frankvfox said:
Chad,
The upgrade paths you suggested are either XP to Vista or 2000 to Vista. I
already have Vista Home Premium. The pricing page you list does not say
whether these kits are 32 or 64 bit. As an MSDN subscriber I expect to be
able to download this and not have to make a retail purchase. The lack of
clarity by Microsoft on this subject is truly frustrating. Your
uncertainty
about the MSDN privileges tells me you are a developer like me and not a
Microsoft guru employee. I appreciate you trying to help me with this and
I
thank you for going out of your way for me. Thanks again.
At first I couln't find your post after I got email notification because I
had the wrong "Search For:" parameter in the textbox. Now that I've got
the
right parameter in place I see all kinds of entries on this subject which
I
will now scour for more information. I will post back a resolution if and
when I get one.
Frank Fox
Hendersonville, Tennessee
Franky--
MSFT employees will show up here and in other public newsgroups, but it's a
relative rarity except during the first few months the OS RTMs, or if there
is a problem with a service pack.
One notable exception is Zach Robinson who continually helps with WMP who is
a lead developer on the WMP team and has been unselfishly spending a good
amount of time on the public newsgroups for several years. Darrell Gorter
was very generous in helping here and on Vista groups when Vista RTM'd and
he has unselfishly done many posts over the years in different forums. When
there was a problem installing Office 2003 SP1 Sloan Cryeyton and people on
the Office setup team were all over the Office and Office setup groups for a
good while. But as a rule, MSFT personnel don't regularly post in the
public groups. You may want to try the MSDN newsgroups.
The upgrade paths I named came right from the MSFT webpage I linked, and
they are there on the chart grid in black and white. I also checked a few
other MSFT pages and my info came straight from them. I want to clarify
because the charts aren't the most explicit I've seen. You cannot upgrade
XP to Windows 7 directly, but you can upgrade with a transfer cable to
another box. I helped my neighbor who wanted to try Windows 7 and I ended
up doing a dual boot for him, with XP on one boot and Win 7 on the other
with a clean install of Windows 7 in a partition I sliced for that purpose.
XP disk management wouldn't let me resize a partition, but G-Parted did the
job in about 20 literal seconds. I remember Partition Magic taking for ever
just before Symantec bought it and decided not to update it for years.
I'm not a MSFT employee, and have never in the 8 years I've been helping on
this group, the XP group, some Office groups, or the Vista general group
intimated that I am a MSFT employee. I know some of them--and go to some of
their meetings from time to time, but I would never try to speak for MSFT.
If I were a MSFT employee I'd specify that as they are encouraged to do when
they volunteer to help on these groups. I'm not a developer either. I'm
not an MSDN member--I'd love to help you, but I don't know what the
privileges for the MSDN packages entail but for the reason that I don't need
to know and don't spend any time trying to find out.
The upgrade paths I mentioned are real, and they were also available on the
charts on those links. As to MSDN's service, I don't have access to MSDN
privileges (I don't need them--I'm not a developer) but I believe they are
supposed to have concierge-like numbers to call that will answer your
questions. I honestly don't know what MSDN has available under their
different plans, because it changes, so I don't bother to keep up with it,
since I don't use it. Someone who uses MSDN and frequents these groups or
this one, is a far better person to assist you with MSDN perks, but surely
there's a number you can call as well. If I did know MSDN's offerings ,
I'd be quick to share them.
If you are having trouble getting a response from MSDN still, and someone
has not helped you better in this thread, let me know and I'll call look
further or call someone in the partner capacity to help me find who you can
speak with or email.
Good luck,
CH
