Windows 7 install trick saves up to $100

Users can do a "clean" installation of Windows 7 using an upgrade license to save $80-$100 over the price of a "full" edition, a popular blog reported today.

According to Paul Thurrott, who writes the Supersite for Windows blog, Microsoft's upgrade media and product keys can be used to do a full installation of Windows 7 on PCs that do not have an earlier version of the OS.

Microsoft's Windows 7 upgrades are designed to do "in-place" or "custom" installs on PCs running Windows XP, Windows Vista or one of the preview editions of Windows 7. But Thurrott said that a few simple steps lets users install upgrade editions, which are considerably cheaper than the full versions designed for fresh installations.

Windows 7 Home Premium, for example, costs $119.99 as an upgrade, but $199.99 for the full edition, a difference of $80. The full versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate, however, cost $100 more than the corresponding upgrades.

Nearly three years ago, Thurrott showed users a similar trick with the then just-released Vista; that technique, however, required users to install Vista twice.

:story: Full story: Computerworld

this is interesting

I don't see how this is a trick, and Paul Thurrott just likes dramatizing this... the fact is, this 'feature' has been around since at least win98 days, and it takes into account that you have already paid for a previous version licence. I.e. We should thank M$ for giving us some credit for our previous purchase (hence company support).

Granted you have to do a full-clean install, and keep your previous purchased CD handy and safe!, then you should have no problems.

if anything it's probably better these days, as i havent needed to reinstall vista in 3 years.... unlike XP which was almost every 6months (in the early years - it has been around for nearly 10!!)... I'm sure W7 will keep the tradition and be a sweet operating system for many years!

on the other hand, if you're getting a new pc (OEM version), or installing over linux/other o/s then yes you should buy the FULL package, but then get the upgrade for Windows 8 ;)