Windows 7 sold early at college bookstore, order somehow maintained
By Donald Melanson 
posted October 9th 2009 6:47PM
posted October 9th 2009 6:47PM
Street dates are invariably broken somehow, somewhere even when it comes to the biggest products and companies, and Microsoft is certainly no exception, with it now able to chalk up at least one sold copy on the Windows 7 charts thanks to an exceptionally eager college bookstore. While it didn't come in an actual retail box, this does indeed appear to be a legitimate education copy of the OS and, according to our tipster, it has been successfully activated. A little earlier than the usual slip-up to be sure, but we have a sneaking suspicion this won't be the last copy that drops before the big October 22nd date. Feel free to let us know in comments if you happen to come across one.
got mine for $14 at Ball State yesterday
I've had a copy from MSDNAA for a few months now.
I actually have been running Windows 7 Professional for about a week now. Our college has this pact or something with Microsoft and if you're in the engineering program you get free Microsoft products. Lucky us, that also includes free 64 bit and 32 bit versions of Win7 Professional.
I go to Indiana University and Windows 7 has been available for about 2 weeks now. Windows 7 ultimate sells for $20 bucks to students.
I have been running a legitimate copy that I obtained through my school bookstore and the MSDNAA alliance. It is a full professional version, and it doesn't appear to be the RC or a beta. I didn't realize that this was special. Oops...
Man, if I knew this was going to be news, I would've posted something a couple weeks ago. I've had a copy of ultimate for that long and at the $16 price tag due to the university MS agreement. I also got in on the MSDN thing, so I got a free copy of 7 pro too. At least I know that my ridiculous amounts of dollars being spent on tuition at least get me a little something "free" in return.
At Princeton I got a copy of Win 7 64-bit the 2nd week of september for $3.
So basically, college bookstores (which are maintained by college students) are violating the street date EVERYWHERE, and it's pretty much open season to get your copy of Windows 7.
Is that about right?
ya i picked one up at my college apple store actually haha
Indiana University Announcement: http://uitsnews.iu.edu/?p=1668 . I also have a feeling that them selling it early is purely intentional.
Microsoft told many smaller retailer and builders they could begin selling machines with Win 7 as soon as they received license keys, even if before the release date.
Look at all that crap printed on that disc ... ridiculous!
Anyone who is in the msdn aa, I would be eternally greae me a key! cheers!
I bought a copy yesterday at UT austin
Lol!
It's been available at my school for months through MSDN-AA and I had my copy burned to disc and official serial # for free =) (Of course, that only means everyone at school is actually paying a part through their tuition bill...)
Just keeping it around in case.... never know what might require 7 years from now. But in the meantime, given that no benchmark or review has said it's doing much better than XP, I'm not mooing along to 7 until it's time to put XP out to pasture. Figure EVERYTHING I've got works fine under XP, why would I bother updating to 7? Certainly nothing I run from Office to web to games will run better, so I'm not wasting my time.
Maybe not until Modern Warefare 3 comes out needing 7 or higher.... lol!
I just installed mine today! I got Windows 7 Ultimate for $20. Thank you Indiana University!
I bought my copy of windows 7 ultimate (64 bit) from my schools bookstore and I've been running it for the past three weeks. it was successfully activated too
yeah... i've had win7 for about a month. thank you msdnaa
I'm an engineering student at UPenn and we all got free copies for download sometime in late August...
A couple of questions:
for those of you who have bought the deeply discounted versions at your university Bookstore:
1- Is there a restriction on how many copies you can buy?
2- Any idea why is the edition sold at your bookstores so much cheaper than even the Student version being offered by Microsoft at www.win741.com ($29.99, and only for Home and Pro versions, not the Ultimate).
According to the agreement MSFT has with our School System (University of Texas System), I believe a student can only buy ONE copy of each "TYPE".
For example, if I buy Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit, that is ONE type. I can also buy a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and that is considered a different type.
I can buy 1 copy of Office 2007 for PC AND Office 2008 for MAC as they work on different platforms.
Restrictions:
You are allowed to install the OS only on ONE computer. However, Office is allowed to be installed on ONE Desktop and a portable Computer.
Rest of the restrictions are here.
Source: http://www.utexas.edu/its/products/microsoft/
Win 7 has been on sale at the University of Texas campus computer store for about 2 weeks now.
Yeah, I am in academia and I have been running the FULL Win7 for about 5 weeks now -activated. It seems as though MS released it early to academia -apparently with no reservation about its release as out IT Staff has been routinely installing it on all new rigs (with high praise -I might add).
haha... this is my school. We've had it on MSDNAA for months now though, something tells me this isn't a fluke, and that universities have been given the green light to sell it
This is not a retail copy of Windows--it's most likely one of the volume licensing options, such as Student Select under a MS Select agreement, or the Student Option under a MS Campus Agreement. (The difference between these two programs explains why the cost of Windows 7 is different at different institutions; with the Campus Agreement Student Option, licenses for personally owned student computers are included in the master agreement, so students pay either nothing or the price of the media only to obtain it. Under Student Select, a student is simply eligible to purchase a license themselves, so the cost is higher.)
Windows 7 has been available to volume license customers with software assurance since early August
I bought this DVD from my university's campus computer store (University of Texas at Austin).
I was able to install Windows 7 64 bit perfectly on my PC however, trying to install Windows 7 64bit and 32bit using Bootcamp or Parallels stated that I have an invalid product key for both disks.
Any ideas on the root of the cause? I am using Mac OS X 10.6 aka Snow Leopard and Bootcamp version 3.0.
Originally I thought I had 1 faulty disk however, I purchased the 64 bit version soon after.
I've verified that I entered the key 3 times. And I entered the same product key that VALIDATED on my PC Desktop.
Students should be aware you can buy BOTH the 32 and 64 bit versions of this Windows 7. It will just cost you $37 for each disk. I wait for Office 2010.
I think I found a partial reason of why I'm having this issue. Thanks Apple.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/22/apple-will-officially-support-windows-7-in-boot-camp-before-end/