The
Windows 7 launch seems to have gone off mostly roses and sunbeams, but we're hearing today that quite a few people have had issues installing the downloadable $29 student upgrade edition on 32-bit Vista -- apparently the file doesn't unpack to an ISO, but instead to an executable and two bundles that don't function properly, and eventually the process errors out with a 64-bit app trying to launch on 32-bit systems. It's possible to create an ISO using some hackery, but the install process seems to be 50/50 after that -- we've heard of both success and further crashes. For it's part, Microsoft says it's looking into things, so hopefully a newly repackaged download will be forthcoming --
every party has its ups and downs, right?
Update: Our friends at DownloadSquad have a
handy guide to making the ISO, in case you're interested -- and they say the installer does work in the end.
Update 2: We just got a tip that Microsoft is offering refunds to users who are having issues. [Thanks, Christopher]
[Thanks, Tom]
Read - Original thread
Read - Microsoft response
posted October 23rd 2009 2:37PM
Wishing I hadn't followed my inner geek and traweled the forums for an answer. I could have got my £30 back :-P Think they'll give it me for doing their job of making the software installable? Btw. Pinball is included in XP mode! Already partialy winning me back after Vista ;-)
pinball??!!! i loved that shit. i hadn't downloaded XP mode yet as i don't really need it, but i might now...
Hey guys some good news I just called up MS and they still have not resolved the issue the good news is they gave me the number toe M.S. Store so they can send me a DVD of the install but i got to wait 12 days.
Hi i'm a Mac, i can dish it out but i don't take criticism very well.
Hi I'm WmPenn, I misconstrue conversations that don't involve me and get overexcited at any opportunity to discredit Apple or anything having to do with them.
Notice the exclusion of "I'm a PC" due to not every PC user being as dumb as you.
Yeah, I got the student discount thing too. No ISO, just an installer that I had to run from within Vista. I picked a custom install and it worked without a hitch, but then again I went from vista 64 to win 7 64.
Wow, the student upgrade thing worked for me w/out any headache. Downloaded Win7 professional upgrade from digital river last night. The installer "installed" Win7 Pro 64bit over my copy of Win7 RC1. I selected custom install, and my previous data were all compiled in a "windows.old" folder. No problems, no hitch, installed in 25 minutes. Though I heard previously people reported Win7 upgrade not wanting to install over RC1.
I don't think my last comment went through, but since the problem of A 64-bit installer on a 32-bit OS is pretty problematic, here is a petition going around addressed to Digital River
http://www.petitiononline.com/ISOftw/petition.html
I didn't have a problem with the digital river download, I did have a problem with the Key, it says product Key is invalid, left it blank to continue install...
the key is probably an upgrade key (not for the full version).
I had problems at first (which I was pretty ticked). I was trying to go from 32bit to 64bit and thought I would get an iso to burn and boot. Well, I did follow a tutorial (search on sevenforums.com) to make an iso and finally was able to do a fresh full install... it is awesome
does anybody know if this deal will work with boot camp, considering i do not own a previous version of windows? i want to run both on my mac so i can get the best of both worlds. i am a college student so i'm sure i can buy it for 29, i just cant figure out if its upgrade only or not.
My copy won't work either, and I'm not bloody well compiling my own .iso (which has a 50/50 chance of working) using the command line either.. I'm waiting for an official fix.
Stupid digital river.. their website said it wouldn't be a problem before they sold it, said a custom installation would be fine.
The .iso always works(problems in the forums were because of A:people not waiting long enough at the splash screen and thinking it crashed and B: mistyping the line). It is a tiny bit of a hassle, but really the work to do comes down to copy-pasting a single command line command and burning the .iso to a dvd/flash drive. Or you could wait for the fix which is surely coming soon.
The 64 bit version worked beautifully i upgraded this morning no problem and am currently enjoying Windows 7 for $30. BTW it is a separate company working with windows that made this.
I was able to do a custom install from XP on a tablet without a problem, perhaps these people should give their keys to me so I can upgrade the rest of my computers.
Do you want to know why you should never argue with a fool?
Onlookers can't tell the difference.
I never got an email, but signed into my Windows Store, Account and downloaded and installed it within 3 hours!
I opted for the Windows 7 Professional upgrade (I was running XP Pro). I started my download at about 2 AM Thursday; by 8 AM I had the download complete (average speed ~150kbps). I decided to burn the .exe et al. to DVD-R and then ran it. [Note: I was surprised that it auto-ran when I put the disc in.]
I had no problems with my install; this post was even made on my almost-new install of 7. However, my sympathies go out to those who have had trouble.
Quite a few posts are waaaaaaaaaay off topic here: The $29 Student Upgrade from Digital River. I've purchased both 32 and 64 bit versions of Win7 Professional from DigiRiver so I'm entitled to share my story.
I had to follow the crazy CMD line to create an ISO image for the 64bit version, but I can't do a thing with the 32 bit download. I get the .exe and two .box files downloaded, but they simply will not "unzip" properly (forget about creating an ISO) . I've tried multiple downloads, on multiple OS's, with multiple permission settings.... denied every time. I'm sitting here with 2Gigs of useless files. Dislike.
I had the standard issue going around with the Digital River files. Apparently, they never thought WinXP 32 bit to Win7 64 bit would be a popular upgrade path. On the upside, I did get Win7 installed by using a program to place the Win7 install files onto a thumb drive in a bootable manner. I few hours later I'm up and running good as new. Win7 is great...once you get it installed.
eh, no georgia tech love apparently..
For once I thought.............. MS actually got its head out of its ass but it proves itself again.
I tried to download 64 bit 7 on my mac. FAIL. even in vmware with vista. utter and complete fail. now I have to wait for my "Windows 7" discs to arrive. Was anyone else upset that purchasing the student version actually costs 52$ after you add the fees for discs and a guaranteed download? WHAT A JOKE- VISTA TAKE 2
LMAO @ another MSFT FAIL
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l-42.html
That's the site I found which explains how to create the .ISO file. Once that's done, create your bootable disc.
I required installation onto an empty hard drive because I was switching from Vista Ultimate 32-bit to 7 Professional 64-bit.
After running into the activation snafu, I wound up on the phone with Microsoft for about an hour until I found a tech who knew what to do. He walked me through a registry edit and some command line code (wish I had taken some screen shots, sorry!), after which the activation (using an upgrade activation code) worked for my clean installation.
Hope a better fix comes out soon, good luck to everyone trying to do a clean install with an upgrade copy of Windows 7.
I had ordered the downloadable student professional edition, and started to install over my XP partition on my new Macbook Pro. I got the error during installation that it couldn't create an installation folder, which then made me realize it wouldn't be able to keep the files on the partition I downloaded to if it was going to do a clean install. I sent a request in to order the backup DVD (it's not readily available to do so, so I emailed Digital River's support). In the meantime, I found the instructions to turn the files into a bootable DVD. I made an iso, burned it to disk with the trial version of Ultra ISO, and had Windows 7 installed by Friday morning. On Friday afternoon, I got an email back with instructions to order the backup DVD, although it isn't necessary now. I'm posting this from my Win7 partition right now and I can't wait for VMWare Fusion 3 (which is available for a $39.99 student discount on their website) to drop on Tuesday so I can virtualize this!
I had to download it 3 times before I finally got it to work.
third time was a charm though :)
am i the only person who is still waiting for them to hurry up and verify that my school email is legit??? The stupid college gives us .net emails! agh!
Went from windows vista home premium 64 to windows 7 professional 64 bit. When i logged into microsoft web site to download my copy, it had many options including 64 and 32 bit downloads also it had options to download exe files or an iso. I have a 64 bit vista, so i downloaded a 64 bit win 7 iso. I burned it then booted from it and now i am running win 7 pro no problems.
Really, though, its tough when you're trying to argue with someone who has no sense of understanding in the area you are pursuing. Leave BillG to rot in oblivion - he hasn't had a successful rebuttal yet.
Your lack of understanding for the situation at hand is disappointing, BillG.
Lastly, "a conversation that doesn't include..." should be had via text messaging or some other private medium. Here on Engadget anyone is allowed to put the Fanboys in their rightful place.
You wouldn't be getting so screwed over if your posts actually accomplished anything.
I got my super cheap upgrade =)
what's up people! we need to fire this comment thread up !
No real solution will be offered if we don't show massive negative feedback.
Only through a highly frequented site like engadet it's possible to pressure FAST for a better solution than time-consuming diy-disks or refunds after frustation.
Every student & everyone else reading from around the world drop a damn comment!
PRO downloadable and applicable full-install win-7--->>>ISOs
REACT!
Hope some responsible microsoft & digital river salesmen are reading this!
you losing massively future high profile customers.
It would be a shame if any todays it-company is unable within 6h to exchange a couple of files on a server.
For Microsoft it means utter failure after 3days. there is no excuse.
I bought the student upgrade, and found that problem. I just installed a clean copy of XP Pro that went with my laptop (to remove my messy partition setup), copied the files onto a flash drive, and ran the clean install option. Of course it took a bit longer, but it works wonderfully.
FYI- I went from Vista Home 32bit to Windows 7 Home 32bit with out any problem. I downloaded from digital river, ran the .exe, it installed, no problems. Just a heads up for people who are hesitant, you can go from 32bit to 32bit with out any problem.
I finished the install this weekend. I wanted to do a clean install on a second hard drive, keeping my XP install intact. I stared at the install instructions and was disappointed.
I didn't know what to do at first, until I read the maximum pc article on creating a boot DVD.
First I tried the custom install with only the blank hard drive connected, and it would not accept my product key. Finally I found the culprit. It didn't recognize that I had an install already present, so it wouldn't let me install.
I ended up keeping my XP drive disconnected, installed XP on the new drive, but no apps, then rebooted with the MaximumPC solution (Window7 Student) DVD in the PC. It worked, no problems. It was easier to just install XP right quick, then to image the drive over. Twenty minutes versus 90, you do the math. The x64 version installed perfectly. Now I'm happy. Why is it so hard? I should have realized it was too good to be true, $29 for Windows7 x64? I didn't notice I bought an upgrade, and I set myself up for trouble. It was an extra two hours of futzing around. But oh well. Finally happier. 8Gb of RAM goodness makes it worth it!
Yeah i had major issues with this download. I was upgrading from xp32bit to win7 64 and the only way i managed to do it was to borrow a copy of XP64 and install the upgrade (custom) from that. This is all after being told by the website on my first download that I'd exceeded the 10 download limit. Microsoft were pretty awesome about it though, they've given me full refund and sent it out on CD!
No smart comment from Engadget in the article? Why? If this was Apple, there would have been at least 1 kick to the nuts. What a windows fan boy site this has become.
Same here. I am a BmE major at my school and they wouldn't give it to me becasue I was not a CompE or a CS major. Bitches. I went for the $30 student upgrade.
I went from Vista Ultimate x64 to Win 7 Pro x64. How you ask? Clean install. Make a quick google around. You can use the $30 student upgrade to do a clean install, and I can vouch for that. Peaces yall.
So after trying to install from the disc, and ending up with a white screen and having to use task manager to access anything, I took advantage of the Win 7 Professional offer for students for $29. How do I get the "offered refund" for the Home Premium Win 7 that I heard about? Digital Rivers isn't giving it that's for sure!