Metropol

marksi wrote:I just ordered 2xHome Premium at £44.97 each on Amazon.

Not that it's a big deal but will I need to do a clean install on the machine that is running the Evaluation copy or will just entering the product key do the job?

I suspect that it'll have to be a clean reinstall.

And fabulous, amazon is back "in stock" and for a fiver cheaper than Play so I've cancelled and gone with amazon instead.

Ah, but do you get Nectar points with Amazon? I know you do with Play.

Nick Harvey wrote:Ah, but do you get Nectar points with Amazon? I know you do with Play.

Yes, Amazon are a Nectar E Shop.

I find Windows 7 to be a lot faster on my PC than XP was. however the PC was designed for Vista which was crap especially copying files over a network.

Just 24 hours late - but I've just pre-ordered a copy from Amazon. A nice surprise really as I was intending to get the new version when it came out anyway and remembered vaguely reading about when they announced the pricing - and the fact it's an 'E' version for us all. I think to be able to get a feature rich operating system for pretty much the price we paid for Windows 98 is a step in the right direction and will certainly go a fair way to tempt back the Vista haters.

Mind you - I shouldn't like to be on the Microsoft helpline when it hits the shops. "It won't let me upgrade...how can I upgrade?" Very silly to restrict an operating system - not only stripping it of a browser but also the ability to perform an upgrade. OK yes I would have clean installed either way but I'm not the average Windows user so the punter on the street is going to be very confused by this forward thinking move from the European Parliament.

marksi wrote:The only thing missing from the "Home Premium" edition is the Windows XP compatibility mode. Do I want to pay an extra £40 for that?

You don't need it.
Download Virtual PC from Microsoft, a free program. Install XP into that.
Same effect, works the same, you just have to built the XP yourself inside Virtual PC.

Also, I want two licences. Am I still better buying it now or will there be a further bundle offer? A third license would be useful to have.

Buy it now. Pre-orders are limited to THREE per customer.
I dare say if previous activation processes are followed (since realistically there's nothing MS can do about it), there'd be nothing to stop you using one licence on dozens of computers if you just activate each one by phone.

Isonstine wrote:Mind you - I shouldn't like to be on the Microsoft helpline when it hits the shops. "It won't let me upgrade...how can I upgrade?" Very silly to restrict an operating system - not only stripping it of a browser but also the ability to perform an upgrade. OK yes I would have clean installed either way but I'm not the average Windows user so the punter on the street is going to be very confused by this forward thinking move from the European Parliament.

Those who buy upgrade copies know what they're doing.
Most people who come across Windows 7 will do blasphemous things like buy a computer from *shudder* PC World with it pre installed (OEM copy) and "bundled" with copious amounts of useless crap that nobody wants, nobody needs but will sit there unused until the thing is introduced to Limewire and so gets so badly infected it has to be wiped.

Is the pre-order price cheaper than the price it is going to be after release? Think I heard something like that before but I'm not too sure. Any ideas?

I am wondering whether it'll be cheaper as OEM. I'm tempted to go for Pro as I've realised that Home Premium lacks automatic backups, however if £99 is in fac tthe cheapest price i'll just go for Home and install a seperate backup utility.

Hymagumba wrote:I am wondering whether it'll be cheaper as OEM. I'm tempted to go for Pro as I've realised that Home Premium lacks automatic backups, however if £99 is in fac tthe cheapest price i'll just go for Home and install a seperate backup utility.

If the backup tool is anything like Vista's, wouldn't it be overly-simplified and useless anyway? I seem to vaguely remember flirting with it a while back before just deciding to set up a Windows Live Sync to my other box.

It appears to be marginally more intelligent than vista's, in that when I set it to backup "personal documents and music" I don't see "current file: c:\program files\microsoft office\winword.exe" fluttering past on the window.

But yes, tbh it's likely something I could live without.