Questions re Customer Preview Program and Vista Release

P

Paul-B

Rock said:
To come as close as possible to a "clean install", do a clean install
of XP without any application installs, then do the upgrade. This
will essentially be the same as doing a custom install of Vista.
Nothing will be carried over from the XP installation.

But what a painful, clumsy way of doing it. That's going to take a long
time to install.
 
R

Robert Blacher

Actually, I *think* with an upgrade version you can:

(1) Reinstall XP if necessary.

(2) "Upgrade" to Vista. Activate.

(3) Then, do a custom (clean) install of Vista over your new Vista.
Activate again.

And, yes, that's a remarkable PIA.
 
G

Glenn Blinckmann

So what are you supposed to do if you replace your hard drive someday?
Go back and install XP, activate it, and then install Vista on top of it??
 
R

Rick Rogers

Hi Glenn,

With an upgrade purchase, Yes. Which is why many of us are now recommending
the purchase of a full version. The extra money spent may well avoid grief
later.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Glenn Blinckmann said:
So what are you supposed to do if you replace your hard drive someday? Go
back and install XP, activate it, and then install Vista on top of it??
 
D

DevilsPGD

In message <#[email protected]> "Rock"
That is correct when upgrading from x86 XP to x86 Vista. The qualifying OS
must be installed and activated. The Vista upgrade is different in other
ways, as well. The Vista OS installs clean as an image, not a file copy
over the existing OS. To come as close as possible to a "clean install", do
a clean install of XP without any application installs, then do the upgrade.
This will essentially be the same as doing a custom install of Vista.
Nothing will be carried over from the XP installation.

Still adds about an hour to the install time. (I'm only complaining
because my action pack included full XP Pro installs, upgrade-only Vista
installs, so I'm pretty much stuck with upgrades -- I'm going to take
this up with my MAPS contact too)

How about from 2000, can I supply media or CD key as evidence or does it
need a fully installed operating system?

Alternatively, can I install to a different drive then I'm running from
(And/or has anyone tried a LiveCD bootup to initiate the install?)
 
R

Richard Urban

No. That is what imaging programs are for.

Get one and use it correctly. You will never take more that 15-20 minutes to
redo your operating system to exactly as it was when you made the image.

I install the operating system just once. I have been doing this since
Windows 95. But, I go back to my primary image many times over the course of
years if something goes wrong with my system, or if I install a new hard
drive as my main drive.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!



Glenn Blinckmann said:
So what are you supposed to do if you replace your hard drive someday? Go
back and install XP, activate it, and then install Vista on top of it??
 
D

DevilsPGD

In message <#[email protected]> "Richard Urban"
No. That is what imaging programs are for.

Get one and use it correctly. You will never take more that 15-20 minutes to
redo your operating system to exactly as it was when you made the image.

I install the operating system just once. I have been doing this since
Windows 95. But, I go back to my primary image many times over the course of
years if something goes wrong with my system, or if I install a new hard
drive as my main drive.

Personally, I tend to shuffle hardware around enough that I'd usually
prefer a reinstall then a reimage.
 
M

MICHAEL

Acronis True Image 10 is an absolutely wonderful program.
Don't compute without it.

-Michael
 
R

Richard Urban

Right. If you change hardware frequently the O/S would have to enumerate the
new hardware after restoring an image. That is why I have multiple images of
each O/S I triple boot into. Hey, hard drive space is cheap now.

I just looked at my image collection. I have nine images for Windows XP,
five for Vista and three for Ubuntu. Each image has a comprehensive list of
what hardware and software was in use at the time of imaging. If I want to
go back to an image that Has Office 2000 on it, I can. If my new video card
proves less than what I thought it would be, I can go back to an earlier
image and use my old video card.

But you're right. It will not work if you make massive hardware changes -
unless you create a new image after making the changes.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

That is only true of x86. You can do a clean installation (where you
reformat the target partition) if you are installing Vista x64 using an
upgrade edition product key because the format tool is available when you
start Setup from a dvd boot. You are not required to install from the
desktop with the x64 versions. Of course, if you want to call a custom
installation a "clean" installation that is supported even from the desktop
using an x86 version.
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

Yes. Or restore from an image backup file.

Glenn Blinckmann said:
So what are you supposed to do if you replace your hard drive someday? Go
back and install XP, activate it, and then install Vista on top of it??
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

That is how VL programs work.

DevilsPGD said:
In message <#[email protected]> "Rock"


Still adds about an hour to the install time. (I'm only complaining
because my action pack included full XP Pro installs, upgrade-only Vista
installs, so I'm pretty much stuck with upgrades -- I'm going to take
this up with my MAPS contact too)

How about from 2000, can I supply media or CD key as evidence or does it
need a fully installed operating system?

Alternatively, can I install to a different drive then I'm running from
(And/or has anyone tried a LiveCD bootup to initiate the install?)
 
D

DevilsPGD

In message <[email protected]> "Colin
Barnhorst said:
That is how VL programs work.

First off, it didn't work like that when I bought my first action pack.
However, I'm not too worried about the licensing, all of my machines
have valid licenses outside of the action pack too, so upgrade editions
are fine (in terms of licensing)

However, having to install older OSes simply to get the new one working
isn't ideal, and adds significant overhead just to get a working system,
and I'm not seeing any benefit to Microsoft OR the consumer to enforce
this, since Vista could check my XP keys and WGA status without actually
having a running XP install.

*shrugs*

I intend on upgrading myself to Vista, I'll leave it up to the other
users if they choose to upgrade or not.
 
D

DevilsPGD

In message <[email protected]> "Colin Barnhorst"
That is only true of x86. You can do a clean installation (where you
reformat the target partition) if you are installing Vista x64 using an
upgrade edition product key because the format tool is available when you
start Setup from a dvd boot. You are not required to install from the
desktop with the x64 versions. Of course, if you want to call a custom
installation a "clean" installation that is supported even from the desktop
using an x86 version.

Interesting -- That will make the x64 options easier, which covers all
the desktops here.

Unfortunately the laptops are x86, which leaves me back with my original
problem. I'm crossing my fingers for the custom installation option.
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

Custom will not reformat the drive because x86 upgrade editions have to run
from the desktop and you cannot reformat the system partition while its OS
is running. However, Vista is always installed by laying down an image
rather than the old file-copying methodology used by XP and earlier. Since
the formatting is inherent in the image, there are no issues about leftover
code from the previous OS. The remainder of the drive is not reformatted
but all the old stuff should be rolled into the windows.old folder which can
be deleted.
 
D

David Wilkinson

DevilsPGD said:
However, having to install older OSes simply to get the new one working
isn't ideal, and adds significant overhead just to get a working system,
and I'm not seeing any benefit to Microsoft OR the consumer to enforce
this, since Vista could check my XP keys and WGA status without actually
having a running XP install.

DevilsPGD:

Yes, indeed. I cannot understand why MS did not do it this way. To date,
the only non-MS people who know about this pre-installation requirement
are those who have nothing better to do than hang out in this newsgroup.
But in a month, there will be a lot of people finding out the hard way.

Actually, I think it could be retroactively fixed by Windows Update for
Vista (you would have to initially clean install without a PK).

David Wilkinson
 
R

Rock

So what are you supposed to do if you replace your hard drive someday? Go
back and install XP, activate it, and then install Vista on top of it??

Yes with the upgrade. If you don't want to go through that, get the full
version.
 
R

Rock

How about from 2000, can I supply media or CD key as evidence or does it
need a fully installed operating system?

<snip>

Same thing, the OS has to be installed and the upgrade started from the
desktop. It will only allow a custom install when upgrading from win2k.
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

It does it that way when you boot with the x64 dvd. It is only with the x86
dvd that you have to run from the desktop to use an upgrade edition pk.
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

You CAN do a custom installation when running from an XP desktop. You do
not have to take the upgrade option if you don't want to even if it is
enabled. If you are upgrading from XP Pro x64 you also must do a custom
installation. Also, if the Vista edition you are installing would lead to a
loss of functionality (for example, XP Pro to Vista Home Premium) then you
have to do a custom installation just like with Win2k and XP64. The only
times you can choose an upgrade install is where the dots are green in the
Upgrade Matrix.
 

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