Thanks to my friend Mike, I was made aware of the Windows 7 student discount deal from Microsoft. I had been saving up on a monthly basis to buy the OS, but now that I could get it for about a fifth of the cost of the original price I was planning on paying, I had to jump on the deal. So I got the download through the service provided by Digital River and I’ll keep this as short as possible to explain what version I received and how I went about doing a clean install.
When I went to the Microsoft student deal site I looked at the versions available and to my pleasant surprise they were offering Windows 7 Professional for the same price as the Home Premium version. The main interest I have in the Professional version is because it can run Windows XP Mode. If you don’t know much about this, it’s a way to keep XP while still having Windows 7. Ok let’s get to the details.
Once you buy the product, you are offered a download page where you download a small download manager. This appears to be a mandatory step. Here are the steps to follow.
Run the download manager (downloads all the Win7 files)
When finished downloading run the file to extract all the files downloaded
A new folder is created called “expandedSetup” (contains all your Win7 files)
At this point if you want a straight forward upgrade of your OS all you do is run the setup file in the folder and follow the instructions. But if you prefer to make a bootable disk and run a clean install, then you follow the next steps.
Copy the folder “expandedSetup” to your root drive C:\
Download “oscdimg.exe” and copy it over to %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32 folder (you can skip this step if you go to Microsoft’s website and download and install the “Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK)” -free download
Run a command prompt as Administrator (google if you don’t know how to do this)
Type the following and hit enter: oscdimg.exe –bC:\expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com –u2 –h -m -lWIN_EN_DVD C:\expandedSetup\ C:\Win7.iso
Wait till this compiles an ISO for you
When finished use your favorite burning software to burn the ISO image to DVD
When done insert the DVD and restart your computer and enjoy your bootable disk
It took several hours to figure this out on my own. I did not find any detailed Digital River instructions on how to make the bootable disk. Although they did tell you on the website you could run a “custom install” in order to get a clean install, they left you on your own to figure out how to do it yourself. All in all I’m happy I have my Windows 7 installed. Thanks for reading.
P.S. On a final note I had to go to Microsfot’s website to download the 2 components for XP Mode to work. You actually download a version of Windows XP with Microsfot Virtual PC software. As of today it was a free download. Took a few minutes to run and install and I had my XP mode working. As far as I know it doesn’t work on the Home Premium version of Windows 7.
The Gift Colony Online
Installing Windows 7 Student Discount Version
Thanks to my friend Mike, I was made aware of the Windows 7 student discount deal from Microsoft. I had been saving up on a monthly basis to buy the OS, but now that I could get it for about a fifth of the cost of the original price I was planning on paying, I had to jump on the deal. So I got the download through the service provided by Digital River and I’ll keep this as short as possible to explain what version I received and how I went about doing a clean install.
When I went to the Microsoft student deal site I looked at the versions available and to my pleasant surprise they were offering Windows 7 Professional for the same price as the Home Premium version. The main interest I have in the Professional version is because it can run Windows XP Mode. If you don’t know much about this, it’s a way to keep XP while still having Windows 7. Ok let’s get to the details.
Once you buy the product, you are offered a download page where you download a small download manager. This appears to be a mandatory step. Here are the steps to follow.
At this point if you want a straight forward upgrade of your OS all you do is run the setup file in the folder and follow the instructions. But if you prefer to make a bootable disk and run a clean install, then you follow the next steps.
It took several hours to figure this out on my own. I did not find any detailed Digital River instructions on how to make the bootable disk. Although they did tell you on the website you could run a “custom install” in order to get a clean install, they left you on your own to figure out how to do it yourself. All in all I’m happy I have my Windows 7 installed. Thanks for reading.
P.S. On a final note I had to go to Microsfot’s website to download the 2 components for XP Mode to work. You actually download a version of Windows XP with Microsfot Virtual PC software. As of today it was a free download. Took a few minutes to run and install and I had my XP mode working. As far as I know it doesn’t work on the Home Premium version of Windows 7.