Posted on October 22nd, 2009 by Steve Cassidy

The Windows 7 retail experience

Windows 7 queue No, I didn’t get up early for the Windows 7 launch and no, I didn’t queue – though clearly, by the time I staggered to my nearest PC World, there had been some sort of stampede of the faithful. They must have been frightfully early too because just before lunchtime, I was out of luck if I wanted a boxed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.

My intention is to install Windows 7 on a pristine drive in a machine whose previous install (of Vista Business, according to the sticker) was as lost to me as the hard disk it had lived on. This is not the method you will hear most about, because the vast majority of people are assumed to be brave enough to just throw the Windows 7 upgrade DVD into their solitary home PC and just let the dice fall as they may. Or, as the banners at PC World proclaimed, get a new PC, which just happens to have Windows 7 preinstalled on it.

My approach is slightly different, because I expect to see the 64-bit computing ceiling well and truly smashed in Windows 7 and the advantages of multi-core to expand rather amazingly – so I want my main Windows 7 box to be a bit larger than normal.

I’ve reserved an eight-core dual Xeon HP xw6600 Workstation for the poshest copy of Windows 7 left in stock, which turns out to be Professional. I can’t see anything in Ultimate which I am burning to use right away so Professional it is.

The PC World crew were a bit nonplussed by my combination of purchases – a “real” copy of Professional, and a Family Pack – but I managed to get out with the full set without looking at the quite shockingly blingtastic widescreen laptops (for Britain’s Fattest man, possibly) prominently marketed as new for Windows 7.

The lowest point of the buying process was the hangover-busting alarm that shreiked across the whole store the minute that the Windows 7 box repository was opened; spend any time in my PC World while people are actually buying and the variety of high-pitched tamper alarms make you feel you’ve been trapped inside a pinball machine with Elton John at the controls.

Back home and at least one mystery is solved: the full copy has 2 DVDs in it, one marked 64 bit, the other 32. The software key is on the inside of the box and clearly you can use it for either (but not both!) versions.

Doing a blank install to a WD Velociraptor 300 was slightly confusing, in that Windows 7 will pre-partition the drive before you get to it, and then be a little pessimistic about what partitions it’s able to be installed on – but zapping all the partitions and starting over was painless, or at least less painful than figuring out which of the six SATA connectors on the 6600 motherboard were usable for a boot device.

So far my biggest disappointment has been that the HP support site’s style sheet comes out in about 2 point type in Internet Explorer 8 (64 bit), and that HP’s Win7 specific audio driver doesn’t drive at all. The second disappointment is that when I went to Java.com to get that installed, it detected and downloaded a 32-bit Java. Shurely shome mishtake?

The biggest plus is that Windows Update found something specific to download for my comparatively rare NEC 2070WNX flat screen – and I seem to have a performance score at the moment of 5.5.

And eight CPU graphs in Task Manager. Which is what I wanted…

Windows 7 task manager

Posted in: Windows 7

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23 Responses to “ The Windows 7 retail experience ”

Paul Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I put my faith in Staples (Bussiness Post) & Play.Com (Royal Mail).

Just gone 18:00 & no deliveries yet. A days holiday wasted.

Oh well at least the Rc will still work until next year.
Sean Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I ordered from the Microsoft store and got the same result.
Mick Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I checked with PC World today and the prices for a upgrade from Vista Ultimate is very expensive. I am running Win 7 RC and it is very good, but the price of the upgrade is putting me off!
The performance score is a bit low? (RC on my laptop is 4.8 and I have only got 5400rpm HDD)
Steve Cassidy Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
yes, I’m trying to figure out the score now. The lowest scoring part is the memory, which is a bit of a hack anyway – the 6600 can take DDR2 667 memory but this one (rescued from a broker) has only PC4200 in iot, which may not be helping.

That, or the score is inside a very narrow band. When I use one of my Fam Pack licences to upgrade my T60, I’ll do a comparison (though I really want to buy that an SSD first – I’ve just done another T60 with an SSD and even in XP, it’s phenomenal…
kevin Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Will windows 7 full retail pricing actually jump to the full rrp as recommended by MS?
Pete Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Have to confess I received my Win 7 Pro discs a day ahead of the launch !
Mind you it was a pre-order back in Aug at the discounted price, however 7 RC continues to work away without any real issues ( barring a couple of drivers that the respective hardware manufacturers seem in no hurry to provide in 7 compatible mode )
TBH I will probably only get round to running the RTM disc once 7 starts nagging next Mar or so….
Brett Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Pre ordered in August too, it arrived next door today – woo hoo. All I need now is some time to move from the Win 7 RC to the retail. CAn’t wait but will have too as busy for next 8 days – boo hoo
Ian Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
“… the quite shockingly blingtastic widescreen laptops (for Britain’s Fattest man, possibly) …”

I’m rarely described as a politically correct person but even I think that that’s a tad offensive relating the need for widescreen laptops just to fat people.
Steve Cassidy Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
On this occasion, then, you *can* be described as PC. Where did I use the word ‘need’?
Tim_Wn Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I have just installed the retail windows 7 ordered in August. There was no selection screen for the browswer it just went ahead and installed IE.
Ian Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Yes you didn’t use the word need but being as that was the only possible reason you mentioned and especially since logically a person’s size has nothing whatsoever to do with what size of the screen they would require I took it that you were taking advantage of the “wide” part of widescreen to make fun of fat people when really there was no reason to other than to appear mean. If it were a massive chair for example you were reviewing then the leap to that comment would be a lot more logical.

I’m all for taking the proverbial jokes and have made some whoppers in my time and if I’m honest I’m one of the biggest PC haters I know but there is a distinct difference between making a joke of a situation/people etc and making a joke just to be mean to that selection of people and I’m afraid that’s what I got from that comment.

The fact I detest all the PC rubbish that goes on these days and was still offended at this should say something.

I’m not meaning to vilify you at all, I just wanted to say that I thought it was a tad inappropriate in this context.
Steve Cassidy Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Well, the only possible reason, except for the other possible reasons. I wouldn’t want to put a 17 inch widescreen on my legs, and I am every bit as skinny as my photo suggests; but you are of course entitled to your interpretation.

@Tim_Wn – very good point. I too just got IE8. Are there any ISO download purchasers in da house who can relate a different experience?
David Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
So I got the student deal and have two really major issues:

1. The digital download was borked to the extent that it results in a setup file and two additional files which I am not clear serve any purpose.

So no ISO. I had to browse tech sites to find a command line work-around that converts that setup file into an ISO, and apparently many people are having problems.

However, that’s only half the story.

2. I got it to work, and tried to activate it. During install the key did not work and I left it blank. Using it once installed it threw up an error message about the licence for “update version” only. All of that would have been fine had I been prompted to enter my key of my old Winodws, or to insert the disc. But I was not.

So now I do not know how I prove that I was previously using Vista. I am pretty sure this was not mentioned in the email I received.

For the time being I am going to hold out and see what happens.
David Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:50 pm
And for what it’s worth, the second point requires further hacking, which I found at this site:

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

It’s a regedit manoeuvre, but it works for me.

So no massive hassle in the end, but both problems could easily have been avoided.

At least Windows 7 is nice.
Steve Cassidy Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 12:20 am
My first reaction is, it sounds like you downloaded the wrong thing (or they offered you the wrong thing).

Umm: you backed up your XP machine before you did this, right?
David Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Oh they supplied the wrong thing all right, it is all over the internet. Student download version only I think.

And yes, I did back up to an external HDD. I was going from Win 7 RC, which meant hunting for a different fix than most used just to complicate things.
AnonnyMuss Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 11:21 am
I used the student download version for Professional (have ordered a disc too for the future).

You get an .exe file which is used to unpack the .box archives

Given that the student website only offers upgrade versions, I think the intention is that most people will go from Vista HP to W7 HP and do an in-place upgrade.

I took an alternative root of installing W7 onto a second partition on my hard drive. The multi-boot was automatically set up for me so I have equal access to W7 and Vista (though W7 takes boot priority).

If you want to do a clean install on a single partition then move the exe and box files to a USB drive (I put it on an external hard drive) and do it from there.

It’s not designed to be used like a CD install and they offer you the opportunity to buy a CD too for only £9 more.
David Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I had seen this prior to installing it:

“The Windows 7 launch seems to have gone off mostly roses and sunbeams, but we’re hearing today that quite a few people have had issues installing the downloadable $29 student upgrade edition on 32-bit Vista — apparently the file doesn’t unpack to an ISO, but instead to an executable and two bundles that don’t function properly, and eventually the process errors out with a 64-bit app trying to launch on 32-bit systems. It’s possible to create an ISO using some hackery, but the install process seems to be 50/50 after that — we’ve heard of both success and further crashes. For it’s part, Microsoft says it’s looking into things, so hopefully a newly repackaged download will be forthcoming — every party has its ups and downs, right?”

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/23/windows-7-student-upgrade-installer-not-working-for-many/

The email I received linked to a FAQ which said both in-place upgrade and custom install were possible.

I think that it is better to offer an ISO download that people could put on a DVD and have easy access to rather than a download version which, let’s face it, can have a number of problems (link down, slow broadband, file gets deleted, etc).

More to the point, I think it is a sensible practice to allow a full clean install and, if necessary, just require proof of having a previous version of Windows. There are so many pitfalls to an upgrade in-place method, though I admit that an awful lot of people could do it hassle-free.

I cannot speak to how it would work on XP either, I understand there you would have to do a custom install, which would again pose a problem with the download pack offered.
Jonathon Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
David,

I also got Win 7 through the Student offer. If you just run the .exe file it all installs and works out fine. You even get asked for your serial key.

I had no problems here ‘upgrading’ from the Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit using the .exe.
David Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
That is good news, though as I indicated above

a) I did not really want to take the chance! and,
b) I never wanted to upgrade in-place, for the reasons outlined above.

I do hope it works easily for msot people, and that the reported incidents were the minority.
Jonathon Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I actually got the choice after launching the .exe whether I wanted an in-place upgrade or a clean install.
David Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Perhaps you received an updated package, did you download today or at launch?

Can’t think what else it could, unless it is to do with 32 bit and 64 bit setup packages being different….

I can’t say it was too much trouble, after the initial worry about it being corrupted somehow the workarounds were relatively straightforward.
Andy Says:
October 26th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
congratulation to those people who chose to queue rather than pre orderding from Comet. 4 day’s after release and still no sign of my copies of Windows 7, if lucky may get them on Thur 29/10 1 week after release. will not make the mistake of using Comet again. surely they must realise why customers pre order, amaizingly i walked into their Northampton store today and could have purchased a copy off the self.