Can I get Windows 7 free to replace vista

2

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  • Rubidium
    Rubidium Posts: 663
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    alexhardy wrote: »
    no u can't
    sure, the os is old in technology terms, but that doesn’t mean that it’s worthless.

    vista is worthless and always has been!

    No more support from microsoft whereas Win7, a far superior OS will be supported until at least 2020.


    windows has always been a paid product and windows 7 is no exception, even now when microsoft no longer sells the software. Up until recently it was possible to download the iso (an installable digital copy) of windows 7 from microsoft for free, but you still needed the product key to activate the system. Now this feature has been removed, and the site requires the product key before you can even begin the download. Trial versions also offered 30 days at no cost, but even these seem to have fallen by the wayside as the platform ages.

    it is certainly not difficult to download a win7 iso and product keys are very easily available for next to nothing!


    .................
  • bouicca21 wrote: »
    What does grandma want to do that she can't do with Vista? If it does what she wants, why bother trying to upgrade?

    My MIL was in a similar position - Vista was adequate for her needs, but was running a bit slow. But she was getting a bit freaked about the warnings about the imminent end of support for Vista.

    I went up a couple of weeks ago and put linux mint on. She hasn't complained yet... (time will tell...) Printer and network all worked fine, which is probably about all she needs. Unfortunately, the laptop battery is knackered, so need to make a decision soon about whether to buy a new battery for a near-obsolete (but adequate) machine, or spend money on another laptop that's way more powerful than she needs.
  • lonestarfan
    lonestarfan Posts: 1,232
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    Perhaps. What is the Service Tag on the machine?

    I think this the service tag is - 811QX2J
    Although last time o gave you this tag you researched it and it came up as a different computer for some reason.
    It's a Dell Dimension E21
    I added 1 GB of ram myself a few years ago so it's now 3GB.
    Think we bought the Dell in 2007.
    It's got disk space free of 38.5 GB of 148 GB.
    Thanks for any help you can give .
  • frugalmacdugal
    frugalmacdugal Posts: 10,077
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    Hi,
    Unfortunately, the laptop battery is knackered, so need to make a decision soon about whether to buy a new battery for a near-obsolete (but adequate) machine, or spend money on another laptop that's way more powerful than she needs.

    does she use it as a laptop, I mean carry it about, use it on trains, cafe to cafe, if not then just take battery out and plug into mains.

    In reply to OP, I had Samsung R710 on Vista Home Premium, just plugged in at home, battery removed.

    It was getting slow, and bugging me, so decided, as it was never out of house to go back to a pc.

    I got one of the Dell ex office type things on ebay for £50, (Dell Optiplex 710) with Win 7 Home Professional already installed, got a monitor on ebay for £15, keyboard Argos for £6.

    Whole set up about £70, does the job for me, and if I get a couple of years out of it, I'm happy.
  • Hi,

    does she use it as a laptop, I mean carry it about, use it on trains, cafe to cafe, if not then just take battery out and plug into mains.

    Never takes it out of the house. That was one reason I tried to dissuade her from bothering about the battery, since running it plugged in doesn't seem that big a deal. It's one of those little things - the power cable isn't quite long enough to reach from socket to chair. if it was me, I'd just use an extension cable and be done with it, but she's the sort of person that would tidy everything away while not in use. So using the computer would then mean having to fetch the extension lead, plug everything together, etc, etc.

    I think it had already got to the stage that she only unplugged it from the mains in order to carry it through to the back room to plug into the (usb) printer, but now it's possibly not even lasting long enough to do that. (Possibly linux's fault - maybe it's just the alert levels have been set too high - didn't have time to check all that out.)

    She is talking about buying a new wireless printer, but that's not very money-saving (esp since she's only just bought ink for this one), so I'm just about to send up an openwrt-flashed router to act as a wireless printer-server ;-) Finger's crossed it will just plug in and work first time. (Getting the router to allocate a fixed IP address is probably the main challenge.)
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    I think this the service tag is - 811QX2J
    Although last time o gave you this tag you researched it and it came up as a different computer for some reason.
    It's a Dell Dimension E21
    I added 1 GB of ram myself a few years ago so it's now 3GB.
    Think we bought the Dell in 2007.
    It's got disk space free of 38.5 GB of 148 GB.
    Thanks for any help you can give .

    There is both good and bad news. :)

    It's possible, though not without risk.

    That's the good news ;)

    The bad news is that it will need to be a clean install, so something will need to be done with the 90 GB of data stored on the hard drive.

    Anyway, you can worry about that later.

    The first step would be to find an empty USB flash drive and make it 'bootable'.

    Take the empty USB Flash Drive(size not that important, though small capacity is good), plug it in, then download and run Rufus and use these settings:

    rufus_dos_install.png

    No reason to touch Cluster Size or Volume Label and you may prefer to use MS-DOS instead of FreeDOS.

    Click Start and let Rufus do it's thing.

    Once complete, click here to download and save the three files needed for the firmware update.

    Download and save and then drag/send/copy the contents of the folder(the three files within, not the folder itself) on to your newly bootable USB flash drive..
    Once done, choose to make the USB flash drive the drive from which the desktop boots. You do that by pressing the F12 key soon after you press the power button or as soon as the machine begins to restart.
    Once you have done that and boot on to the USB Flash drive, it will begin the BIOS update. Let it do it's thing.
    Once complete, reboot if necessary.
    It could all go horribly wrong, but hey ho, it's an old machine. :)

    Once that is done, we'll deal with the installation of Windows 7.
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    My MIL was in a similar position - Vista was adequate for her needs, but was running a bit slow. But she was getting a bit freaked about the warnings about the imminent end of support for Vista.

    I went up a couple of weeks ago and put linux mint on. She hasn't complained yet... (time will tell...) Printer and network all worked fine, which is probably about all she needs. Unfortunately, the laptop battery is knackered, so need to make a decision soon about whether to buy a new battery for a near-obsolete (but adequate) machine, or spend money on another laptop that's way more powerful than she needs.

    Brand name and model number?
  • psychic_teabag
    psychic_teabag Posts: 2,865
    Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
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    Unfortunately, the laptop battery is knackered, so need to make a decision soon about whether to buy a new battery for a near-obsolete (but adequate) machine, or spend money on another laptop that's way more powerful than she needs.
    Brand name and model number?

    It's a Compaq CQ60 IIRC
  • NiftyDigits
    NiftyDigits Posts: 10,459 Forumite
    It's a Compaq CQ60 IIRC

    I would need the full model number, such as CQ60-615DX....
  • lonestarfan
    lonestarfan Posts: 1,232
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    There is both good and bad news. :)

    It's possible, though not without risk.

    That's the good news ;)

    The bad news is that it will need to be a clean install, so something will need to be done with the 90 GB of data stored on the hard drive.

    Anyway, you can worry about that later.

    The first step would be to find an empty USB flash drive and make it 'bootable'.

    Take the empty USB Flash Drive(size not that important, though small capacity is good), plug it in, then download and run Rufus and use these settings:

    rufus_dos_install.png

    No reason to touch Cluster Size or Volume Label and you may prefer to use MS-DOS instead of FreeDOS.

    Click Start and let Rufus do it's thing.

    Once complete, click here to download and save the three files needed for the firmware update.

    Download and save and then drag/send/copy the contents of the folder(the three files within, not the folder itself) on to your newly bootable USB flash drive..
    Once done, choose to make the USB flash drive the drive from which the desktop boots. You do that by pressing the F12 key soon after you press the power button or as soon as the machine begins to restart.
    Once you have done that and boot on to the USB Flash drive, it will begin the BIOS update. Let it do it's thing.
    Once complete, reboot if necessary.
    It could all go horribly wrong, but hey ho, it's an old machine. :)

    Once that is done, we'll deal with the installation of Windows 7.

    Haven't had chance to do this yet. Will go over on weekend to work on it. I've bought USB stick. Am I able to make the USB stick "bootable" on my own PC (Lenovo Windows 10) so it's ready for when I go over or must I do it on her computer? Just thinking of trying to save time and be prepared before I get there as can't stay all weekend this time. Thanks.
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