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I wonder what the fat guy with the glasses and the cool mac dude say about this.

I have WinXP Pro full retail box. I want to go to Win7 ultimate. Will my XP key be deactivated/invalidated if I purchase and install the retail box upgrade version?

If so, lame. I'd like a discount for being a repeat customer, but I still want to have XP available should I want to slap it on an older system.

PS I'm aware that I can't go from XP Pro to Win7 directly, but that I have to do a "clean" install. I'm due for a reformat anyway and want to get an SSD drive.

The "upgrade" I got allowed a full installation without ever looking at the old CD, so I don't know how it would deactivate XP.

This is OEM Windows 7 not intended for upgrades, your XP retail license will still work on another computer. Worse case, you will have to call Microsoft and do a telephone activation when you install the XP Pro retail. Microsoft telephone activation is very easy - just tell them you uninstalled or have it on the one computer.

My experience, Adobe is the worst with their Activation/Deactivation. You lose a drive or forget to deactivate when rebuilding a desktop, it at least 30 minutes trying to understand their tech rep and get a new code. I had to call on Photoshop, Flash and Acrobat.

FYI for all of those nervous about taking the Windows 7 plunge, MS tosses in a VM with a full copy of XP 32-bit. All you have to do is download it.

Yes, I realize it's not quite the same as running it as your full OS, but it fills most application-compatibility gaps/concerns.

Plus it's kinda cool...

Here's the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

*edit* Forgot to mention... this requires hardware hyper-v support to work. Check out the website for details. It has a link to a tool to verify support.

#1, he's not fat, he's big-boned

personally, id put that 165$ towards a non-ms product

i've been using vista for a few months and i'm skeptical what kind of magic trick 7 will be

Not saying this is ideal for everyone, but a relative's laptop with Core2Duo cpu was pig slow with Vista, even with 3GB memory. I upgraded her to Win7 Home and it is MUCH more responsive. I bought the 3-pack upgrade for $150 which is more economical if you have several systems you want to upgrade. For a full up license of Ultimate, though, this is a good deal. And if you Google you will see not to worry about the OEM license.

Right on #8!

#7: Same deal here. I upgraded my son's dog slow Vista machine and it rocks now.

Everything still does not have drivers out for windows 7 still! So upgrade if you all want, but just split the hard drive to still have the xp with all the drivers.

So how come Professional doesn't include everything that's found in the Home edition? Will McDonald's soon offer cheese-on-a-bun for a dollar, hamburgers for a buck-fifty, and cheeseburgers (Ultimate) for two bucks?

I upgraded my Dell 9300 laptop and an older Athlon 2.0 System to Windows 7 and both perform MUCH better than with Vista Ultimate.