Dual booting with Vista upgrade editions (green dot scenarios)

[Colin Barnhorst]

I have been running tests today with an upgrade edition product key. It
turns out that an upgrade edition product key is sufficient for setting up
dual boot systems. A dual boot system even when the upgrade option is
enabled is possible.

The results of x86 scenarios with upgrade enabled (green dots in the
upgrade matrix) so far are:

Dual drive system with Windows XP Home SP2 on drive 0, drive 1
empty. 768MB ram. No updates or patches post SP2 installed.

I ran Vista x86 Setup with an upgrade edition pk for VHP from the XP Home
SP2 desktop.
The disk options are not available, therefore modifications to the disks are
not
possible from Setup (no ability to format the target from within Setup).
Any disk modifications need to be made in XP prior to running (or resuming)
Vista Setup. See the tip below if you don't know how to do this.

UPGRADE OPTION:

The upgrade option is enabled as long as XP Home is at service pack level 2
or above. Updates and patches subsequent to SP2 are not necessary. There
is no choice of target when the upgrade option is selected (expected). If
you are installing XP Home SP2 explicitly to perform an upgrade-in-place to
Vista, turn off Automatic Updates in XP Home after installation. Anything
past SP2 is a waste of time. Defrag the drive before starting the Vista
Setup to minimize the Vista installation time if you are retaining your
files, settings, and apps by means of the upgrade option.

CUSTOM OPTION:

The custom option permits a choice of disk 0 or disk 1.
Selection of disk 1 results in installation of Vista to drive E: and a
dual boot options menu. Both XP Home and VHP boot as expected.

If Vista Setup does not see drive 1 (the second drive) you need to create a
partition on it. A raw partition is sufficient since Vista Setup will
perform a quick format on a blank partition.

Since you are running Setup from the desktop you do not have the disk
editing tools but you can use the tools in XP Home.

TIP: To access the legacy system desktop while Vista Setup is running on
it, press the WinKey. The XP Home taskbar and Start menu will come to the
front and you can perform disk operations on drive 1 the usual way using
Disk Management in XP. When disk preparation is complete, click on the
Vista Setup screen to resume and click the refresh button to the lower left
of the target volume selector (pane, if you like). You will then see drive
1 and can proceed with the custom installation.

 

[MICHAEL]

Thanks, Colin.

Interesting and yet, I see a ton of questions, confusion, arguments,
and even users who end up with two Windows versions and not meaning to.


-Michael

 

[Chad Harris]

Excellent work Colin. They need to open a lab for you, and I'm expecting
your book on Vista setup, upgrades, and installations soon. MSFT should let
you put up an article on their Vista site--or the technet site. This would
be valuable information that should be widely available.

CH

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

And you want me to do what about that?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Frankly, I am annoyed that I could not get access to even one upgrade pk
before Jan 30. So far my findings suggest to me that Vista would have been
an excellent time to abandon upgrade editions and pricing entirely.

I am ready to try the upgrades from H*ll (x86 over x64). My first usage of
this scenario using a full edition pk showed that it is not possible to get
a useful system. Period. It was pretty bad. But I need to see if I just
got a local machine problem or hit on a lulu of a dealbreaker.

 

[MICHAEL]

Pray.


-Michael

And you want me to do what about that?

 

[Jane C]

Great stuff. The only thing left to determine is if such an 'upgrade' could
then be activated, considering that it didn't actually 'upgrade' the
qualifying OS.

 

[Bill Condie]

As far as I can tell I'm activated with such an upgrade.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I leave that to others. I am using a VHP upgrade edition that I bought for
my grandson. I told him it takes weeks for delivery. In any case,
naturally I don't want to mess up and activate it. I have been using an
MSDN image and it certainly true that the media makes no difference
whatsoever. It is all in the product key.

 

[Jane C]

I hope your grandson doesn't stumble in here then! <g>

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

He has no interest in newsgroups. Better he did! He's 17 going on 13.