Buying Win 7 now to use in the future. Wise or foolish?

Hi everybody,
I have been looking into doing the Win 7 preorder. I have a custom desktop(about 5 years old) that I built with Win XP Pro and will be getting a laptop with either XP or Vista. The thing is I really don't need Win 7 right now as I will continue to use XP on my desktop till its end, which is probably in 2 years or so. At that point I will build a new desktop and but Windows on it. At the time I built the desktop I was able to get a great price on Win XP Pro through academic pricing, but I cannot anymore as I am done with my education. I don't know of any way to get Windows cheaply. Even several year old copies go for pretty high money on ebay, from what I have seen. The $50 for home premium 7 is the best deal I have seen.

So, my plan is to buy Win 7 now and put it on my laptop, since I have it I might as well use it. Then, when I am ready to build my new desktop in about 2 or 3 years I plan on removing the Win 7 copy on the laptop(since it is a 1 user license) and put it on the desktop. Does this sound like a sensible plan?

 

yes, maybe--you are not going to get that price again--however, note that the price is for an UPGRADE.

I do not know what the exact licensing details for XP Academic versions are, but I would speculate you will not legally be entitled to do what you propose.

An acedemic license allows a STUDENT to install one copy on a single machine. (I don't know if the license was tied to the machine ((like an OEM)) or the user ((like a retail version))).

My parenthetical phrase aside, the problem is you are no longer a student, so you are probably no longer entitled to install the XP version on a new machine, and therefore, not entitled to an UPGRADE install.

Unlike Vista, which Windows 7 will upgrade over directly, Windows 7 needs to be installed clean on a XP (not as big a deal as it sounds like). Windows 7 will dump all your data into a windows.old folder.

So, you would need to install Windows XP on the new machine, activate it, then install Windows 7 from within the new XP install.

Not sure they will have the "workaround" still enabled in Windows 7 that currently exists for Vista.

But, once again, the question is one of legality, not technical

Here's a technet vid for the XP to Windows 7 upgrade as it currently stands.

 

Licensing issues aside, (I can't believe they're that strict), you will be able to upgrade your laptop to Win7 as part of the free upgrade program. Also, in two years time, Win8 may be on the horizon or you might fall in love with linux or be too rich to care!!

 

Jeez... I didn't even think about all this stuff. Microsoft has to make their licensing simpler. This is what really turns me off to their products. Thanks for your very interesting reply, I am going to go back and digest some of the things you said.

 

Thanks for your response. I didn't know there was a free upgrade program. Is that for newly made machines or do older machines qualify? I was planning on buying a year old refurb machine and was going to put Win 7 on that. Thanks.

Ps - As far as falling in love with Linux, too late .

 

There are tons of threads about the different upgrades available. You can also visit the Microsoft Windows 7 website to read all of the "fine print".

 

the "free upgrade" applies to a new machine, and it may or may not be free---MS is leaving that up to the PC oem--and that "free upgrade" is applied to the machine you are buying. IE, buy a laptop with vista, and you get a copy of Windows 7 for THAT laptop

 

Ah, I hadn't realised you weren't buying new and the upgrade program only applies to machines bought since last week. On the other hand, would that make you consider a new machine?

Your plan is well thought out, but it does depend on there being no major changes in MS over the next couple of years. Also, now I've noticed your sig, (Lenny ), is Home premium right for you or would you be better off with Professional. And I think free upgrades don't let you change 32/64 bit whereas the paid for ones do.

 

I am defenetly going with a used/refurb/outlet machine and the free upgrade plan wouldn't be enough to get me to change to a new machine.

Microsoft has stayed with XP for a long time and then went to Vista. It is unusual for them to have such a major change for the OS, unless it doesn't sell well, like Vista right? Windows 7 seems to be well received so I am thinking it should be around longer.

Yes, I am running Debian Lenny in a dual boot. I don't think I really need Pro, but it would be nice. But I don't want to pay $50 more for the extra features. At this point I don't think I will use the extra features.

Boy, nothing is ever easy. This whole thing looks like it will cause me a headache.

 

But I thought you don't have to have anything installed beforehand, just maybe type in the XP product code-

 

We don't know yet.

In the past, they handled this by dropping in the prior version's CD.

When upgrading from XP to Vista, you were supposed to install the upgrade directly on top of the XP install, but the workaround was to install the upgrade cleanly, then install the upgrade on top of it again.

With Windows 7 upgrade, it's not clear yet--just that Microsoft has said it will be available