I just bought some new pc bits including a fairly significant RAM upgrade, which means I need to go from 32 to 64 bit. I’m no longer a student so my 4 year old activation code has expired and I also have money to pay for a legit version.

Dont think you can get windows 7 anymore, you may as well just go straight for windows 10?

download &buy here

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Windows-10-Home/productID.319937100

Just get 10, it’s an improvement.

Buy a proper copy of 7 off Ebay cheaply then upgrade to 10

Thanks, julians. I know W7 is no longer available through MS but I wanted to stick with what I know for a new build – hence the question.
Edit: Should I really go with W10?

Yes, got it on 3 of my 4 machines now, no issues to report

http://www.mmoga.com/advanced_search.php?keywords=windows+7&x=0&y=0

Got the .iso and licence key for my most recent build from this lot. Worked fine – although it’s an OEM licence so you have to get it working yourself rather than use the key to download from the Windows site.

Then upgrade to 10 when offered.

Windows 10 does seem pretty good, I upgraded my old desktop from windows 7 to windows 10 a few months ago, and have had no problems, if anything Windows 10 feels slightly quicker than windows 7. I know thats sounds unlikely, and I’ve never before had an OS upgrade that actually makes things faster, but Windows 10 does appear a bit quicker than windows 7. Its not night and day, so dont get your hopes up, but just a little bit quicker at starting the OS, launching applications, Etc

Martinhutch can you elaborate please, what do you mean get it working yourself?
I would like to get away from the hooky copy of win7 I have been using and your link seems very well priced.

Do you have a current 32 bit install with a valid licence key? You can extract your licence key from current installation (various software, google) and the original MS W7 ISOs are available at http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/ – your 32 bit key should work with the same version 64 bit iso.

Though TBH martinhitch’s links are a very good price if your current version isn’t 100% legit and you want to make it so.

What makes you think your key has expired?

AFAIK student copies are exactly the same as any other, I have both the paid for Upgrade pack and the free Dreamspark installs and neither has any sort of expiration.

What you WILL need if you are starting from fresh with the Upgrade Pack is an old copy of Windows for it to upgrade from, if you have an old XP copy that will be enough to upgrade from, I’m not even sure if it has to be fully activated, just installed with a legit key. You can then install using the software provided in either 32 or 64 bit, that’s what I had to do after similar hardware upgrades. You will then be entitled to the 10 upgrade, you might as well do that after updating to SP1, AFAIK that can then be overwritten with a fresh install once you have the key (but you will have to check that first) finally giving you a completely fresh copy of 10.

And yes, totally worth it. Just make sure any printers you have will be compatible, I’m having serious problems with our old Canon MPA160.

What makes you think your key has expired?

AFAIK student copies are exactly the same as any other,

I’d have thought so also.

You will then be entitled to the 10 upgrade [etc]

No need for any of that with the latest build of W10.

Use the Media Creator to make a Windows 10 installation USB / DVD. Install Windows 10. Tell it to keep nothing. When prompted, feed it your student Windows 7 key.

That’s it.

Windows 10 is pretty good but if you need to buy a new license I’d avoid Microsoft’s Windows Store as it’s pretty overpriced compared to (legitimate) online retailers.

What makes you think your key has expired?

AFAIK student copies are exactly the same as any other,

I don’t think that it’s the case that the keys expire; it’s more about licensing. Technically a student license is only valid whilst you’re a student; when you cease to be a student the product still works but you’re not legally licensed and operating illegally. There are similar issues with people buying cheaper Home (Not For Commercial Use) products, instead of business ones, but using them commercially; I guess it’s an issue of personal conscience.

; I guess it’s an issue of personal conscience

It used to say boldly not for commercial in the top bar so would look stupid trying it

It used to say boldly not for commercial in the top bar so would look stupid trying it

And the packaging of Student licensed software always used to say “For Academic Use Only”; AFAIK the software itself is identical, it’s only the key code (license) that varies.

Equally you’re not meant to transfer an OEM licensed product to a new machine (again it’s a licensing condition) but generally can.

I remember a worker in a local computer business pointing out to me that Microsoft’s own automated telephone activation system would activate pretty much anything as long as you “convinced” it that you were legally licensed (irrespective of whether you actually were) by the way you answered the questions.

I’m pretty sure that you could use a Academic licences copy of Windows 7 to access Microsoft’s free upgrade to Windows 10. It’s just a case of if the original copy of Windows 7 is no longer legally licensed (due to the holder no longer being a student) nor will Windows 10, and whether this matters to you.

When I last did an upgrade you just needed a valid ISO for the older version, it didn’t even need to be installed – though that was probably an upgrade to XP!

It’s all about the key though – if you have a valid W7 key (which as I mentioned above you can extract from a valid install) then you should be able to install W7 from a standard ISO, or as Cougar points out, in most cases* you can now install W10 from scratch using a W7 key.

* it didn’t work with an Enterprise W7 key when I tried – there may also be other exceptions – though that still allowed an upgrade from W7, just not a clean install.

In terms of the legality, I’m sure others are right about it not being strictly legal, but it is just a conscience thing – you won’t get any of the issues you might with a genuinely dodgy key.

Martinhutch can you elaborate please, what do you mean get it working yourself?
I would like to get away from the hooky copy of win7 I have been using and your link seems very well priced.

If you have bought a full home licence for a Windows OS, you can normally head for the MS site, enter your key and download the necessary files from there.

The OEM licence is aimed at the computer-building/retailing trade rather than punters like me – so your key won’t be valid on the MS site, you’ll have to use the .iso download link provided by MMOGA via email (or from somewhere else on the web) to find the files you need, then create a bootable usb or a DVD to install it. There are various bits of freeware out there that make that relatively easy to do.

Amazon also have relatively cheap Win7 licences then just upgrade to 10.

Kind of on topic. I have a win 7 desktop. I got a very nice ssd for xmas which I want as my boot drive. Looking at what Cougar said can I do a clean Win10 install onto my new ssd? (Current hard drive will become main data drive in the machine)

Ta

Cougar – forgot that was happening, thanks for the correction.

As far as I remember the licence operates in perpetuity so long as it is used in a non-commercial setting (so you can have Pro or Enterprise but are only licensed for home use). The user only needs to be a student to purchase the licence initially.

it didn’t work with an Enterprise W7 key when I tried

The Enterprise edition doesn’t qualify for the free W10 upgrade, that’s why. It’s Home and Pro only.

can I do a clean Win10 install onto my new ssd?

I don’t see any compelling reason why not, so long as you can still read the key on the CoA sticker.

What makes you think your key has expired?

AFAIK student copies are exactly the same as any other,

MS software recovery tells me “The product key you provided is for a product not currently supported by this site or may be invalid”

Are you using it with the correct software version?

OEM =/= Retail =/= Academic Licence versions

I had to download the specific Dreamspark Win 10 version when I upgraded, the software freelay available from MS won’t work. If this is the problem I’d be more than happy to get a copy to you.

Don’t prat about with .iso’s etc.
Software geeks – £28 delivered for an oem Windows disc with license and sticker.
Load it, clean install and update.
Gives the free update to 10 of you want – or not.

Yeh you’ll be able to pick up an OEM disk from somewhere or just go straight to win 10…10 is a solid operating system..(just remember to turn off the privacy invasion options) Unlike 8 which was just gash.

@Cougar

Worked 1st time. Now have 512gb ssd running win 10.

Used the MS tool to create a win 10 usb install – put in my win 7 key and we are all good.

Having some permission problems on the old 2tb drive so going to back all the data/films/music up and nuke it.

Thanks for the tips

db

Yeah, I know, but it still lets you upgrade to W10 with one of those (last time I tried – and presumably it’s not totally legit then, but as far as the MS servers are concerned it is), just not do a clean install – pointing out there are some exceptions.

so long as you can still read the key on the CoA sticker.

or if you can’t, extract the key from the current install (it’s held in a registry key, but encoded).

What do you mean by MS software recovery? Where are you getting that message? A lot of MS stuff requires a retail key – though keys from other sources will still work when installing with ISOs.

It’s hardly like a lot of trouble – if you have a DVD writer (as most people do), then download the ISO and write to a DVD using standard Windows tools. At which point you have exactly the same as the disc you’ve bought and you’ve saved yourself £15 (based on linked prices).

eulach » MS software recovery tells me “The product key you provided is for a product not currently supported by this site or may be invalid”

What do you mean by MS software recovery? Where are you getting that message? A lot of MS stuff requires a retail key – though keys from other sources will still work when installing with ISOs.

Here

Edit: BTW – thanks for all the answers, STW. It’s really cool to have a few obviously informed and varied opinions and solutions.

As I suspected – though I got a different error message to what you are reporting when I tried ones I knew wouldn’t work. That page only works with retail keys, not OEM or Enterprise ones (and presumably not student ones) though those are all still current legit keys.

Using aracer’s link I downloaded the 64 bit .iso. Using the windows usb/dvd tool, put it on a usb stick from my work pc which is (importantly) 64bit. Clean install on an old HDD. Activated windows with the old key. Updated nvidia drivers. All good. I’ll try later with the new mobo but I can confirm you can use a 32bit key to instal a 64bit os. Thanks to all who posted.

Oh yeah I meant to mention that. Bugger knows why OEMs insist on installing 32 when the machines are usually more than capable of running 64.

Glad you’re sorted 🙂

So now it all works on the new board. However Win 7, USB install and Skylake are not good friends. After much faffage, the only way I could get it to work was install from a dvd.