(Note: If you are running Windows XP or Vista legally, this article does not apply to you.)

I’m not going to pretend for a moment that there’s more than a few of you out there running Windows XP illegally. You’ve seen the very nice $50 price tag of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade and said, "Okay, I can afford that, but can I upgrade a pirated copy of XP to Win 7?"

Answer: No. When you hit the WGA, the upgrade won’t work.

However.. I can tell you how to get Windows 7 for significantly less than the full-version $200 price tag.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Buy a copy of Windows Vista Home Basic "System Builders" Edition from NewEgg. Cost is $84.99 with free shipping. This is a qualifying product for the Windows 7 Upgrade.
2. Pre-order your Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49.99. Remember, this price only lasts until July 11, 2009. After that it’s $119 for the upgrade and $200 for the full version.

Your total cost will be $134.98. Shipping will be free on both products. This is significantly cheaper than the full $200 price tag for the full-version Win 7 price. Granted, you’ll never use the license of Windows Vista you purchased, but it does take $65 off what you would have spent for the full-version Win 7 otherwise. This is an easy, and moreover legal, way to save cash on the purchase of the OS.

Why go legal with Windows?

There’s really only one reason. It’s for Windows Update.

Windows Update started with Windows 98 which was over 10 years ago, however the Windows Genuine Advantage validation check didn’t occur until 2006.

If you are running Windows illegally, you basically can’t use WU at all and that’s a problem. Whenever critical updates are sent thru the WU system, you won’t be able to install it. Not easily, anyway.

The common comeback to that is, "Well, I don’t have to use WU. I could install the patches manually." Yes, you could. But you know full well that’s decidedly inconvenient and a pain to get done.

If you don’t feel like paying for Windows, just use Linux. But if you do use Windows, the one-time license cost is worth the price for the updates.

Most people take WU for granted, but it is vital to make sure critical updates are applied without any hassle.

Time and time again I run into people who think "torrent" translates to "illegal". Is it?

Let’s find out what this all means by examining the definitions.

A torrent is a small file usually ending with the file extension .torrent. You use the .torrent file with a BitTorrent client. BitTorrent itself is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol. The .torrent file is used to get a larger file you want from the peer-to-peer network using the BitTorrent client that "understands" the BitTorrent protocol.

The Big Question however is: Are torrents illegal?

No. And they never have been.

Using BitTorrent is the most efficient way of getting large files on the internet without having them hosted in any centralized location.

The best example of this is Linux distributions. For example, Ubuntu themselves (as do all other Linux distros) offer a way to get their OS via BitTorrent. It’s fast; it works; it’s probably going to be faster than downloading via a direct HTTP. And obviously, downloading Ubuntu or any other Linux distro via a torrent isn’t illegal.

People assume torrents are illegal because many files are traded illegally via that particular peer-to-peer network. But does this mean all torrents are illegal?

Not by a long shot.

BitTorrent is a protocol and nothing more.

It is wrong to assume "torrent" = "illegal" because it just isn’t true.