Once you have purchased the upgrade and received your key you can install it at any time in the future.If you want to use a free media center upgrade key you will have to use it before Jan 31.
Thanks, I am still not sure if I want the media center upgrade and Windows 8 but Staples gave me a coupon for the $14.99 upgrade, mind as well make use of it.
Two more questions: 1) I have two laptops with the updgrade promote, do I have to download twice for the ISO files to upgrade later on and burn two DVDs? 2) One of the laptop is for my daughter, do I use the name and email address that I registered for the upgrade or can I use her email, phone number etc to upgrade to W8 when asked? Tia
You can download and run the upgrade assistant twice from the same machine and hence producing 2 separate ISO's which will either make a DVD or USB boot , your choice. Or you can use upgrade assistant on each individual machine .. Use her email, phone number etc to upgrade to W8 when asked
Why to download same iso's twice?.... I know both will have different hash & that difference is there coz install.esd build time will be according to time, when download will finish... Else iso's are not bound to key...
Is not the iso and hash irrelevant as its all to do with the way its registered that makes it matter i.e. you could use any generic iso as long as its registered correctly?
Yes that is correct .. The only instance where it would make a difference is if your desktop is x86 architecture and you wanted x 64 on the install machine .. The upgrade assistant will give you the same architecture(x86 0r x64) as the operating system from which you are running the upgrade assistant.. If you are wanting to keep Windows 7 in conjunction with Windows 8 to run on the same hard drive or an additional hard drive you will have to plan this out .. If for example your desktop is running Windows 7 x64 and your two laptops are x64 capable you will have no issues downloading the two upgrade ISO's to that machine which would give you plenty of time to plan your path for the two laptops later.
Thanks, I thought the reason that MS wanted us to run the upgrade assistant on the machine that is going to be upgrade was to "customize" an ISO for that machine but it sounds like it was for either X64 or X86. Anyway both laptops and my desktop are running Win 7 64. One last question is both ISO I am going to download will be the same thus no need to burn both even thought the two laptops have different specs. One is Intel cpu the other AMD cpu, am I correct?
i recently bought a laptop which came with windows 7, if i decide to pay for upgrade to windows 8 using the laptop can I use the iso file i download and burn to install full win 8 on my desktop instead of laptop? using the key MS provide?
Won't technically be a Genuine Upgrade. If you want to minimise your risk of becoming Not Genuine. 1)Backup your Laptop and upgrade it offline, Do Not Activate just backup your store folder and revert your Laptop to Windows 7 2)Install windows 8 on your Desktop offline, Replace the contents of your store folder with the laptop backup, Re-install your Product key, Restart. 3) If all is good go online and Activate. this way the upgrade history should be inherited by your desktop from the laptop "data.dat" file
The terms above lead me to believe that you could install it on the desktop without installing it on the laptop first. It sounds like you are required to have recently purchased a windows 7 computer to be eligible for the offer, but they don't care what computer you install it on.
Actually in the earlier days they don't even care if you had really bought a win7 PC after July 2012.
I thought this might be useful info though I'm not by any means an advanced user. I wanted to install a legit copy of Windows 8 Pro upgrade but was running Windows 7 DAZ activated. I had a legit copy of the Vista Ultimate Upgrade so, I figured I would just install that and run the 8 upgrade over it. Long story short, the vista upgrade was a nightmare (as expected... hence the DAZ 7) because the XP key I had was for XP 64bit and I no longer have the disk. Microsoft couldn't seem to get hold of a disk or .iso either.... Morons! I tried a clean install and that wouldn't activate so, I called back again. Finally, after ripping through several levels of tech "support" they offered an activation solution (involving calling another number and I can only imagine endless stupid questions) which I never needed to use. Here's why: Before subjecting myself to round three of tech support hell I decided to try one more time. This time I installed over the previous and unable to activate clean install of the Windows 8 Pro upgrade and it activated without issue. Steps: Downloaded the upgrade assistant and created an installation disk with the "Create Installation Media" option on another computer running Windows 7 DAZ activated. Installed Windows 8 Pro upgrade on a clean SSD = Activation FAIL Installed Windows 8 Pro upgrade on a SSD with a previously failed attempt = success Notes: I don't remember if I chose to upgrade or clean install on the second attempt but, I'm fairly sure I chose clean install. Both rigs are 64bit but the one that created the installation media is running a GA-890FXA-UD5 mobo and Phenom II X4 965 proc. The rig I installed it on is running a GA-990FXA-UD7 mobo and Phenom II X6 1100T. I have successfully migrated installations between these two rigs in the past just by moving the HDD or SDD so, they are some what compatible and that may have helped. I don't know why this worked but it has been running smoothly since Nov. 6. Maybe one of you more advanced users can explain. And now a question: Am I able to upgrade my DAZ activated Windows 7 with a legitimate Windows 8 Pro upgrade without doing a clean install? I know a clean install is always recommended and that some software may not be compatible but I'd like to avoid reinstalling everything if I can. Thanks. ~fidof650