upgrade install options

[ThatsIT.net.au]

I upgrade my XP to vista with any problem, but I later noticed that few
programs I had would not uninstall or work. I decide to reinstall. But this
time I did a clean install from booting up from dvd.
My problem is that now when I try to activate it tells me I have a upgrade
copy of Vista and will not allow me to activate.

I could reinstall me XP and then upgrade again but I would rather not. Is
there any way I can insert my XP disk or enter my XP COA to prove I have a
copy and let Vista install without reinstalling XP?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

An upgrade version of Windows Vista requires that you
have Windows XP already installed. So you would need
to reformat your hard drive, install Windows XP, then
upgrade to Windows Vista.

Clean Install Windows XP:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

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

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

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

:

I upgrade my XP to vista with any problem, but I later noticed that few
programs I had would not uninstall or work. I decide to reinstall. But this
time I did a clean install from booting up from dvd.
My problem is that now when I try to activate it tells me I have a upgrade
copy of Vista and will not allow me to activate.

I could reinstall me XP and then upgrade again but I would rather not. Is
there any way I can insert my XP disk or enter my XP COA to prove I have a
copy and let Vista install without reinstalling XP?

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Inserting qualifying media for an upgrade no longer works in Vista. The
upgrade must be started from within a qualifying installation of Windows.

If you don't want to lose everything that you have done so far, I would
recommend performing an upgrade installation from within your current Vista
installation. This should work and you should not lose any programs that you
have already installed.

Make sure you quit all running programs, including your anti-virus before
starting.

 

[Paul Randall]

Now you see the problems with upgrading the OS. You get a huge amount of
convenience because you don't have to reinstall your applications. M$
provides Upgrade Advisor to help you clean up your system to help prevent
these problems. That is an impossible task - M$ has no way of knowing
whether any of your current applications have been compromised in WXP in a
way that Vista won't be able to handle. Seems like M$ should have an
inexpensive upgrade path from the upgrade version to the full version for
cases like yours.

But wait -- maybe it is built into your upgrade DVD. You can do a clean
install from your upgrade disk without activating it. Run it and restart it
a few times to verify that it really is working OK for you. Then do an
upgrade install over this non-activated system and activation should work
just fine. Detailed procedure:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_upgrade_clean.asp

groups.google the microsoft.public.windows.vista.*, and you will find that
Carey and others advise against this procedure because Microsoft is planning
to break activation done in this way, sometime in the future. Microsoft has
plenty of ways to cripple a valid Vista installation any time they want or
don't want, as this past weekend showed.

Using this procedure will at least give you 30 days to run the cleanly
installed unactivated Vista and install all your other applications, and
find out if a clean install might solve your problems. Right now you are
only guessing.

A new OS is always a crap shoot when you are trying to drag along your
legacy stuff.

-Paul Randall

 

[ThatsIT.net.au]

I though I would let you know, that instead of installing XP and then
upgrading it, I just put the vista DVD in again and upgraded it without
reinstalling XP and it activated.

In short I upgraded the clean install and it activated

 

[ThatsIT.net.au]

Inserting qualifying media for an upgrade no longer works in Vista. The
upgrade must be started from within a qualifying installation of Windows.

If you don't want to lose everything that you have done so far, I would
recommend performing an upgrade installation from within your current
Vista installation. This should work and you should not lose any programs
that you have already installed.

Make sure you quit all running programs, including your anti-virus before
starting.

This is what I did and it activated ok.

Thanks

 

[ThatsIT.net.au]

Now you see the problems with upgrading the OS. You get a huge amount of
convenience because you don't have to reinstall your applications. M$
provides Upgrade Advisor to help you clean up your system to help prevent
these problems. That is an impossible task - M$ has no way of knowing
whether any of your current applications have been compromised in WXP in a
way that Vista won't be able to handle. Seems like M$ should have an
inexpensive upgrade path from the upgrade version to the full version for
cases like yours.

But wait -- maybe it is built into your upgrade DVD. You can do a clean
install from your upgrade disk without activating it. Run it and restart
it a few times to verify that it really is working OK for you. Then do an
upgrade install over this non-activated system and activation should work
just fine. Detailed procedure:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_upgrade_clean.asp

This is what I did and it activated ok.

Thanks

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Glad this worked for you.