Upgrade Edition Windows Vista Business

[William R. Walsh]

Hello all...

I thought that I would take a nonessential computer system I have and
install an upgrade copy of Windows Vista Business on it. Since it is a
Windows 2000 Professional box at the moment, I knew a clean installation
would be required. I wanted to see what had changed since the betas and see
if I could work at transitioning slowly to the new version of Windows. I
hadn't particularly cared for the new UI (the new fixed toolbars in the
Explorer windows--as well as not being able to switch to a mode where each
folder opens in its own window really didn't sit well with me) and hoped
that some of these options would be coming back in the final product. The
"new look" of Windows that appeared in XP has not appealed to me and Vista
is worse. But that's beside the point, so I'll quit ranting about it.

So I figured--why not go ahead and do the upgrade on a freshly cleaned off
hard drive? I wiped the hard drive before starting. Then I booted the Vista
CD, started the run through setup, and hoped to provide my original OS CD as
proof that I could upgrade...only that doesn't work! Vista setup says I need
to reboot and run setup from my operating system in order to upgrade.
There's nothing "wrong" with the original OS CD...it is part of a genuine
*boxed* copy of Windows 2000 Professional that I purchased new.

Now that is incredibly irritating and strange. Why is my original operating
system CD not good enough as proof of entitlement to upgrade?

William

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

How to install Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918884/en-us

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

Hello all...

I thought that I would take a nonessential computer system I have and
install an upgrade copy of Windows Vista Business on it. Since it is a
Windows 2000 Professional box at the moment, I knew a clean installation
would be required. I wanted to see what had changed since the betas and see
if I could work at transitioning slowly to the new version of Windows. I
hadn't particularly cared for the new UI (the new fixed toolbars in the
Explorer windows--as well as not being able to switch to a mode where each
folder opens in its own window really didn't sit well with me) and hoped
that some of these options would be coming back in the final product. The
"new look" of Windows that appeared in XP has not appealed to me and Vista
is worse. But that's beside the point, so I'll quit ranting about it.

So I figured--why not go ahead and do the upgrade on a freshly cleaned off
hard drive? I wiped the hard drive before starting. Then I booted the Vista
CD, started the run through setup, and hoped to provide my original OS CD as
proof that I could upgrade...only that doesn't work! Vista setup says I need
to reboot and run setup from my operating system in order to upgrade.
There's nothing "wrong" with the original OS CD...it is part of a genuine
*boxed* copy of Windows 2000 Professional that I purchased new.

Now that is incredibly irritating and strange. Why is my original operating
system CD not good enough as proof of entitlement to upgrade?

William

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi William,

It was well-established early on in the Vista beta that the upgrade version
would only work from within the qualifying OS. This was a major change in
the upgrade policy, and it has nothing to do with whether or not it had to
be changed from a technical standpoint. The simple fact is that many were
using illegitimately obtained OS disks to qualify a cheaper upgrade disk for
a clean install, so Microsoft decided enough was enough and made the upgrade
disk limited in how it works - basically a true "upgrade only" disk (though
one workaround has already been documented).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[DH]

How to install Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918884/en-us

It seems the above link is not very helpful with the problem William is
having. If a person can't use the upgrade version of Vista on an empty
drive people are going to have problems. I myself would do exactly what
William did since I don't want a previous version of Windows polluting up my
hard disc. I would rather wipe it and start fresh. This oversight needs to
be addressed.

DH

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

It was well-established early on in the Vista beta that the upgrade version
would only work from within the qualifying OS. This was a major change in
the upgrade policy, and it has nothing to do with whether or not it had to
be changed from a technical standpoint.

Thanks for the information. I thought that I had followed the news
surrounding the betas well enough, but...I must have missed that part.

I should look for the workaround, as this is ridiculous. Even more
interesting is the fact that setup seems to determine what kind of Windows
it should be installing by a check of the CD key #. (Although...one doesn't
have to provide the CD key in order to continue. It is possible to go on,
although I didn't think I would do so after reading the threatening
statements about Bad Things happening that might require purchase of another
copy of Windows Vista.

Actually...the more I think about it...the more I really wonder if I want to
run Vista at all...ever. Maybe I'll cut my losses and sell the thing. I
doubt if I can return it to the place of purchase (Office Depot). I asked
that question at purchase time and the staff on hand didn't seem to think I
could return it once opened.

William

 

[Rock]

Hi!


Thanks for the information. I thought that I had followed the news
surrounding the betas well enough, but...I must have missed that part.

I should look for the workaround, as this is ridiculous. Even more
interesting is the fact that setup seems to determine what kind of Windows
it should be installing by a check of the CD key #. (Although...one
doesn't
have to provide the CD key in order to continue. It is possible to go on,
although I didn't think I would do so after reading the threatening
statements about Bad Things happening that might require purchase of
another
copy of Windows Vista.

What exactly did you read? What threatening things? There is a lot of FUD
out there. A retail version of Vista can be installed on only one device at
a time, but it can be transferred to another device if first uninstalled
from the original device, and on and on, as long as it's only installed on
one device at any one time. It can be activated as many times as you want.

An OEM version is tied to the first computer on which it is installed. It
can be activated on that computer as many times as you want and components
can be upgraded.

Actually...the more I think about it...the more I really wonder if I want
to
run Vista at all...ever. Maybe I'll cut my losses and sell the thing. I
doubt if I can return it to the place of purchase (Office Depot). I asked
that question at purchase time and the staff on hand didn't seem to think
I
could return it once opened.

If you're in North America, if the seller won't take it back MS has a refund
policy.
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/productrefund/refund.asp

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

What exactly did you read? What threatening things?

The text presented in the setup program that states you don't have to
provide a product key now. It strongly recommends doing so, as you might
lose programs, data or have to buy a new (and presumably different?) copy of
Vista. Those aren't direct quotes, but the points are made clear when
running Setup that this could happen.

http://greyghost.dyndns.org/vista.jpg (800x600, 65KB)

If you're in North America, if the seller won't take it back MS has a refund
policy.
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/productrefund/refund.asp

I may look into it, but I'll check with the retailer just to be sure I was
told the way things were.

William

 

[Rock]

Hi!


The text presented in the setup program that states you don't have to
provide a product key now. It strongly recommends doing so, as you might
lose programs, data or have to buy a new (and presumably different?) copy
of
Vista. Those aren't direct quotes, but the points are made clear when
running Setup that this could happen.

http://greyghost.dyndns.org/vista.jpg (800x600, 65KB)


I may look into it, but I'll check with the retailer just to be sure I was
told the way things were.

If you don't enter a product key you have 30 days to activate, and you have
to pick one of the versions to install. If you install the wrong one, and
then get a product key for a different version you might end up having to do
a clean install. You won't loose the Vista copy.