F.A.Q: Windows 7 - During the public launch of Windows 7 yesterday, we threw both pretty primal questions to Microsoft executives virtually the new operative grouping
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Q. How many versions of Windows 7 are available for the Philippines?
A. There are five versions of Windows 7 available in the Philippine market — Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate.
Q. Are customers who bought computers lately able to upgrade to Windows 7 for free?
A. Microsoft now allows up to N-2 for the free upgrades if you bought your computer after the October 22 global launch of Windows 7. That means systems with Vista and XP can avail of the upgrade. There are some exceptions, of course.
Q. How about the Family Pack? Is it going to be available in the Philippines?
A. The Windows 7 Family Pack is a promo Microsoft is doing in the US. It is still in test phase and Microsoft is studying its viability in the Philippines. It is not currently available for the Philippine and there’s no exact date when it will become available. You will need at least 3 computers at home to be able to qualify for the Family Pack if ever it becomes available.
Q. How about Student or Academic pricing and discounts?
A. Microsoft has discounts for students and the academe. This will be handled by the respective schools and universities for easy verification/implementation for those who qualify.
Q. Can I upgrade my old Windows XP directly to Windows 7?
A. No, you need to do a fresh install. You can only upgrade to Windows 7 if you currently run Vista.
Q. How about those who have Windows 7 RC pre-installed? Can they upgrade to RTM directly?
A. Unfortunately there is not an easy upgrade path from RC to RTM. Microsoft recommends a clean install with Data Migration of Windows 7 RTM. Read more about the upgrade scenario at http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/.
Q. Until when can I use my Windows 7 RC?
A. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Plan ahead for when the RC expires. You’ll get two weeks’ notice, and then beginning on March 1, 2010, your PC will start shutting down every two hours.To avoid interruption, you’ll need to rebuild your test PC to replace the OS with a valid version of Windows, and reinstall all your programs and data before the software expires.
Q. What are the minimum system requirements for Windows 7?
A. RTM Hardware requirements are as follows: 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor, 1GB of system memory, 16 GB of available disk space, support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme).
Q. What’s inside the Win7 DVD installer?
A. Two DVD disks — one for 32-bit and one for 64-bit.
