just upgrading your OS, it'll just check what you currently have installed and make that windows.old folder I mentioned earlier. That's what it did XP>Vista anyway. They claimed that upgrading from Vista>7 was easier and more efficient this time around. You can also make a recovery disc if you've got an extra dual layer dvd laying around. If memory serves correctly, it's in the Gateway folder on your startbar. I'll get back to you on this when I get home from work.

 

Get W7 hands down good experience... much better whan XP/Vista... cant waait till my upgrade gets here

 

Can someone post a guide on how to upgrade? I would like to try out the RC if possible.

 

I'm hoping that Gateway takes the incentive program that MSI and Asus is doing. By charging you only $10 - $20 more dollars "for shipping", you'll get the Windows 7 Upgrade Voucher Free. In other words, you get Windows 7 free once it comes out, the voucher has the Registration/Activation Code).

 

According to MSFT, you can. See the FAQ

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/faq.aspx

"Can I upgrade directly from Windows Vista to the RC?

Yes. If you're running Windows Vista, you can install Window 7 RC without having to back up and reinstall your programs and data. But to be on the safe side, please do back up your data before you start."

I've only ever done clean installs for 7. If it's anything like Vista was, you just pop in the disc and follow the directions.

 

Do they ask you for drivers?

 

Most everything should work right away, things like video card, NIC, monitor, etc. should all work automatically. Things like the webcam will probably need the drivers from the gateway website for. You'll probably have to manually jack into your network. I'm not 100% on the wireless on a clean install, you may have to get drivers, or it could be vise versa. Do be aware that some companies do not support beta or RC clients of OSes, such as Creative or Blizzard (WoW runs fine though ) So I'd research and see if they have drivers for 7, such as nvidia, or do not support it, like creative.

t3rR0r could provide more information about 7 on the 7805 at this point. Lets pick his brain

Like I said previously, I've only installed 7 on my desktop. But when I did, I didn't have to driver hunt for things to get the machine to work. Plus, nvidia updates there graphics drivers and such through the windows update, which is kinda cool.

 

Good man... yeah W7 is nice... the driver update system is much more refined compared to Vista... but sometimes you have to manually config your drivers for audio or HID components which I stil cannot get to work... it is soo much more efficient than vista

 

So far i've sunk $199.98 for Windows 7 upgrades through Newegg...149.99 for the Vista Business with free Windows 7 coupon and a Home Premium 64 for the laptop. Still need to order one more copy but i probably have a few days (can't imagine them selling out before the 11th). No tax and free shipping, hard to beat that.