OT: Educational XP Not Valid for Win7 upgrade?

kentwolf wrote on 6/23/2010, 6:06 PM
The version of Windows XP Pro I am using presently was purchased at a college (Purdue), full-time family member college student, fully legit. Cost $5.00

It is my understanding at the time that this copy of XP is not valid toward an OS upgrade as if I have paid retail for my version of XP Pro. Is this still true? Is there anywhere it says this in writing. I have never had to deal with this. I always get my stuff via non-education means

For the years I have used it at only $5, that is just fine with me if it is not valid toward an upgrade. But, if it is valid, it would be nice.

Looking to maybe go to Windows 7 along with all of my video apps…just trying to do this in an orderly fashion, if at all.

Thanks.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 6/23/2010, 6:43 PM
Aca installations are not eligible for Retail upgrades.
IIRC, there have been Aca upgrades available for previous versions. I don't know the availability for Win7 but Yahoo Shopping is a good place to start.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/23/2010, 6:46 PM
The only company that I know of that doesn't have any limits on the educational purchase is SCS.

But $5 isn't bad. Technically you can't be making any $$ with it though,so it's safe to assume you didn't make any videos for profit, correct? ;)
kentwolf wrote on 6/23/2010, 7:16 PM
That's an excellent question, TheHappyFriar!

Thanks all for the info! :)
DSCalef wrote on 6/23/2010, 8:40 PM
One of the things I have come to believe is that to use an Upgrade edition of Microsoft software, you really don't need the qualifying software to install the upgrade version. This is true for all OSs as far as I know. It certainly is true for Windows 7 and is well documented and is said to be supported by Microsoft. Read Paul Thurrott's: Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media article and look for the double install section, method 3.

This article requires you register for the site which is free. If you don't want to do that, you can get to it thru this article.

David
Chienworks wrote on 6/23/2010, 9:05 PM
That's interesting. Personally i haven't gone past XP yet. However, every Windows upgrade i've done since 95 required finding the previous version on the hard drive or entering the previous version's serial number. I've never been able to install an upgrade without some reference/access to the old version.

On the flipside, i tend to be a very late adopter, usually moving to the new OS about the same time it's ready to be replaced by the next version. My upgrade requirements tend to be dictated by new hardware which doesn't have drivers for my current OS. By the time i upgrade i can usually find OEM full versions for less than half the retail price, often cheaper than the upgrade price was.

I'll skip over Vista, but i may consider 7 in a couple or 3 years. By then i should be able to get it for under $100.
Opampman wrote on 6/23/2010, 9:18 PM
Kelly - Generally I agree with you and I'm still using XP on my main machine. However, both my son and my wife have W7 on their computers and to put it simply - I am really impressed. My wife needed to print something from her new laptop the other night so I hooked up my 6 year old Epson printer, a window popped up and said "wait until we install the drivers for this device" and in 30 seconds she was printing. Haven't seen anything yet that would keep me from moving to W7 and it's REALLY fast!
TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/23/2010, 9:30 PM
My copy of 98 upgrade required either Win 95 or 3.1/3.11 installed on the drive OR the install CD OR the first floppy in the install disk set. It would work with any Win95 full version CD, even OEM ones from someone else!