Student Offer: Buy Windows 7 for only £30!

[locutus]

Visit:-

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/studentoffer/default.aspx

 

The offer will be available from 1st October 2009 for a short time only!! You will need a valid email address given by the college or university and a computer currently running a genuine copy of Windows XP or Windows Vista that is capable of running Windows 7.

[foolishgirl]

Word of warning:

 

Windows 7 is being marketed in Europe as an 'upgrade' version. It's not, it's the full package so be sure before you install to back up all your files (including emails etc) as when you install it will wipe the lot!

 

Not only have Microsoft in their usual wisdom failed to put this warning on the tin but the European version apparently will not be shipped with IE8.

[andydd]

Word of warning:

 

Windows 7 is being marketed in Europe as an 'upgrade' version. It's not, it's the full package so be sure before you install to back up all your files (including emails etc) as when you install it will wipe the lot!

 

Not only have Microsoft in their usual wisdom failed to put this warning on the tin but the European version apparently will not be shipped with IE8.

 

Wow..A very cheap offer !. I've been running various beta versions of Windows 7 and im quite impressed, I love it on my Media Centre PC and its runs fine on my other PC's.

 

I dont know wether the version to be sold will be the full version only, all the versions I've seen have been full versions but still included the upgrade option and i've upgraded from Vista on a few occasions.

 

If you hate Vista though you certainly won't like Seven..ha..its very similar.

 

The IE8 position is very wierd, how are the Euro Parliament helping the consumer by having no Internet browser at all ?, and as many have pointed out, how on earth do you get the browser of your choice without an eerr browser, its possible via FTP but this can be tricky for newbies, unless there is going to be some sort of easy version installed.

 

Still..£30 is a bargain, pity its not the Ultimate version.

 

Andy

[postggj]

anybody going to trust microsoft

 

all there so called upgrades are full of holes

 

remember vista

 

nothing worked with it

 

ill wait a year

[andydd]

anybody going to trust microsoft

 

all there so called upgrades are full of holes

 

remember vista

 

nothing worked with it

 

ill wait a year

 

Actually..Windows 7 is a lot, lot more reliable than Vista which was released with plenty of bugs and more annoyingly very little driver support.

 

7 does of course have some bugs but ive followed it through from pre-7000 leaked releases through to the present (final) RC and RTM versions and I find it very reliable. Every bit of hardware Ive installed so far has worked fine and its pleasing to see companies such as Nvidia released drivers specifically for 7 quite a few months ago.

 

Andy

[locutus]

Microsoft seem to do what should be a beta release then do a full release 2 - 3 years after. The trend is they go good, bad, good, bad...

 

95 bad

95 OSR 2 good

98 bad

98 SE good

ME bad

XP good

Vista bad

Windows 7.... one can only hope

[heliosfa]

anybody going to trust microsoft

 

all there so called upgrades are full of holes

 

remember vista

 

nothing worked with it

 

ill wait a year

 

The nice this about 7 is that any drivers out there for Vista, just work.

 

I've been running the full RTM as my sole OS and it is amazing how much faster everything runs, and my box was not slow with Vista!

 

We upgraded one of our most demanding, non-technical users to Windows 7 on Monday to try and solve her problems. Normally, the next thing you would hear would be complaints BUT she has had nothing but praise since she got it!

 

Seriously, Windows 7 is what Vista SHOULD have been. It is fast, easy and intuitive. It also has the option of "XP Compatability" mode for running older applications. The OS install is lesss than half that of Vista and XP and the rest of the setup is fast as well!

 

Ta,

H

[foolishgirl]

The nice this about 7 is that any drivers out there for Vista, just work.

 

I've been running the full RTM as my sole OS and it is amazing how much faster everything runs, and my box was not slow with Vista!

 

We upgraded one of our most demanding, non-technical users to Windows 7 on Monday to try and solve her problems. Normally, the next thing you would hear would be complaints BUT she has had nothing but praise since she got it!

 

 

It's good to hear a commendation from a personal experience but was this the Home/Student version hell?

[heliosfa]

It's good to hear a commendation from a personal experience but was this the Home/Student version hell?

 

What do you mean?

 

 

Really, whenever you go from one version of windows to another, you shouldn't do an upgrade - a clean rebuild is the way to go.

 

Windows 7 has improved the system developed in XP, Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, for the Windows Easy Transfer.

 

You install it on your old machine if it is XP or just run it from Vista, tell it what you want to transfer and point it at a USB drive or several DVDs and away it goes.

 

You then Intall 7 in a Clean environment and finish the transfer and all of your files and settinga are put back in the right place. You then just need to Re-Install your programs, which should pickup the restored settings.

 

H

[andydd]

I have Seven here on 3 computers, one desktop for general work, RC 7100 Version, a laptop (same version) and a Windows Media Centre PC (there appeared to be a few minor bugs related to TV & Media Centre in the 7100 version, so this has 7600 RTM).

 

All the PC's run great, I'm unsure as to what the Home/Student versions are like as I've only ever installed the Beta versions from Microsoft and these only came in Ultimate flavour.

 

I too wouldnt reccomend an upgrade as any probs in the old OS may reapeear in the upgrade, my personal preferefence is to make an 'image' of the old OS using Acronis or similar software and then do a clean install of Seven, you can always re-install the old OS or use it via Virtual Server/PC/VMware, etc if needs be.

 

Andy

[locutus]

I have an old hard drive, I copy the "documents and settings" folder onto that, then copy the files back on the "clean" install.

 

You can get either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional, your choice.

 

I'm hoping that although I have XP home (32 bit), and thats what I'll be upgrading from that I can get windows 7 in a 64 bit version (as I have 4 gig memory at the moment) Time will tell....

[heliosfa]

I have an old hard drive, I copy the "documents and settings" folder onto that, then copy the files back on the "clean" install.

 

You can get either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional, your choice.

 

I'm hoping that although I have XP home (32 bit), and thats what I'll be upgrading from that I can get windows 7 in a 64 bit version (as I have 4 gig memory at the moment) Time will tell....

 

The Documents & Settings copy procedure won't be as simple in a move from XP to Windows 7, the user filing structure is completely different.

 

The best (And easiest) way to migrate would be to use the Windows Easy Transfer to save your transfer files to that old hard drive.

 

 

Windows 7 (IIRC) is being supplied with both 32bit and 64bit install media in the same package with a license valid for either.

 

Personally, I am running the 64 bit version and I have not run into any software that doesn't work (apart from the VPN software that I would need if I wanted to connect to work remotely...)

 

H

[locutus]

For students with a valid university email address :-

 

Office '07 ultimate for £39.50. You can get windows 7 for £30 aswell.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/studentoffer/

[andydd]

For students with a valid university email address :-

 

Office '07 ultimate for £39.50. You can get windows 7 for £30 aswell.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/studentoffer/

 

 

you on commision ?

[locutus]

Amazon sell office 2007 ultimate at a knock down price of £161.62... just making sure CAGers get the best deal

 

I wish I was on commision! I think £20 for any software is reasonable when you expect to sell it in the millions!

[heliosfa]

For students with a valid university email address :-

 

Office '07 ultimate for £39.50. You can get windows 7 for £30 aswell.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/studentoffer/

 

Even better, the full Office Enterprise Suite ("Ultimate") is available from Software4Students for £35, plus it is a "2-machine license" (One on a desktop, one on a laptop).

 

Knock-down prices on adobe stuff as well.

 

H

[Guest SCalibur]

I recently had a little trouble with my PC ..well actually it just died on me , anyway i ordered a new PC from dell but i wasn't really happy about making the jump from XP to vista especially since i heard a lot of bad reviews on vista from friends and family, however dell are offering a free upgrade to windows 7 when it is released.

 

I thought this information may be useful for anyone who will be upgrading there PC but didn't want to yet because windows 7 isn't available yet..which i should imagine is why dell is offering this deal so people don't wait.

[locutus]

Check out the postage costs of this "free" upgrade. I know a friend who has bought a Fujitsu Siemens and it's going to cost close to £30 for shipping for windows 7 I've not looked into it yet, so not sure if he has made a mistake converting euros as thats what the price he was quoted is in or anything like that.

[heliosfa]

Check out the postage costs of this "free" upgrade. I know a friend who has bought a Fujitsu Siemens and it's going to cost close to £30 for shipping for windows 7 I've not looked into it yet, so not sure if he has made a mistake converting euros as thats what the price he was quoted is in or anything like that.

 

Some OEMs (read Fujitsu, Sony, etc.) are charging huge amounts.

 

Others are charging more reasonable amounts (I think Dell are charging £10, still high, but better than £30) for postage.

 

H

[Popeye]

Just clicked on this thinking it was 'windows' (i.e glass things) LOL

 

D'oh - how thick can you get !!

[locutus]

Just clicked on this thinking it was 'windows' (i.e glass things) LOL

 

D'oh - how thick can you get !! 19mm is the thickest I've seen for sale

My fault, I should have specified "Micro$oft" in the title

Edited November 12, 2009 by locutus

[john corner]

am using vista... now am thinging of switching over to windows7....... thanks buddy.......

[Mr Happy]

Im using Vista, had no problems with it, in fact it does what I want nicely, seen loads of people with it all having no problems, used windows 7 all appears OK just some of the tools I use in Vista are missing, I wont be upgrading to 7 when Vista does all I need.

 

So my cost saving tip is stick with Vista.

 

When I was younger I upgraded to the newest version as soon as it was available, most memorable, windows 2 to 3.0 then 3.1 and then 95, now if it does what I need it to do I stick with it until its obsolete.

[locutus]

I was using XP (32 bit) and my PC has 4 gig of ram. 32 bit operating systems can only handle up to 3 gig on my hardware (it does vary from 2.5 - 3.25 gig that the OS can find depending on the hardware), so the upgrade gave me an operating system with support for direct X 10 (and 11) for better game play, and an extra gig of memory as I have the 64 bit version of Windows 7.

 

Here are a few of the things that I think make Windows 7 nicer than Vista

 

If you download, it makes the task bar icon into a download bar so you can monitor the progress without having the download screen on top.

 

Hover your mouse over a task bar icon and it gives you a small preview of what that window looks like. Hover over the preview and it gives you a full screen preview. Move your mouse off and it closes, or click it and it brings it to the front.

 

If you have a lot of open programs, and you want to minimize all but the one you're working on, grab it by the top and shake it. All the other boxes minimize. If you finish with that box and want the others back, shake it again and they come back (that is a bit of a toy.... not really that useful but fun never the less)

 

If you are managing your files, and want to move or backup files, open the source folder and drag it to the left of the screen, it "snaps" and fills the left half. Open the destination folder and drag that to the right, that "snaps" and fills the right hand side of the screen, giving the perfect view for file copying in seconds! If you then want to maximize one of them folders, you can now drag it to the top of the screen to snap it in full screen mode (or click the maximize icon as normal... again this is added as a bit of fun over a serious feature I feel!)

 

Games play better in my experience. (maybe that is just the freed gigabyte of ram that I have...)

 

Rotating desktop backdrops are nice! I have used a selection of my favorite family photos and made it change the picture every 5 minutes.

 

I also have tried every Microsoft OS from MS DOS 3.0 to the present time (especially in the beta testing stages. I've also used all the server / NT variation). I decided to skip Vista as I only had a 1 gig system and things felt slow on this. I feel Windows 7 is worth £30, especially if you like games!

[Bookworm]

To add to this: If you bought a qualifying PC or laptop between 26/6/09 and 31/01/10, you can upgrade to Windows 7 for "free". In reality, not free, as they charge you a P&P which is a bit of a con... BUT for my Packard Bell laptop: £19.90. For DH's Acer Desktop: £12.75, so really can't complain considering how much it costs to buy it in shops!

 

Especially useful at this time of the year where a lot of people will have bought something for xmas.

 

More info here:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/upgrade-option.aspx

 

.