Windows 7 Upgrade Question
I am thinking about taking advantage of the special pricing on Windows 7 Upgrade. To install the Upgrade do I have to have Windows XP actually installed on my computer? I have a Windows XP CD and license but do not have it actually installed anywhere. I am running Windows 7 RC on my Mac in Boot Camp and that is where I would want to install the final version but would sure hate to have to go to all the trouble of installing XP first. Another question - will we be able to upgrade RC to the final version or will we have to do a clean install?
June 26th, 2009 6:00pm

Just need the disk the way it looks because you can not upgrade Win 7 over XP and half to do a clean install.Tim Comes
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June 26th, 2009 6:06pm

I don't know from personal experience. (The beta and RC licenses are full versions.)If 7 is like Vista, you'd have to start the upgrade from a qualified working operating system. In other words, yes, XP would have to be installed. The Vista upgrade was much more restrictive than the XP upgrade. (Really made me regret not spening the extra $100.)I wonder whether 7 will be like Vista in that there was a work-around that has been widely described. It was possible to install Vista as a 30-day demo without a license key. The demo version could then be used to clean install Vista with an upgradelicense key. In that way an upgrade license could be used to install Vista on a blank hard drive, at the price of having to install it twice. (I've neverread any Microsoft confirmation, but I've assumed that it was by design.Many PCs are sold with the OS backup on a partition on the hard drive. If the HD failed, the legitimate Vista upgrade license could become worthless without the work-around. That would lead to unhappy customers.)That would be more nearly painless with 7, if the retail versions install as quickly as the RC.
June 26th, 2009 6:15pm

WolfpackFan, You will not be able to upgrade the RC to the final version - a clean install will be necessary. As for your other question, this excellent ArsTechnica article suggests that Windows 7 will look for a genuine installation of Windows XP, rather than simply a CD and license, in order to perform an upgrade.-Alex
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June 26th, 2009 8:11pm

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