I absolutely love most things about Windows 7, especially when compared to Windows XP. It is faster, it is prettier and much more useful. With that said, upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 using the $30 upgrade copy from Digital River was the biggest pain in my ass I’ve experienced since troubleshooting my mother-in-laws computer with Windows ME on it.
After I went back and forth with Microsoft & Digital River over the phone for a good hour and a half over the activation issue I was having. The only thing that came out of the phone calls was frustration, misinformation and bad attitudes, oh and tons of transfers. Needless to say I was pissed.
The issue was the activation was saying I hadn’t upgraded from a previous edition of Windows, which, all stemmed from trying to use the Home Premium Upgrade disc from Digital River.
In order to upgrade from XP (unless Digital River fixed it) to Window 7 you have to create an ISO out of the download. Which is completely un-user friendly. Then take that disc you made and boot into the install, wipe the drive to do a fresh install of Windows 7.
When you get to the part about putting in the Product Key it will more than likely tell you that you have an invalid key. Instead, just skip putting in the key and continue the install.
Once you are inside Windows go to this site and use Method #2. I tried it on 2 machines and it worked. Now you have a fully functional copy of Windows 7 to enjoy!
My main reason for writing this is that I personally have suggested upgrading to Windows 7 to many of my friends and I fear that they will try and call the idiots at Microsoft or Digital River and will end up just as ticked off as I was.
Another reason is, I wish Microsoft would read this and reconsider their partnership with Digital River and think about just offering it from their own site, as an ISO. Not to mention, they need to offer a way to put in your old XP/Vista Key to validate your upgrade should you have to wipe your drive to do the install. If your computer craps out and you install Windows 7 again from the upgrade disc, you will have to do those registry edits again to make it work. This is completely un-user friendly and it’s why people are moving to MACs, even if they are ridiculously overpriced.