Request Advice on Vista Purchase

[Harry Sherman]

This is addressed to former CPP participants who have purchased and
installed Vista.

I am running RC-1 (Build 5600) and XP as a dual boot on separate hard drives
and this setup has worked fine with no significant problems.. It's getting
close (under 60 days) until the termination date of the Beta versions. I am
still undecided whether to purchase Vista or go back to XP, so would
appreciate answers to following questions. (Please, just some friendly
advice...no rants on how bad Vista is)

1. Are there any significant differences between RC-1 and final versions?

2. What exactly happens on 1 June when the beta expires? Will Vista be
completely gone, or will it be available in a limited capability?

3. If I do decide to delete the beta and reformat the second HD, can I
install Vista Home Premium Upgrade there, and retain my dual boot with XP?

 

[kirk jim]

what are the specs of your pc?

were you happy with vista up until now?

If your answer was yes, I would say go for it!

*YES* to vistaboys surprise I am actually telling someone to get vista...

I do that when it is the best thing to do..... I DO NOT however pray
to a vista-shrine like most of da mvpees and vistaboi's do

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Harry,

1. Are there any significant differences between RC-1 and final versions?

No, it's mostly code cleanup. You'll find that performance has improved
because debugging code has been cleaned up. There are no differences in the
features offered. That was locked down before the RC builds were released.

2. What exactly happens on 1 June when the beta expires? Will Vista be
completely gone, or will it be available in a limited capability?

I understand that it will either no longer boot fully or only boot into a
very limited safe mode.

3. If I do decide to delete the beta and reformat the second HD, can I
install Vista Home Premium Upgrade there, and retain my dual boot with XP?

Upgrade versions do not do clean installs to other volumes/partitions, they
only start from within an existing install and upgrade it. An upgrade
license subsumes the existing XP license and it is the combination of the
two that qualifies the installation. If you want a dual boot scenario you
should purchase the full version. But otherwise, yes you can install Vista
Home Premium to that space and continue a dual boot.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Dustin Harper]

1. Are there any significant differences between RC-1 and final versions?
No significant changes, but there are bug fixes and performance differences.
But, there are zero feature differences. After it goes into the release
candidates, no new features are allowed (unless they are very good and
approved after a very difficult process; don't want to introduce new bugs).

2. What exactly happens on 1 June when the beta expires? Will Vista be
completely gone, or will it be available in a limited capability?

It goes into limited use mode. You can only use Internet Explorer.

3. If I do decide to delete the beta and reformat the second HD, can I
install Vista Home Premium Upgrade there, and retain my dual boot with XP?

No. When you do an upgrade, the EULA says that you can no longer use the
upgraded OS. You can upgrade RC1, but it won't count as part of the EULA
upgrade requirements.

--
Dustin Harper
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.vistarip.com

--

 

[Guest]

There is no need to spend the extra money for a full version if you wish to
do a clean install. I have clean installed many times from the upgrade
version. You can also format your drive if you wish to do so. Simply install
from "Boot from DVD" or "Boot from CD". No problem.

 

[BrianW]

3. If I do decide to delete the beta and reformat the second HD, can I
install Vista Home Premium Upgrade there, and retain my dual boot with XP?

I believe you can.

Unlike some other posters, I would not presume to offer legal advice on the
EULA; I do not see a prohibition on what you propose, but IANAL. Certainly,
I, personally, see no ethical objection to dual-booting in the manner you
suggest.

Paul Thurott has some thoughts on "clean install" with an upgrade
installation key, which may be interesting or useful:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_upgrade_clean.asp

 

[Lang Murphy]

There's a way to extend the trial period for RTM Vista (called "ream"ing).
No clue if it works with the beta code... probably not, but I don't know for
sure.

Lang