upgrading to win7

**wupwup** · February 23, 2010, 10:05 AM

well my RC windows 7 has just expired but thankfully my parents have decided to get win7 for the downstairs pc. but this leaves me with a few questions.
1) it says it is only licenced for 1 pc but will it matter? will microsoft be able to find out and what will happen i they do?

2) one computer is vista 32bit and the other is win7 64. i think i have to format the win7 one to install xp (wich i have a cd and valid key for) and then put win 7 full back on. are there going to be any nasty suprises that catch me out? any clauses that say xp must be 64 bit to upgrade to win7 64 bit?

3) is there anything realy nasty like xp must be installed for x amount of time? also the xp one has been used on several pc's but only one at a time (wich i think IS legal). but will this catch me out?

thanks

**Simetrical** · February 23, 2010, 12:47 PM

Someone more familiar with installing Windows might want to answer to correct any errors, but I think this is right:

1) As I understand it, your computers will all phone home regularly, and Microsoft will check for discrepancies. If you install the same copy of Windows on multiple computers, you will very likely get caught, and one will disable itself or otherwise inconvenience you. Please do not inquire on these forums about how to avoid this, because it would count as promoting illegal activities and is against the rules here.

2) To use an upgrade edition, you don't even have to have the old copy of Windows installed. If it doesn't find Windows installed anywhere, it will ask you to insert an installation CD for an older version of Windows. (Unless this was changed in Windows 7 – I'm quite sure it's true for upgrading to XP, anyway.)

3) In my experience, you can use the same old version of Windows for as many upgrades as you want, but I'm not totally sure.

**wupwup** · February 23, 2010, 01:02 PM

ok thanks. wont ask about 1 then

thanks for the other two. is there a discounted thing for maybe a household where you can have up to x computers inone hous runnin off it or do i have to buy 2? cheers

**Simetrical** · February 23, 2010, 01:15 PM

I don't think you can get discount rates for only two copies. Discounts are for big orders. But you might be able to get a student discount, or some other sort of discount.