Vista - windows 7 upgrade disc

Hope I am not abusing the privilege, but I am back with another question I
don't see yet having been asked.

Specifically, my old Sony Viao notebook just died, and I got an HP Pavilion
running Vista 64 Home Premium. As is the case with most systems currently
selling, I have signed up for a free Windows 7 upgrade disc, to be shipped in
October.

So, the questions which arise include:

1. Would one anticipate this to be a fully operational OS disc which could
be loaded into Virtual PC? Despite the favorable preliminary impressions
many of us have of Windows 7, I am tempted to try running it in a virtual
environment before considering upgrading my notebook OS.

2. If it IS fully operational, and if after a reasonable period of time it
seems to be running well, would one anticipate a licensing problem if I were
to then proceed with the notebook OS upgrade from Vista to Windows 7?

The notebook definitely has enough CPU power and RAM to handle Virtual PC
2007. I realize Virtual PC 2007 is not supported for this version of Vista,
but I have read enough posts here to know to ignore that!

Thanks as always for the help those of you "in the know" consistently provide.

Peter

On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:32:01 -0700, petergoode
<petergoode@xxxxxx-microsoft.com> wrote:
hard to say what HP will ship, OEM replacement, OEM upgrade, std.
upgrade.
It would be the other way around, your Win7 disc likely isn't licensed
to be run in a VM, only on your HP hardware. Also, many OEMs
installation media is BIOS locked to specific hardware, i.e. your HP
which your VM won't have preventing you from installing.
Vista Home SP1 (and XP home sp2/3) are supported OS with the SP1
hotfix, see KB 958162
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958162

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

Thanks of course for the answer...pretty much what I expected...when I
originally started with Virtual PC, I really started from ground zero...and
you explained why my Dell OEM Windows 98 could not be used on Virtual PC on
my XP Pro system...so, of course, a trip to ebay and one Windows 98SE
purchase later, and I was in business...so much for the idea of trying out
the commercial Windows 7 on Virtual PC without shelling out bucks!

"Steve Jain [MVP]" wrote:

On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:38:01 -0700, petergoode
<petergoode@xxxxxx-microsoft.com> wrote:
You can try, you never know, it may work... Doesn't hurt to build a
VM and give it a whirl, that's what makes VMs do great. :-)

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

In message <lf7k65pgm5fv12gf9bgs343l7hjjf4om2s@xxxxxx> "Steve Jain
[MVP]" <noreply.-@-.essjae.com> was claimed to have wrote:
For W7-in-a-VM, just don't enter a serial number/key, this gives you 30
days of use without risking any activation issues when you install on
hardware later

This will work assuming the DVD you get is a W7 DVD and not a system
recovery/store DVD -- Could go either way, I've seen both in the Vista
era, and would expect to see both in W7 too.

Very interesting idea! Thanks for that suggestion.


"Dave Warren" wrote:

petergoode wrote:Or you could get hold of a copy of Windows 7 RC. Close enough to RTM to see
whether you like it.

--
David Wilkinson
Visual C++ MVP

"Dave Warren" <dave-usenet@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:01bk65d4e368518te3gqpfcbuadpid3kb9@xxxxxxThat probably won't work with an OEM disk because if it BIOS locked then the
product key dialog box doesn't appear anyway. In that case the disk would
either work or fail silently.

Colin Barnhorst wrote:
Welcome back, Colin
--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled :-)
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
MVP - Windows Desktop Experience 2007-2009

On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:53:14 -0700, Dave Warren
<dave-usenet@xxxxxx> wrote:
It is very unlikely that there exists an OEM recovery DVD for Windows
7 at this point in time....
These media are delivered with complete systems and since Win7 has not
yet been officially released I'd be surprised if you could find a
recovery DVD at all now...

--
Bo Berglund