Dell laptop and Windows 7

[Jerry Carter]

Hi all....

Our new pastor has a new(ish) Dell laptop. It is running Vista Home Premium. As such, it will not allow joining the domain here at church. Since he is willing to be the guinea pig, we were thinking of upgrading him to Windows 7 Professional. Here is the question:

Do I have to get an upgrade through Dell? Or would the 'regular' upgrade version from Microsoft work?

Thanks!
Jerry

[rkresge]

Past experience has been spotty with Dell on Windows upgrades, ESPECIALLY laptops. Here's my recommendation: Get the Dell Service Tag number from the machine, go to Dell's Web site, and see if the machine is certified for Win 7. That's the technical end. Don't even think about doing it unless you can get a complete driver set that's certified for Win 7!

Second, the off-the-shelf upgrade packages of Windows may not be used to upgrade an OEM product like Dell-branded Windows. You must either get the upgrade from Dell directly, or buy a retail full license. If you try a retail Win 7 Upgrade package you will *probably* find that it won't even install on an OEM version of Windows. That would be an "oops" moment.

Roger

[rkresge]

And another thing...

I have not tried this with Vista, but with previous versions of Windows you could access most Windows Network resources even if you're using a computer that's not a member of the domain. It's not as secure, of course...

Roger

[Gracetech]

You do not need to go with Dell to upgrade to Windows 7. You will eventually want to get what drivers and apps you need from them. Most of their recent hardware already has 7 drivers so you shouldn't have a problem and even the generic drivers with 7 are really good.

crt

[tedanderson]

What about wiping the PC, installing the Beta version, and then installing the upgrade on top of that?

Would that resolve your issue of the OEM version of XP?

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by tedanderson

What about wiping the PC, installing the Beta version, and then installing the upgrade on top of that?

Would that resolve your issue of the OEM version of XP?

Doubt it. Upgrade versions of Windows require that you be running purchased, upgradeable version. I haven't looked into this in detail, but it seems unlikely that the beta is in the matrix for the upgrade version of Win 7. MS usually has an upgrade matrix that will tell you what's eligible for upgrade and what's not.

And you still have the issue of Dell drivers for the laptop. Windows upgrades on laptops are a challenge at best due to driver issues. If Dell certifies the laptop for Win 7, and makes drivers available, that's one thing. If they don't, you'd better have the original media on hand to restore it from scratch.

[Gracetech]

I would suggest to never do software upgrades anyway. It may install fine but it will always come back to haunt you.

Do a fresh install and you will be glad you did.

crt

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by Gracetech

I would suggest to never do software upgrades anyway. It may install fine but it will always come back to haunt you.

Do a fresh install and you will be glad you did.

crt

Chad,

OS (not software) upgrades can be a challenge IF you haven't done your homework. OTOH, if you've done your homework, like verifying compatibility, reading the documentation (you do know that you must turn off the BIOS setting that prevents writing to the HD's boot sector, right?), downloading and either installing or making available updated drivers, checking for software compatibility issues (especially antivirus software), etc., then OS upgrades are rarely a problem. I've found that it's a lot easier to do the necessary prep work than to reinstall and reconfigure all the software, restore data, etc., that's involved in blowing the machine away and starting over with a clean install.

Roger

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by Gracetech

You do not need to go with Dell to upgrade to Windows 7. You will eventually want to get what drivers and apps you need from them. Most of their recent hardware already has 7 drivers so you shouldn't have a problem and even the generic drivers with 7 are really good.

crt

Chad, beware of licensing issues. The retail Windows upgrade packages will usually NOT install over OEM versions of Windows, and are not licensed for that. You must either buy a full retail package, or buy your upgrade version from the OEM manufacturer (Dell in this case).

Roger

[Gracetech]

Originally Posted by rkresge

Chad,

OS (not software) upgrades can be a challenge IF you haven't done your homework. OTOH, if you've done your homework, like verifying compatibility, reading the documentation (you do know that you must turn off the BIOS setting that prevents writing to the HD's boot sector, right?), downloading and either installing or making available updated drivers, checking for software compatibility issues (especially antivirus software), etc., then OS upgrades are rarely a problem. I've found that it's a lot easier to do the necessary prep work than to reinstall and reconfigure all the software, restore data, etc., that's involved in blowing the machine away and starting over with a clean install.

Roger

It's been my experience that in the real world when you upgrade your OS it does one of two things. It either builds on the OS already installed not knowing which build of the OS it's building off of, which will cause issues. Or it just installs right on top of it erasing your old os as it goes. I personally would rather wipe my harddrive and restore it to a healthy state before putting more data on it. I understand if others don't want to do this but it hasn't failed me yet.

You have to get the drivers and apps no matter if you upgrade or fresh install so there is no issue there.

crt

[Gracetech]

Originally Posted by rkresge

Chad, beware of licensing issues. The retail Windows upgrade packages will usually NOT install over OEM versions of Windows, and are not licensed for that. You must either buy a full retail package, or buy your upgrade version from the OEM manufacturer (Dell in this case).

Roger

OEM versions have always been able to be upgraded. This is the first time i've ever heard this. I've upgraded from Windows 2000, XP, and even Vista with out an issue on multiple different OEM machines. It's true you can't move your OEM windows license from the machine but as long as you have an upgrade license and a original license it doesn't matter. Most of the time you can even force upgrade versions of OS to do full installs.

crt