Microsoft Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade
Product Description
Windows 7 Home Premium offers a rich, dynamic entertainment experience on your PC, making it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. You can even watch, pause, and rewind TV or record it to watch whenever and wherever you want.Amazon.com Product Description
If you want more features than you currently have in your existing edition of Windows 7, you can upgrade to another edition using Windows Anytime Upgrade. Upgrades from Windows 7 Starter edition to Windows 7 Home Premium. With Windows Anytime Upgrade, you can upgrade to a more advanced edition of Windows 7 in as little as 10 minutes. Click to enlarge. Windows Anytime Upgrade No disks, no delays. And no leaving the house: With Windows Anytime Upgrade, you can upgrade to a more advanced edition of Windows 7 in as little as 10 minutes. That way, you get to take advantage of extra features while keeping your curren... Click Here For More Info >>
Microsoft Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade
This product is only for computers running Windows 7 Starter, so if you are hoping to upgrade from XP or Vista with this kit you are out of luck. If you bought a Windows 7 netbook, chances are you have Windows 7 Starter and have already noticed a few shortcomings of the “netbook-friendly” OS. Among those are the inability to change the background or theme without assistance of 3rd party software, no Windows Media Center, and lack of Aero enhancements such as Glass (translucent borders) and Peek (thumbnail previews of open windows). Starter also lacks a 64-bit version and caps memory at 2GB, but the Atom processors in most netbooks are 32-bit and only support up to 2GB RAM.
Windows Anytime Upgrade is a convenient way to increase functionality without spending extra on a full upgrade kit. The case contains only a product key, no disc, so no external DVD drive is needed. Windows 7 installs all of the components for all versions regardless of which is being installed, locking features to all but their respective variant. This means that there is nothing extra to be installed and allows for the entire upgrade to finish in roughly 10 minutes.
The biggest problem with the Anytime Upgrade is that it can only be used to go from Starter to Home Premium. With regular upgrade packs, you can move to a particular flavor of Windows 7 from Vista, XP, or a lesser version of 7. If you wanted to, you could revert to your previous Vista/XP/7 and use the upgrade on another eligible computer. For a savings of roughly $40, you lose a lot of flexibility. If you decide to transfer the upgrade license, it has to be to another computer running Windows 7 Starter. [Note: I have not tested to see if you even can transfer an AU license, but a regular upgrade can be moved]
Bottom Line: If you missed out on the upgrade kit preorder sale, this is the cheapest way to upgrade your netbook to fully-fledged Windows 7 and take advantage of some of the new features. The fast, painless installation is perfect for netbooks preloaded with Windows 7 Starter, but useless for anything else.
—EDIT: According to the license agreement, if you use an Anytime Upgrade (not a retail upgrade) on a computer, the license is inherited from the previous OS. If you AU an OEM build, the kind that comes preinstalled on retail computers, the AU is now an OEM product and not transferable to a new computer. HOWEVER, that does not mean that if your netbook breaks, your upgrade is lost forever. As long as the base hardware (read: motherboard) on a replacement is the same model as the original, it should work. This is based strictly on the licensing agreement; I have not tested to confirm.
Rating: 4 / 5
So far, I am very happy with the Windows 7/Starter on the eeePC. I installed the 2GB upgrade, but I have decided I don’t really need the upgrade to Home/Premium:
Screensaver: I have read that these have little use with flat panel displays. The best approach is to turn the display off to extend the life of the back lighting. This you can do with 7/Starter.
Desktop Background: Don’t these tend to become invisible after a while anyway?
Aero Effects: Can I live without it? Yeaahhh.
Themes: Again, so what?
I use the netbook for net surfing, ebooks, forums, email and a little blogging. Bookworm Adventure runs nicely. 7/Starter does all of these things very well. The look of Starter is attractive and pleasing. I can’t see how a $77 desktop background will make these things perform any better.
Rating: 4 / 5
Its too bad they don’t just charge a little more and install the right operating software from the manufacturer. The upgrade gives you more options than windows 7 starter. It is easy to install, and took about a half an hour.
Rating: 4 / 5
Wife’s Asus EEE PC was running Windows 7 starter. We tried to upgrade to Home Premium on the Microsoft web site. No luck. The site was constantly resulting in errors. We bought this package on the hope it would work without the website and it did. Installed and upgraded. If you want features in Home Premium like Sticky Notes this will work for the Asus.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is the most economical way I could find to view protected Cinema.
Quick delivery via First Class mail.
Exceeded my expectations on delivery of a MS product I would not have bought without this offer.
Rating: 4 / 5