Buying it – choosing a purchase method and an edition.

• You could simply buy a new machine. That’s an easy way to get Windows 7 of some edition. That way, you’ll know the hardware is compatible, for sure. In fact, if you bought a new machine pretty recently, you should have got an upgrade-for-free offer.
• You could be a University IT nerd and hop on the MSDN Academic Alliance (thanks gto-pontiac for the tip)
• You could be a University / TAFE student or staff member with a relevant email address. This will allow you to purchase Windows 7 Pro Upgrade edition through ItsNotCheating for the princely sum of AUD 49.95.
• You could suddenly discover the wonders of OEM Windows licensing. The Ultimate OEM edition that can be sold with new machines appears to be discounted to AUD 259.
• You could pretend to be an IT nerd and subscribe to a Technet Plus subscription (thanks AussieBoykie for the tip).

But what edition does one need?

There is a comprehensive Windows 7 Product Guide available for free download from Microsoft. The feature matrix is an appendix in the back pages. Ultimate and Enterprise editions allow Windows 7 to install to and boot from a .vhd. Pro edition allows Windows 7 to act as Remote Desktop Host.

What are the Upgrade options?

Ed Bott made sense of a confusing Upgrade matrix in his Ultimate Upgrade FAQ

Contingencies

What should you do in case the install doesn’t “take” and you want to “roll back”?

• Check out whether you will experience major difficulties – run the Upgrade Advisor
• In particular check whether some existing or legacy hardware will be in the “bye bye” heap. Reconcile yourself to that.
• Backup your data to a separate volume or hard disk
• Image your Windows System onto an external hard disk.
• Make sure you have a bootable Hard Disk Recovery CD and that this CD works and can “see” your backup medium / external hard disk.

Have we missed anything? Got anything to add? Tell us about your experiences. Come to the Forum and participate.