From: dg1261 on
Daddy <daddy(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in news:i2qmuc$q5g$1(a)news.eternal-
september.org:

> Don't misrepresent. Starting with Windows 7, you can no longer install
> an upgrade version of Windows on a blank hard disc.
>
> Used to be, you could install an upgrade version of Windows on a blank
> hard disc, and during the install Setup would ask you to insert a disc
> for a qualifying earlier version of Windows. No more.
>
> Now, you have to have a qualifying earlier version of Windows installed
> on the hard disc. When Setup sees a qualifying earlier version of
> Windows on the disc, it will allow you to erase the disc and install
> your upgrade version on the now-blank disc.
>
> And it's not the 'Thurrott method' -- that's how Microsoft designed it.


Sorry to disappoint you, but I have done it. Several times. It works.

My two college-age children and several of their friends jumped on the
student upgrade offer last December, and I did the install for several of
them during Christmas break. For $29 they could get either Home Premium
or Professional, in either 32-bit or 64-bit versions. My son's email
showed:

Product SKU: FQC-02813
Product Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade - 64 bit
Qty Ordered: 1
Amount: $29.99
Product Key (FPP): [...]

In every case, I reformatted the hard drive and did a clean install using
the upgrade media. In every case, it installed and activated, using the
product key emailed to the student.

And by "Thurrott method", I meant "Thurrott's method". Or, more
explicitly for your benefit, "the method described by Paul Thurrott on
his various webpages to clean install Windows 7 using upgrade media."


From: dg1261 on
<ahall(a)no-spam-panix.com> wrote in
news:kpgwrsfjen3.fsf(a)panix1.panix.com:

> I must be missing something. How do these methods allow upgrading a
> 32 bit OS to a 64 bit OS?


Maybe I misunderstood the OP, but it appeared to me he was intending to do
a clean install of Win7. You cannot do an over-the-top upgrade of a 32-bit
OS to a 64-bit OS, but you can replace a 32-bit OS with a clean install of
the 64-bit version of Win7, even from a "Upgrade version" disk.