Windows 7 (2 Viewers)

[slaym]

Do you have to prove that your a student or do you just need a valid .edu email address? (I work at a university so I have the .edu email address, but I am not a student) Do they mail you the install disc or just a link to download the operating system?

Anybody have any success with this?

 

[Brennan77]

Do you have to prove that your a student or do you just need a valid .edu email address? (I work at a university so I have the .edu email address, but I am not a student) Do they mail you the install disc or just a link to download the operating system?

Anybody have any success with this?

They send you an email confirming the order and informing you that you will receive an email with a download link on Oct 22, the release date of 7. You can order a CD if you want, but it cost an extra $13.

In the fine print, they do say that they may call you to confirm your status as a student. I doubt they go through all that trouble. A valid, working edu addy should be fine, if I had to guess.

 

[TheDeparted]

I've been running Win7 Ultimate x64 for about a month now, on my HTPC. 3 thumbs up!

Also, found out last week (or the week before that) that you can install onto and boot from a .VHD (virtual hard disk) with the Win7 Enterprise or Ultimate editions. I'm not sure how many people realize how freaking awesome that is, but let me assure you - it's freakin' awesome.

 

[buzd]

Also, found out last week (or the week before that) that you can install onto and boot from a .VHD (virtual hard disk) with the Win7 Enterprise or Ultimate editions. I'm not sure how many people realize how freaking awesome that is, but let me assure you - it's freakin' awesome.

Please elaborate. I'm not familiar with that.

 

[Rickboy]

I've already got the iso and key for the Ultimate version. I'm going to make a virtual machine to run it on my Mac.

I've had one of the release candidates running for a few months and I have to admit that I'm impressed with it. It is a huge improvement over Vista.

 

[buzd]

One of my Win 7 (RC) installations is currently melting down and blue screening periodically. It seems to be related to a sound driver, but I haven't had time to troubleshoot it.

 

[Jtek74]

Please elaborate. I'm not familiar with that.

He is making reference to something linux has been doing for years (am I pretty sure you are familiar with linux! )
In linux they are called logical volumes inside of volume groups. It a form of partitioning for your hard drive that is NON-STATIC, i.e. DYNAMIC. In other words the "drive" sizes can be adjusted at any time on the fly. These Virtual drives (or Logical volumes in linux) can be made bootable.
Old technology in linux, new technology with windows desktop software.
If you need more detail just let me know!

 

[TheDeparted]

Please elaborate. I'm not familiar with that.

This is a different site, but these look like the directions I followed.

After creating and formatting a partition, you can use the system recovery console before installation to create a virtual hard disk (using diskpart), represented in Windows as a file (.vhd) and used by MS's Virtual PC. Same sort of thing as a .vmdk with VMWare. The virtual disk can be pre-allocated or expand dynamically as needed.

Using diskpart, you can then mount the vdisk and then proceed to Windows Setup, which will the install the OS into the vdisk file. Win7 Enterprise and Ultimate can use this virtual disk as the primary boot disk.


Among other things, to me the significance is that the VHD can simply be copied to another volume or drive and then 'repaired' to re-stitch the boot sector stuff, and voila! Same system, new hard drive, no re-installation.

Another implication is that one can have multiple portable installations of OSes grouped in various files. It's not really such a NEW thing, except that the hard disk of the native OS is itself virtualized, and that this sort of power is so integrated into the Windows OS.


One thing I've always liked to do is to have a separate physical partition for 'My Documents' and highly volatile directories like Downloads and Internet Cache to limit fragmentation of my working drives and/or compartmentalization of my data. With integrated support of virtual disks (as files), instead of preserving your 'My Documents' folder through a partition of a fixed size, you now have a single, contiguous file that can be copied - and we all should know that transfer speeds of large files are much faster than copies of lots of tiny files.

Similarly, if you decide to, say, put your My Documents VHD onto an 8GB flash drive, if the VHD is dynamic in size, you can still create the 'disk' as a 100GB drive. If you run out of room on the 8GB, all you need to do is unmount (through the Disk Management UI Console), copy the VHD file to a larger memory stick (say, 32GB), re-mount and be done with it.



Anyway, I could go on. I'm also not interested in hearing Linux geeks talk about how "Kernel X.Y.Z allowed this feature already!" Well too bad, 'cause now a mainstream OS does it. I've also been doing this with VMWare for a few years, but it's a bit on the slow side.

 

[Saint77]

One of my Win 7 (RC) installations is currently melting down and blue screening periodically. It seems to be related to a sound driver, but I haven't had time to troubleshoot it.

Ive always had sound driver issues with Vista....I sincerely hope that it doesn't carry through on this revamped OS.

 

[Jtek74]

I'm also not interested in hearing Linux geeks talk about how "Kernel X.Y.Z allowed this feature already!" Well too bad, 'cause now a mainstream OS does it. I've also been doing this with VMWare for a few years, but it's a bit on the slow side.

Listen Denzien,
First off I could care less what you are interested in hearing or not, my response was to Buzd not you. Second, I am not a "linux geek" as you so kindly put it. I brought up the reference to linux because I know that Buzd uses linux. Whats too bad is how upset windows users seem to get when anyone mentions linux! GET OVER IT. I use Windows 7, windows vista (unfortunately for now) windows xp and windows home server along with Ubuntu at home.
I like some of the things linux does but i also like some of the things windows does. My intention was not a linux is better than windows battle, just trying to relate the virtual disk to something I am pretty sure Buzd has worked with.

 

[TheDeparted]

Listen Denzien,
First off I could care less what you are interested in hearing or not, my response was to Buzd not you. Second, I am not a "linux geek" as you so kindly put it. I brought up the reference to linux because I know that Buzd uses linux. Whats too bad is how upset windows users seem to get when anyone mentions linux! GET OVER IT. I use Windows 7, windows vista (unfortunately for now) windows xp and windows home server along with Ubuntu at home.
I like some of the things linux does but i also like some of the things windows does. My intention was not a linux is better than windows battle, just trying to relate the virtual disk to something I am pretty sure Buzd has worked with.

 

[Jtek74]

LOL, love the emoticon!! Sorry if that came of pissy, was having a rough day at work. No ill intentions meant my fellow saints fan!

 

[TheDeparted]

LOL, love the emoticon!! Sorry if that came of pissy, was having a rough day at work. No ill intentions meant my fellow saints fan!

It's one of my favorites.

No problems, I'm just used to people looking to down any and all Microsoft product because it's the popular thing to do...like claiming Vista is junk without really understanding what they're doing, or those entertaining yet misleading Macintosh ads.

Not a M$ fan per se, nor a Linux fan, just tired of that style of comparison / suggestive innuendo (not that it was your intent) and was really just hoping to curb any future Windows vs Linux debate in the thread since it's irrelevant.

Kind of like when PT has a monster half, then all of a sudden there's a debate about PT vs MB vs RB.


Sorry about the confusion

 

[buzd]

Kind of like when PT has a monster half, then all of a sudden there's a debate about PT vs MB vs RB.

So which one is which?

Pierre - undrafted and good in spots, can take a good hit - Linux
Reggie - top $ and trendy - Mac
Mike Bell - Gets the work done, but a little dinged up - Windows

???

 

[TheDeparted]

So which one is which?

Pierre - undrafted and good in spots, can take a good hit - Linux
Reggie - top $ and trendy - Mac
Mike Bell - Gets the work done, but a little dinged up - Windows

???

Sounds good to me