Windows 7 & Office 2007 Questions

sindersoot

We are looking to purchase Windows 7 and Office 7 but have noticed some say "OEM" or "RETAIL". What is the difference, the one we require would be 32 bit?

Not sure about the upgrade packages, if they are all the same or not?

Our household would be eligible for student full/upgrade packages but not sure if these have same capabilities as the same versions bought in the normal way. Eg can you upgrade them at a later date, etc?

Are there any places that have reasonable prices for GENUINE versions that include discs.

DCFC79

Oem is just the dvd and is slightly cheaper than the retail version, the retail version is the whole lot eg dvd and maybe some other gumpf and is also expensive. The retail version is geared towards home users plus if anytihng were to happen you get a number to call for help whereas with the the oem i dont think you get that kind of help. If you bought an oem and you changed the computers hard drive after 2 years you would have to buy a new OS

Red_Rose_Exile

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) Software primarily is bundled with a complete system or particular type of hardware, and by rights the license is atrtibutable to the software and that piece of hardware. It usually has less packaging and in most cases comes with minimal support and no manual. On the other hand retail can be bought regardless of hardware, and greater support can be obtained, and comes with packaging and a manual.

Upgrade software usually requires an earlier version of the software to have been installed, or for you to at least have the cd key for the earlier software. For instance, you could buy Windows Seven upgrade, if you have Vista installed or at least have the disk and cd key to hand.

Student version of Office are full versions, but officially are only meant to be installed on the PC of a person whilst in an academic environment, teacher, professor, student. Once that person has left, the full license is meant to be installed

Ebuyer has Windows 7 home premium for £56 and M$ Offfice Home and Student 2007 for 3 pcs for £69.99

spud17

If you bought an oem and you changed the computers hard drive after 2 years you would have to buy a new OS

Not true, roughly speaking you can change anything except for the motherboard.
I've changes hard drives, processors and memory and never had windows fail to activate correctly.

BandJB

Before you spend any money on Windows 7, have you checked the upgrade path from your existing OS? It's different for XP and Vista. From XP it seems to involve a 'clean install' which means backing up all of your existing software and data, then installing Windows 7 and restoring/re-installing your software and files. No mean task, even if you've got the necessary backup facilities and original software CDs etc.

If you're not sure then have a good look around the web and see what others have to say on the subject. Maybe other MSE contributors will add their comments and/or experiences here, too. Personally, as an XP user, I'm waiting to see if the XP-to-7 upgrade route gets smoother as time passes.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

custardy

BandJB wrote: »

Before you spend any money on Windows 7, have you checked the upgrade path from your existing OS? It's different for XP and Vista. From XP it seems to involve a 'clean install' which means backing up all of your existing software and data, then installing Windows 7 and restoring/re-installing your software and files. No mean task, even if you've got the necessary backup facilities and original software CDs etc.

If you're not sure then have a good look around the web and see what others have to say on the subject. Maybe other MSE contributors will add their comments and/or experiences here, too. Personally, as an XP user, I'm waiting to see if the XP-to-7 upgrade route gets smoother as time passes.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

TBH i would always do a fresh install for a new OS

RobTang

OEM versions HAVE to be sold as part of a pre-build computer, Microsoft offers no phone / email support for it (you legaly have to provide the support) and it is tied to the computer it was originally installed on.

However to aid distribution you can legallay sell a box containing a licence and a cd to whoever you want. You may not open the box unless you are pre-installing it on a computer to sell to somone else.

However its just not worh buying the OEM version anymore, you used to get a significent saving by sneakingly installing it on your own systems (like half price) but MS has brought the prices much closer together its now not worth the hassel anymore.

sindersoot

Thanks again for all your help. At the moment we will just concentrate on the Office suite until we find out a bit more about Windows 7.

Could someone tell us how to save all the stuff that is within our current Office suite which has a number of different things like Outlook, Word, etc. We know how to delete programmes from Add/Remove but that is as much as we know.

We intend to install a completely new Office suite ourselves this time, not trusting anyone ever again:mad: or should I say we intend to try!

custardy

sindersoot wrote: »

Thanks again for all your help. At the moment we will just concentrate on the Office suite until we find out a bit more about Windows 7.

Could someone tell us how to save all the stuff that is within our current Office suite which has a number of different things like Outlook, Word, etc. We know how to delete programmes from Add/Remove but that is as much as we know.

We intend to install a completely new Office suite ourselves this time, not trusting anyone ever again:mad: or should I say we intend to try!

bear in mind office 2010 is mooted to be released in June

sindersoot

hi custardy, yes I had noticed that. Problem is we need to save all the current stuff at the moment and are trying to do it ourselves so that we can remove the Office suite that is currently installed on our pc and buy a new one.

custardy

well the office 2010 beta is available just now,though i havent tried it
im still on 2007