Windows 7 Upgrade Disc - Dell - What in the world can I do with this thing?

[acheron800]

I bought a computer a while ago which came with Vista and a free upgrade to 7 home premium.

I had to put professional on the one I bought.

Now I have a Dell 7 upgrade disc with a key, but am too afraid to install it on my gf computer which is an HP. She has vista home premium.

I have read conflicting reports on whether or not it will work.

Microsoft and Dell proceeded to tell me to not risk it and urging me to buy a copy from them at their overly bloated price. (I can buy an upgrade for her for $65 right now - student, but am really trying to save that especially since I have the discs in front of me)

If I CANNOT install it, can a person with a Dell install it?

Thanks!

[JDay]

Originally Posted by acheron800

I bought a computer a while ago which came with Vista and a free upgrade to 7 home premium.

I had to put professional on the one I bought.

Now I have a Dell 7 upgrade disc with a key, but am too afraid to install it on my gf computer which is an HP. She has vista home premium.

Windows 7 Professional? If so just install that same one on her Dell and use the HP disc if you reinstall on yours. The HP disc may very well work on any computer too, my Vista upgrade from HP works this way.

[Wildhawk66]

It should work fine assuming your only upgrading from 32 bit Vista to 32 bit 7 or 64 bit Vista to 64 bit 7.

I tried to upgrade using a 32bit Vista system to 64bit Windows 7 (was told by Digital River it would be fine) and it turned into a nightmare. It can be done, but isn't worth the time in my opinion.

[glock_this]

use it as a coster and get an Apple

[phish]

The one thing that annoys me about computers from the big boys is they always throw some annoying proprietary software onto the hard drive, the same could hold true for their upgrade disks.

[acheron800]

It is a W7 64 bit upgrade home premium.

[willm952]

If it's Dell stamped upgrade DVD you can only use that upgrade 7 home premium on a dell machine.
HP or any other brand will look like its installing but error out during the install.
It does some kind of bios check to ensure its a dell.

7 will only upgrade from vista not xp. You'll need to use easy transfer to move your data from xp to 7.

I work with dells at a fortune 500 company. We tried that trick years ago.

Hope this helps out.

[NaughtyMonkey]

Originally Posted by willm952

If it's Dell stamped upgrade DVD you can only use that upgrade 7 home premium on a dell machine.
HP or any other brand will look like its installing but error out during the install.
It does some kind of bios check to ensure its a dell.

7 will only upgrade from vista not xp. You'll need to use easy transfer to move your data from xp to 7.

I work with dells at a fortune 500 company. We tried that trick years ago.

Hope this helps out.

I had a Dell Windows 7 upgrade disc and it worked on my Gateway from Vista to Windows 7. Also did it on my custom Built PC that had no operating system. I must have done something you didn't because it worked for me.

[PolishMike]

In my experience its hit or miss.