Before you buy, if you are in college check if your college offers academic pricing. At least at my college, there is usually a pretty good discount on Microsoft software. Or even better, my major offers a MSDN Academic Alliance account, so I get all Microsoft software minus MSOffice for free. ^^
Yep, that's the way I went all through uni as well. MS was even nice enough to give me a copy of Office (standard) as a prize for participating in a competition. But really, that kind of pricing for Ultimate is awesome considering what it normally costs you.
Is Ultimate really worth the extra price over Pro? In the comparison chart Bitlocker was really the only thing?
if i get windows 7 will i have to reinstall everything on my comp? cause i have alot of backgrounds and movies on here that i dont really wanna replace....but i do want to be able to use the backgrounds and stop having this "you may have a counterfit version of vista" pop up but anyways thank you for this info its really helpful
Ultimate will probably only be helpful for a few people. In my case I think I'll stick with it, among other reasons, because the remote desktop hosting support is useful for remote admin of one of my computers. I think that might be available in the business version as well though. Upgrading from Vista, well, I don't think you'll have to reinstall too much although there might be some things. Backgrounds and movies are no issue though - I installed Win7 RC over the top of XP, which has no upgrade path, and it kept all the data (it just shoves all the old settings/program files off into another directory; you can still get them back from there if they still work).
I saw this today as well, and was gonna make a post, but guess I got beaten to it. I'll prob only go for home edition, £50, which is practically stealing from MS imo. I might install W7 over XP, as sounds ok coming from Sirius. But then again, would be nice to get a new shiney harddrive
gah! I guess they are only doing 50% off on Home and Pro UPGRADES.. and Ultimate isnt included in that sale. Here is the link lame. you might as well buy Vista Ultimate 64bit Full, because you'd get Win7 upgrade free. and its 4 cents cheaper lol is there any work around for getting a full fresh install with just an upgrade disk? I believe upgrades have all the files for it, you just need a vista disk to validate it right? See my problem is, I don't have an actual vista disk =P
Yeah I was checking it out a little more and seen that XP will work to validate it. What I was thinking of doing... since I don't actually have Vista legitimately.. is get the Vista Ultimate RED (upgrade) Edition for $219 which would still entitle me to a free Win7 Ultimate upgrade when it comes out. So I would have Vista to fall back on if somehow MS screws up 7 down the road. Might be my cheapest route if I for sure want Ultimate.
My school offers windows for free. So hopefully I can snag windows 64bit(doubt it), if not I'll have to settle for 32 until I get the money.
sweet best buy card going back into service for this one ... how much do i need to put down to pre order anyone know?
im kinda in the same boat as Smoking, got this comp without a OS and just used my mom's vista CD but now that the 30 or 60 day trial ran out it keeps comming up saying i may have a counterfit vista, so if i get teh $50 upgrade you guys think i can use ir? or will i have to buy a copy of vista first then be able to use the upgrade?
I don't have a counterfeit copy of Vista to test on, unfortunately. (that sounds funnier than it was supposed to be, doesn't it?) Oh, and the other issue is that there is no upgrade to use yet anyway. Doh. While it might be possible to ask someone from MS through some website/customer support thing/whatever, I kind of have my doubts they'd want to encourage using trial versions to install Win7 off even if it is possible. So I guess we'll only know for sure once it's out. P.S. If it's anything like previous versions, though, the upgrade will ask you for a "qualifying product" of some kind, at which point you'd have to put the disc in the drive. If you don't have it you might be out of luck, but I don't think you need an activated copy of the previous OS.
well i can get the disk from my mom that shouldnt be a prob unless it will cause her OS to stop working mine isnt counterfit so much as it has the same serial number as one already in use (my mothers) so vista keeps popin up with the warning....i guess ill try it out and if it doesnt work ill grab a version of vista as well hopefully it will have its price droped alot -.-' ill tell yall how it goes for me
She shouldn't need the disk 24/7 to keep it running; you should be fine. (Unless they changed something. :/)
i am pretty sure that windows checks everytime you go online if its a valid KEY and you can only have 1 key active at a time hence why you are having issues with it sayings its a bootleg version also is this deal only available online? or is it available in stores as well?