Great write up. Are you able to download the update WITHOUT installing over WIN7? I want the upgrade bits, but don’t want to install over my current Win7. Microsoft is characteristically unclear if downloading the bits overwrites the current install.
As i described in my case with XP, it did not, but normally it overwrites the OS but first places most of it in a Windows.old folder in the C drive. In my case it was the evaluation copy, 23.5GB.
However, by upgrading you loose the license to use the former OS, and to use both would wrong and illegal. Some people write books for a living, and some others write code.
“The software covered by this agreement is an upgrade to your existing operating system software, so the upgrade replaces the original software that you are upgrading. You do not retain any rights to the original software after you have upgraded and you may not continue to use it or transfer it in any way.”
The OEM license that you got with a preinstalled Windows 9x to W./7 OS marries the OS to the mobo, and the reason the upgrade is about half the price is because you are replacing one with the other, and also receive free MS support (for 90 days anyway) .
“Each upgrade license applies to only one PC and you can install the upgrade only on PCs that have a valid base license and one of the following operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP (SP3).
When you buy an upgrade to Windows 8, it includes 90 days of no-charge support from Microsoft. The 90-day period begins after you install and activate Windows 8.” - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-NZ/windows-8/terms-conditions
If you qualify and had the 100.00 OEM System Builder License product you could keep both, but cannot transfer it to another PC, and the installer provides support.
Only the retail license of W/9x-W/7 allowed you to transfer the OS other PC.
Under W/8, as this http://www.zdnet.com/how-the-new-windows-8-license-terms-affect-you_p2-7000003028/ says
“If you buy a new PC with Windows 8 already installed, your OEM Windows license is permanently bound to that computer. The only way you can transfer the license to another person is to sell or give away the computer itself, with its copy of Windows....
If you purchase the software separately, in a package or as a download, the rules are much more liberal. Note that the text for the following rules is identical for retail upgrades and for System Builder software that you install on a PC you build yourself, or in a virtual machine, or on a separate partition.
” You may transfer the software to another computer that belongs to you. … You may not transfer the software to share licenses between computers.”
If you buy a System Builder copy, you can move (not share) that license from an old PC to a new one.
You may also transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if a) you are the first licensed user of the software and b) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement. To make that transfer, you must transfer the original media, the certificate of authenticity, the product key and the proof of purchase directly to that other person, without retaining any copies of the software....”
“In either case, one ironclad rule applies:
Anytime you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer.”