Deal Details

The digital download is $39.99. It tacks on a boxed copy for about another $10 which is removable.

Anyone know if I can remove the boxed copy and just burn the digital download version? Yes, I am that cheap

It should be an iso image that you burn…

Further inquiry, What happens if the student owns multiple computers. I’m in college and have a laptop and a desktop, and use both regularly. Or am I SoL?

You can also purchase a retail FULL copy of Home Premium for the same price at
http://windows7.digitalriver.com/store/mswpca/en_CA/DisplayHomePage?resid=YpcX@QoHAj4AABf3yroAAAAV&rests=1256249523029

Nice offer for those of you who wish to have a retail copy and avoid the “upgrade” thing.

@kyrotomia, your link leads to “Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade”

its not a full retail copy.

"Nice offer for those of you who wish to have a retail copy and avoid the “upgrade” thing.”

Er...I don’t think you took a very good look at what you’re linking to? lol. Top left corner of the box, ‘upgrade’. It’s the same thing mentioned above, and is also a digital copy.

“Anyone know if I can remove the boxed copy and just burn the digital download version? Yes, I am that cheap”

“Further inquiry, What happens if the student owns multiple computers. I’m in college and have a laptop and a desktop, and use both regularly. Or am I SoL?”

Just get a friend to throw in their college email address for you

It’s an ISO, so you can do whatever you want with it lol. Burn it, mount it...or any other assortment of evil sounding things.

kyrotomia, once you click on the link they send you, it seems that it’s also an upgrade copy

What if I want to do a fresh install? Bought a new hard drive and don’t have my old (cracked) XP disc/key. Will this upgrade install from scratch?

I have bought the Windows 7 Professional Upgrade from Ultimate Steal and repackaged it using Oscdimg.exe (check sevenforums.com).

Burned the ISO on a DVD and did a fresh install after formatting my hard drive.

Entered the Product Key when asked to, and booted up Windows 7 without any problems.

Went to Control Panel and Activated online. Am now writting this post from the same computer. Hope that clarifies for some people. This is listed as Upgrade, but it does infact do a clean install without any “loopholes” or tricks.

Thanks a lot, FountainDew - that helps!

Now here is my dilemma: The computer that I want to buy/use this on is a 32-bit, eight year old machine. Have some new RAM and a good video card, so it’s fine for a while. However, I’m going to be upgrading to a new 64-bit machine in a year or so.

So if I buy the 32-bit version of Win7 now, will that mean I’ll have to buy a separate 64-bit version in a year? Or can I use the same student offer to upgrade for a small fee? Does anyone have experience with upgrading WITHIN the student discounted version?

Or, finally, if I just buy the 64-bit version will it work okay on my 32-bit machine and I don’t have to worry?

Thanks in advance!

I’ll have to check oscdimg.exe. Thanks for mentioning it, FountainDew!

Sorry Demential13, they are not interchangeable.  Plus, if you get the 32 bit version for your CURRENT computer, from the sounds of it being 8 years old etc, it is highly unlikely you would be able to upgrade to 7 anyway.  You could click on Krypto’s link above and on the top right run the upgrade advisor and it will tell you if you can even upgrade.  I don’t think you’ll be able to though.  And if you CAN it won’t work down the road if you get a 64 bit machine, which most are these days.

A 32-bit operating system will run on a 64-bit processor, but not vice-versa.

The upgrade discs can be used to do clean installs if you choose custom instead of upgrade. The difference is that custom clean installs will not preserve personal data and apps. you will need to backup and reinstall everything. for more info, check out http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Installing-Windows-frequently-asked-questions#

Instead of oscdimg.exe just make a bootable usb thumdrive- plenty of tutorials on google.  You can even install on a netbook that way.

I’m interested in this deal but I am an XP Home owner and imagine there is no capacity for me to upgrade to professional 7...Is there any way to upgrade to home premium 7?

Also, are those who bought their Office 2007 deal eligible to buy this as well?

Anyone who’s not taking over half a course load have the balls to try this offer? The fine print says they MIGHT contact you and ask for proof of enrollment and if you can’t provide it they’ll charge you the full price of the OS.

Does anyone know what they deem to be a 0.5 course load, I’m doing 2 courses this term and would like to know if I can get this or not.

They mean 50% of full courseload. At the University of Alberta that’d be 5 courses/year or 2.5/semester I guess. Not sure if they do it per year or semester though.

I think at the University I’m going to they consider 4 courses/semester to be a full course load, not sure though.  Anyway I went ahead and ordered it I’ll post back if they contact me.

@Cheap_scotsman:

It doesn’t matter what version of XP you have, nor does it matter if you have XP or vista at all, according to FountainDew, who did a clean install from scratch (see above post).

By default, they will try to offer you Home Premium, and if you want professional (and there’s no reason you shouldn’t, since it provides a few extra options at no additional cost) you have to navigate to a different part of the page.

Hi there

Anyone know how we can order the ‘Professional’ upgrade using this site. The US site lets you choose that but the Canadian site only shows the ‘Home Premium’ option.

Thanks.

KSC

I’m pretty sure 0.5 course load basically means at least one course worth 0.5 credits, as in a semester-long course.  In the full terms it says “must be actively enrolled in at least 0.5 course credit and be able to provide proof of enrollment upon request. “ It’s still a bit vague though.

Has anyone at the University of Guelph been able to do this? It says my email is invalid (). Please help.

@kschahal

Yes, you can.  Once you’ve given them your email address and followed the link they provide in the email, you are taken to the page where you choose whether you want 32 or 64-bit.  Somewhere near the bottom of this page is some small text that asks if you need to connect to some sort of school network, and so need to get Professional.  If you click on that link, it opens up a window to order the Professional version instead of Home Premium.

@BigJimmyC

Awesome, thanks. You the man!

Dementia, You are likely to have problems if you do try run the 64 bit Windows 7 on a 32 bit processor.  Trippy tiger is half right, but in this case, you will likely have several problems.  Here is a short and sweet summary

http://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-64-bit-vs-32-bit-t484.html

This leads to some concerns:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/23/windows-7-student-upgrade-installer-not-working-for-many/

I just ordered a copy, but I have the following questions:
1. The download is just 347K - just the starter installer file. How do I get the rest of the OS before I start the installation?
2. I wanted to order the DVD as well, but the Microsoft, USA site does not allow me to entire Canadian Postal Code! Rejects it as invalid code! But strangely though none other than United State is list as country, the state dropdown menu lists Ontario!
Does anyone have a solution for the above?

Using 64-Bit Vista Professional now, installed yesterday. I upgraded from 32 bit-Home premium using this deal. The upgrade is not an iso file (problem if you are running a 32 bit system and want to install 64 bit - wont run), so you must convert it to an ISO if you want to burn and boot it from a dvd (Clean Install)- follow the instructions here. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html.

Works great.

uhhh on the link posted above that leads you to the ultimate steal website, it says buy now and that is only for Microsoft office or is it for windows 7 as well? Also on the website where is says additional products it shows windows 7 but does not do anything it just says buy now for mircosoft office? anyone know what to do?

Just put in your university email and it will send you an email accepting or declining- should be a link saying that you’re approved and you can buy W7 Professional - or Office for the ultimate steal.

another question since its only the upgrade edition do you need vista or xp to install it cause i only have xp and not vista i was wondering if it would still work.

whats this? I only see office 2007:SSS

someone boo booed...read through the posts..third one down has a link that should work for you

if anyone isn’t sure if they can upgrade...it’s simple… run the upgrade compatibility test and it will tell you

I was asked for proof of my school enrollment for the Ultimate Steal Office 2007. They do do checks for random people, so if you get caught, good luck paying the full cost of the program + risk being flagged for later deals from MS.

This offer if for actual students. If you are clearly not a student then you shouldn’t spoil it for the honest folks. Fork over the retail price.

It sounds mean, but it’s the fair thing to do. =]

It wouldn’t take my American Express card even though it shows the AMEX logo.  “The credit card entered is not supported”.
Oh well, I tried.

For those saying the link goes to page to purchase MS office (which it does for me as well).  Here is the link I used to purchase Windows 7:

http://windows7.digitalriver.com/store/mswpca/home?resid=ZQYUvAoHAkMAAG9OmEsAAAAF&rests=1256432865174

Here is a story on CNN

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/10/24/windows-7-student-upgrade-hell/

Does anyone know how to get the Professional version and not just Home Premium? This page shows that you can get both but when you click on it it goes to Home Premium. http://www.microsoft.com/canada/windows/discoverytour/student.aspx?wt.mc_id=can_co-win7launch-en_vanity_student

I am having the same problem as guess18 ... did the deal expire or something?

It didn’t expire, just go with the purchase process for Home Premium and when it asks you to pick your version, there’s a little note asking if your school requires joining domains. Click on that and you’ll be able to get business instead. Just bought it now. =)

As @livemink says, works great. Bought it last night.

1) Click the Link
2) Buy Now, then Enter your school email.
4) Open school email (took < 1min), click link.
5) Add Windows 7 Pro Upgrade to cart. ( I opted out of the $13 disk) You pick either 32-bit or 64-bit.
6) Checkout
7) Click link to downloader, run it, downloads 3GB.
8) Follow instructions above or Google it to burn ISO using oscdimg.exe. (Or make bootable USB)

You can now do a full clean install.

I installed this Window 7 and believe me this is not something you waste money on. Just nice display and some new ways. If you have Xp or Vista then stay with that. with that kind of money students can buy better stuff for girlfriend.
This is my sincere advise

or you could buy the girlfriend Windows 7.

She might like IPOD. Believe me there is not much in windows 7 except more than a cool look and more themes. Most people like to brwse and check emails

I prefer to buy refurbished pc for $299.99 with windows 7 loaded on that.

Any solution regarding AMEX?  That’s the only credit card I have.  They should have a Paypal option or something.
Why is Microsoft such a big pack of idiots all the time?  And why am I such a sucker to buy their junk?  There’s the real puzzler.

Anyone had problems with username.mba<year>@ivey.ca ????

@ivey.ca worked.  It just took a while.

For those wondering how to get Professional as apposed to Home Premium, just go through the process of qualifying.  Wait for the email from Microsoft. Once you get it, go to the link and you will have the option of purchasing what you want.

So I see that some of you have had no problems, just wondering if anyone has had the same problems I’m having.

Purchased a copy of both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 7 professional from the Ultimate steal.

Downloaded the .iso, burned it, did the install onto a clean (new) hard drive.

When it asked for my key, it said the key was invalid. I’ve verified the key at least 10 times - there is no way I am reading the key wrong.

The only thing I can think is that this being an upgrade, for it to work, does the install need to be initiated in say a windows xp or vista environment? I didnt want to go that route so I used the oscdimg to convert to an .iso.

Annoying as hell....

I would suggest that everyone taking advantage of this offer get the Professional version.  There will be a checkbox near the bottom that asks if your school requires you to join a network, you need to have this checked off to get the Professional version. 

Also wanted to make it clear that if you are running Vista 32bit and purchase Windows 7 64bit you will have to do a clean install as the you can’t upgrade from a 32bit OS to a 64bit OS. I found this out after I got the 64bit.  I’m ok with this as I am pretty computer savvy but just an FYI for the others out there.

@thebigd: The method I used was to boot up the ISO disc of Windows 7 Professional at startup, select “Install Now”, then “Custom”, then selected my drive, then selected Options > Format, then proceeded with the rest of the install.

If your Product Key does not work, I’d recommend bringing this up with Digital River Inc to see if they can issue you a new one. It’s possible the key they gave you was for Home Premium maybe? I don’t know. But good luck.

Well - for the record - I’m typing this response from the install of Win 7 that I downloaded. Everything is activated and it finally liked my key. Funny thing is, I ran the install from within Windows XP, everything worked fine. I guess when they say upgrade, they arent fooling. I’ve done clean installs of upgrades before with Microsoft OS’s and the install would at least give you a chance to provide a disk from a qualifying product in order for the upgrade to go through, but I guess thats not the case anymore. I just wish that instead of flat out rejecting the key, it would have said so.

So its fine on this system. Although I’m a little bit nervous because I also ordered a copy of Win7 64 bit for a machine I have at home with 8gb of RAM. Hopefully I can find away around this “upgrade” part because as it stands right now, I dont have another copy of a 64 bit windows to upgrade from....

@guess18 - did you do a clean install with the 64bit ver?

@thebigd: You could try to find a free download of the Windows 7 RC build. Or just install the trial version. But from what I understand, no OS is even required to be on your system if you choose the “Custom” install option.

you can download the ISOs now. from

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/10/28/direct-download-ISO-dvd-for-windows-7-student-upgrade/

Downloaded. Used “custom” to upgrade from Vista Home to Windows 7 Premium. All is good. No issues. Now the re-install of apps begins.

@thebigd - I was installing the pro 64bit version on the mac and encountered your very problem. I solved it by restarting it and running the install again to install over that one without reformatting using custom install. It will detect that a windows os is on the drive and tells you that it will move all the files to windows.old folder. I’m guessing this made it think that you are doing an upgrade like you would if you had a older 32bit os.

@GTOTURBO - I’m not exactly sure what you mean.

Did you do the install overtop of a previous version of windows? And if so, was it 64bit?

If you did an upgrade what OS did you upgrade from?

I’m thinking that I’m going to have to dig around to find a 64bit copy of XP or Vista. I wonder if I can do the upgrade from a non-activated version? I would think you could?

Guess time will tell.

Did you have any other issues with 64 bit? Drivers for any hardware, etc?

@thebigd - The clean Win7 pro 64bit install via the custom install was done first on a brand new partition using boot camp 3.0 (I have snow leopard and macbook pro unibody). This install did not accept the student pro key I purchased so I restarted the mac and used the option key to run the 64 bit install cd again.

In custom install I chose the same bootcamp partition which had the incomplete win 7 64 bit install and used it to install the same win 7 64bit pro again. It detected that there was a windows os on that partition (the incompleted install) and will be moved to windows.old folder. It was a good thing that I made the partition 60GB as the total install took over 35GB of space (2x win 7 installs). The student pro 7 upgrade key worked with this install and I then deleted the windows.old folder afterwards.

The 64bit bootcamp 3.0 drivers works great overall. I updated the nvidia drivers only everthing else is included in the boot camp drivers setup using your snow leopard disc. The only issue would be that the backlight on the keyboard can’t be turned all the way off and the touch pad doesn’t have all the multi-touch features like pinch and three finger gestures but two finger scroll works (though a bit sensitive). The macbook pro does run hotter in win 7 so watch out. Might be the 9600 graphics or just bad fan control.

Does this mean there will soon be a boatload of Windows 7 boxes for sale on eBay for $50 or $60?

Do you get the key as soon as you pay in an Email? I have a Windows 7 Ultimate install DVD which allows me to install any type of Win7 i.e. Professional, Ultimate, Home Premium etc… Would this key work or do I need to upgrade? Any help would be great. Also, if I choose the box version all it is that they send me the install DVD in the mail?