Free Windows Vista Business & Office Professional 2007 ?

[country2]

Originally posted by: Ryland
I did both but haven't sent the W9 in yet (they did say that they would send Vista first but wait for you to send the W9 in before sending Office).

Has anybody received their links to Office yet?

Vista has not arrived in RI yet.

Thats what someone said at first. But what I've been reading lately on channel9 msn forum seems that for those who is getting both they're waiting on the w9's prior to shipping the Vista out.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: AStr8
Got mine yesterday. I lost count of the amount f times I reinstalled Vista and XP last night trying to get multi-boot.to work! For anyone with any programs or hardware that isn't supported in Vista, multi boot can be a great solution. For it to work, XP has to be installed first and you have to start Vista install from inside of XP. If you do it any other way, Vista will not see your XP installation.

As the others stated, that shouldn't be the case.
What the real trick is to have a tri boot system with a linux distro, XP & vista. That is a royal pain thanks to MS's option less bootloader.

 

[AStr8]

I was looking at the upgrade anytime offer. From what I'm figuring, you would basically be paying $140 for Media Center, DVD authoring and some unspecified downloadable goodies. Am I missing some other incentive to upgrade to Ultimate? I'm sure you could spend half as much money and get software that is better for these tasks.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: JSK
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=352&type=expert&pid=4

Seems maybe OEM copies arent that hard to work with so far with new hardware set ups, check out his experience.

Maybe it wont be such a bad idea to upgrade these free retail copies via any time upgrade to Ultimate if it is that easy to reactivate on new mobos/builds.

Ok, that was nice of them, somebody bit the bullet and tried it. Guess the "tied" to one system they mention in the EULA is only there for legal reasons or something. Either that, or they just got lucky with a clueless rep.

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: country2

Originally posted by: Ryland
I did both but haven't sent the W9 in yet (they did say that they would send Vista first but wait for you to send the W9 in before sending Office).

Has anybody received their links to Office yet?

Vista has not arrived in RI yet.

Thats what someone said at first. But what I've been reading lately on channel9 msn forum seems that for those who is getting both they're waiting on the w9's prior to shipping the Vista out.

I wish they would actually send an email out to that effect since I don't know whether I am actually going to send the W9 in because of the taxes.

 

[SuperPaws]

I just recieved my Vista today. I live in the western suburbs of Chicago.

 

[javisaman]

I just got my Vista today too (in MD)! The disk it self looks crazy with all the holographs and whatnot.

Anyhoo I'm also considering this Anytime upgrade to Ultimate, but I would like to still be able to transfer the installation if I needed to. I don't know if I should install it on my current computer or wait till I build a new one (which I plan on doing sometime in the summer) because of this problem.

Does anyone know if I need Vista Home Premium/Ultimate to get CableCard support. I know Business doesn't support CableCard (or even DVD!) natively, but would it still work with some third-party applications?

 

[OAKside24]

Received (South Texas)! Someone (with a good camera) needs to post pics!
What a deal, probably the best I will ever receive. Thanks OP and PT+MS.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: AStr8
I was looking at the upgrade anytime offer. From what I'm figuring, you would basically be paying $140 for Media Center, DVD authoring and some unspecified downloadable goodies. Am I missing some other incentive to upgrade to Ultimate? I'm sure you could spend half as much money and get software that is better for these tasks.

I agree. In fact for under $159 you could just buy at the store a copy of
VISTA HOME PREMIUM UPGRADE to get the Media Center and most other features that you'd
be missing in BUSINESS. The advantage of doing that versus the
online 'anytime upgrade' to Ultimate is that when you 'Anytime Upgrade' you lose
the original BUSINESS license and you lose the right to install your
Anytime Upgraded Ultimate on replacement / upgraded PCs more than once only
whereas if you just buy the HOME PREMIUM UPGRADE at the store you'll
keep its license and the BUSINESS license and can use them 'forever' on any
number of future replacement PCs you like.

As you point out there are also some nice PVR / HDTV / streaming / etc. programs
out there that you could get for less than $139 that'd probably do about everything
you'd want from the media aspects of HOME PREMIUM anyway.

If you already have both Business and Home Premium the only things you're really
missing that ULTIMATE would give you would be the BITLOCKER full drive encryption
which you can't use without a special TPM chip on your motherboard so it's a useless
feature for most people.

Let's see what else ultimate has that neither HOME PREMIUM nor BUSINESS offer:
http://tech.cybernetnews.com/windows-vi...-premium-business-enterprise-ultimate/

* Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption
* Support for simultaneous installation of multiple user interface languages
* All worldwide user interface languages (36 languages total) available
* Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications
* Virtual PC Express
* Windows Ultimate Extras

Yeah, not much that the average person needs and can use for $139 upgrade cost.

If they didn't stupidly cripple the Anytime Upgrade license with the transfer restrictions
I'd CONSIDER using Anytime Upgrade depending on my needs but given the
bad licensing terms I find it to be useless.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: javisaman
I just got my Vista today too (in MD)! The disk it self looks crazy with all the holographs and whatnot.

Anyhoo I'm also considering this Anytime upgrade to Ultimate, but I would like to still be able to transfer the installation if I needed to. I don't know if I should install it on my current computer or wait till I build a new one (which I plan on doing sometime in the summer) because of this problem.

Does anyone know if I need Vista Home Premium/Ultimate to get CableCard support. I know Business doesn't support CableCard (or even DVD!) natively, but would it still work with some third-party applications?

The device you get must support Cablecard. The OS has nothing to do with it.
To have no issues, it is better to wait on the anytime upgrade. Nobody has yet tested the waters with that.
The link JSK posted, they tested OEM version, and it seems all that will be required is a phone call to MS to get the confirmation code.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: Elixer

Originally posted by: AStr8
Got mine yesterday. I lost count of the amount f times I reinstalled Vista and XP last night trying to get multi-boot.to work! For anyone with any programs or hardware that isn't supported in Vista, multi boot can be a great solution. For it to work, XP has to be installed first and you have to start Vista install from inside of XP. If you do it any other way, Vista will not see your XP installation.

As the others stated, that shouldn't be the case.
What the real trick is to have a tri boot system with a linux distro, XP & vista. That is a royal pain thanks to MS's option less bootloader.

Agrees the MS bootloader and the practice of overwriting your existing bootloader is
stupid beyond belief.

I think if you install XP, then Vista, then install or do a boot sector repair using LINUX
you should be able to end up with a GRUB multi-boot loader that will be possible to
use to boot any of the three OSs.

Hmm just watch out about the disk layout limitations.. I seem to recall something
about certain operating systems or partition types having to have their boot
points within the first 32GBy of the disk or something. FAT/FAT32 comes to mind;
I'm not sure if that's an issue on NTFS or any modern LINUX/UNIX FS.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: Ryland

Originally posted by: country2

Originally posted by: Ryland
I did both but haven't sent the W9 in yet (they did say that they would send Vista first but wait for you to send the W9 in before sending Office).

Has anybody received their links to Office yet?

Vista has not arrived in RI yet.

Thats what someone said at first. But what I've been reading lately on channel9 msn forum seems that for those who is getting both they're waiting on the w9's prior to shipping the Vista out.

I wish they would actually send an email out to that effect since I don't know whether I am actually going to send the W9 in because of the taxes.

Yes they should have done this whole thing a LOT more efficiently; there's no
good reason we couldn't have been given the correct taxable income figures at the start
of the promotion, as well as an option to send in the W9 months ago so by the time they
were ready to ship everyone would have had a long time to consider which product(s)
they wanted and to have the form completed.

Anyway as of now:
* I have not heard of a SINGLE person who's "needed a W9" receiving ANYTHING.
* I have not heard of a SINGLE person receiving OFFICE.

* I have heard 2nd hand that someone who asked them via email if their W9 had
been received and when they'd get their products received an emailed response
confirming that the people who registered for both products were going to have their
products shipped TOGETHER, and that they had waited / were waiting to receive and
process W9s before shipping anything to the groups of people who were to get both
items. Further related was the information that the first batch of shipments of
"both products" to people whose W9s had already been processed should be
shipped out either today or by the start of next week.

So if you haven't sent in a W9, you PROBABLY need to do so before you can get
ANYTHING from them unless you let them know that you changed
your mind and now ONLY want one product.
The web site says you must submit W9's before 1 February.

 

[mb]

Woot! Just got my copy today!

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
So if you haven't sent in a W9, you PROBABLY need to do so before you can get
ANYTHING from them unless you let them know that you changed
your mind and now ONLY want one product.
The web site says you must submit W9's before 1 February.

The emails I have received only state:
This form must be completed, returned and documented before the second gift can be shipped. and nothing about a Feb 1st deadline. (can you post the link to this)? I really wish I had a good idea of how much of a hit this will be on my taxes for next year. If I don't send in the W9 will I still get Vista?

update: I found where it says Feb 1st.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: javisaman
I just got my Vista today too (in MD)! The disk it self looks crazy with all the holographs and whatnot.

Anyhoo I'm also considering this Anytime upgrade to Ultimate, but I would like to still be able to transfer the installation if I needed to. I don't know if I should install it on my current computer or wait till I build a new one (which I plan on doing sometime in the summer) because of this problem.

Does anyone know if I need Vista Home Premium/Ultimate to get CableCard support. I know Business doesn't support CableCard (or even DVD!) natively, but would it still work with some third-party applications?

1) Yeah I'd wait to activate it if you know you're going to build a new box in a few months.
I guess if you're planning on leaving Vista on that new box "forever" and just won't ever need to transfer
it to a 2nd future PC you'd be OK if you installed now and transfered to the 2nd one this summer, but
if you have no compelling reason to use it now you might as well wait.

2) I read an article online saying that ONLY pre-built specially authorized systems will have cablecard
support and that it would NOT be permitted to home-build a system with cablecard support, and that
even if you somehow got a cable card reader and installed it into another kind of system it would still
not work presumably due to some kind of system hardware validation process.
I think it was said that this was the CableLabs regulation and that it was disappointing but very unlikely
to ever change. I'm not sure if that was "up to date" information but given the whole DRM fiasco
I wouldn't be a BIT surprised if it was true.

3) As for DVD.... Uh I thought VISTA in general was supposed to be able to burn DVDs like for backup data.
I thought that DVD VIDEO AUTHORING was something that HOME PREMIUM had but that BUSINESS and
ENTERPRISE and STARTER lacked. As for regular old DVD VIDEO PLAYBACK, I'm not sure, but I THOUGHT that
any VISTA version should be able to do that with Windows Media Player or whatever.
As for HD-DVD / Blue-Ray DVD Video Playback -- I thought they were going to restrict high definition playback
of protected HD content on those formats to 64 bit VISTA only and I'm not sure if you'd need a particular
VISTA edition (other than a 64 bit one) for that.

Here's the vista feature comparison chart
http://tech.cybernetnews.com/windows-vi...-premium-business-enterprise-ultimate/

Looks like the features relating to MAKING movies are:
Windows
Movie Maker

Windows
Movie Maker HD

Windows
DVD Maker

At first glance DVD Maker seems to be about authoring Movies onto DVD; hopefully just for burning
data discs you don't need it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_DVD_Maker
http://www.windowsdvdmaker.com/

And yes I've seen 3rd party software that can both burn DVDs (for data or video content) and
also there's 3rd party software for authoring DVD movies etc. too... so you don't absolutely need
HOME PREMIUM.

The only gotcha seems to be if you want to STREAM movies/audio to an XBOX 360 you may have more
functionality with HOME PREMIUM than other options thanks to the way Microsoft crippled the XBOX into
not supporting other formats than Windows Media streaming or something like that.

 

[Ryland]

I sent in my W9. Hopefully the tax hit next year won't be too bad.

On the bright side of waiting maybe they will have realized the problem with the adhesive and have fixed it by the time then goto send me Vista.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: Ryland

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
So if you haven't sent in a W9, you PROBABLY need to do so before you can get
ANYTHING from them unless you let them know that you changed
your mind and now ONLY want one product.
The web site says you must submit W9's before 1 February.

The emails I have received only state:
This form must be completed, returned and documented before the second gift can be shipped. and nothing about a Feb 1st deadline. (can you post the link to this)? I really wish I had a good idea of how much of a hit this will be on my taxes for next year. If I don't send in the W9 will I still get Vista?

update: I found where it says Feb 1st.

You're right I got the same emails that you mentioned about the W9 having to be
processed before the SECOND gift could be shipped etc. And the current information
is contradicting that a bit in that apparently they won't even ship the FIRST gift without
the W9. But in a way it's sensible both because they'd need to know WHICH one you
want if you decide you only want one after all, and also to save shipping costs for them.

It's been "sort of" confirmed that they're going to 1099 us for the full retail product
MSRP for these so that would be
$299 for VISTA BUSINESS and $499 for OFFICE PRO 2007, so you'd have an extra
$798 of income you'd pay tax-year-2007 taxes on, and that would be a tax hit for
many people of around $180 to $240 or so depending on your tax bracket etc.

For $200 in taxes you're in effect getting VISTA BUSINESS for a 33% discount off MSRP,
and OFFICE PRO for 'free' as one way of looking at it. Not too bad if you NEED them,
but if XP and OPEN OFFICE satisfies your needs, well, you could've just saved the money.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne

Be careful; if you use Anytime Upgrade to change to Ultimate, you'll LOSE the
ability to transfer your OS license to a new or replacement PC, you'll LOSE
the ability to use the BUSINESS license in the future (and the ULTIMATE one
is only good for your single next PC transfer), and you'll LOSE the ability to
transfer (give/sell) the OS license to someone else unless you also transfer
the PC.

How do you know that the Business license we have got is not OEM already?

 

[QuixoticOne]

UPDATE:

On the channel9 blog topic on this there are posts about people in
NY and IL having received today BOTH VISTA & OFFICE.

So if you were very prompt in sending in your W9 so that they were able to process
it before a few days ago, your VISTA & OFFICE are probably both in the mail and should
be arriving within the next few days.

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
It's been "sort of" confirmed that they're going to 1099 us for the full retail product
MSRP for these so that would be
$299 for VISTA BUSINESS and $499 for OFFICE PRO 2007, so you'd have an extra
$798 of income you'd pay tax-year-2007 taxes on, and that would be a tax hit for
many people of around $180 to $240 or so depending on your tax bracket etc.

For $200 in taxes you're in effect getting VISTA BUSINESS for a 33% discount off MSRP,
and OFFICE PRO for 'free' as one way of looking at it. Not too bad if you NEED them,
but if XP and OPEN OFFICE satisfies your needs, well, you could've just saved the money.

I will probably be kicking myself for sending in my W9 around this time next year when I find out the damage this is going to cause to my refund. Unfortunately I don't need Office at all for either of my machines since I have XP Pro on both so this could be a rather large waste of money.

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
UPDATE:

On the channel9 blog topic on this there are posts about people in
NY and IL having received today BOTH VISTA & OFFICE.

So if you were very prompt in sending in your W9 so that they were able to process
it before a few days ago, your VISTA & OFFICE are probably both in the mail and should
be arriving within the next few days.

I thought Office was a download with an emailed key...

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: Navid

How do you know that the Business license we have got is not OEM already?

I asked and Mark Brown from Microsoft Marketing who's the one in charge of this
promotion said that it was a full retail license version.

Given the way the discs are labeled, I guess that'd be "RETAIL NFR (not for resale)",
specifically.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: Ryland

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
UPDATE:

On the channel9 blog topic on this there are posts about people in
NY and IL having received today BOTH VISTA & OFFICE.

So if you were very prompt in sending in your W9 so that they were able to process
it before a few days ago, your VISTA & OFFICE are probably both in the mail and should
be arriving within the next few days.

I thought Office was a download with an emailed key...

Yes you're right. I meant that they received the card with the OFFICE product key
and the link to download the office software.

The OFFICE 2007 PRO software is already downloadable here, and there are two
files approximately each 400 MBy in size so they won't fit together on one CD:

You'll get a 60 day free trial product key with the download which you can use
until you get the permanent product key in the snail-mail. If you activate with the
trial key you'll need to follow the instructions to reactivate with the one you get
in the mail.

http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/product.aspx?sku=3082915&culture=en-US

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne

Originally posted by: Navid

How do you know that the Business license we have got is not OEM already?

I asked and Mark Brown from Microsoft Marketing who's the one in charge of this
promotion said that it was a full retail license version.

Given the way the discs are labeled, I guess that'd be "RETAIL NFR (not for resale)",
specifically.

Too bad we don't have any tax lawyers around. MS is sending us NFR and claiming that they are Full Retail just doesn't add up. You can't have both.

 

[BrokenArrow]

Originally posted by: AStr8
Got mine yesterday. I lost count of the amount f times I reinstalled Vista and XP last night trying to get multi-boot.to work! For anyone with any programs or hardware that isn't supported in Vista, multi boot can be a great solution. For it to work, XP has to be installed first and you have to start Vista install from inside of XP. If you do it any other way, Vista will not see your XP installation.

Not exactly. I have windows XP home installed, and i booted from the CD, installed Vista to a second HDD, and it allows me to boot to either vista or Previous windows version (XP). I did NOT start vista from inside XP. I now dual boot just fine to XP and Vista.