Vista Ultimate Upgrade w/SP1

[Dillon Farmer]

I recently got Vista Ultimate Upgrade w/SP1 via www.theultimatesteal.co.uk
for around £40 by virtue of my membership of a University.

The terms and conditions state Windows 98 Second Edition is a qualifying OS
and the download comprised 3 files -- an EXE and 2 WIMs.

The EXE will only run on Vista or XP and there seems no obvious way of
performing a clean install over Win98.

Does anyone have any idea how to go about installing with Win98 as the
qualifying OS. I have seen the odd article about creating an ISO from the
above files and making a bootable DVD.

Dillon

 

[Chad Harris]

Hi Dillon--

I'm surprised that "terms and conditions" indicate that you can use Win 98
as a qualifying OS, because I've seen nothing to indicate that you can use
any DOS-based version of Windows--including Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
98 Second Edition, or Windows Millennium Edition--or Windows NT (any
version) to upgrade to Vista. I'd question the source of those "terms and
conditions." What is the source that said you can upgrade to Vista using 98
SE as a qualifying OS?

These are the upgrade paths as far as I know. I'll be interested to see if
someone corrects me as to 98 SE:

The options
You can upgrade from your current edition of Microsoft Windows XP or Windows
2000 to a corresponding or better edition of Windows Vista by purchasing and
installing an upgrade copy of Windows Vista.

Installation options


http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/get/upgrade-your-pc-options.aspx

The most stable situation is to iclean nstall a full OS version, but I'm
sure you'll do fine by any of the MSFT approved upgrade paths.

Good luck,

CH

 

[Richie Hardwick]

I'm surprised that "terms and conditions" indicate that you can use Win 98
as a qualifying OS, because I've seen nothing to indicate that you can use
any DOS-based version of Windows--including Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
98 Second Edition, or Windows Millennium Edition--or Windows NT (any
version) to upgrade to Vista.

You are absolutely correct.


Richie Hardwick

 

[Dillon Farmer]

Thanks Richard/Chad. Ordinarily I would agree with you both 100%.

Nevertheless, it's there in the terms & conditions and these are Microsoft's
own t's & c's.

Below is the relevant section.

Dillon

4. Available October 10 - Windows Vista® Ultimate Upgrade (GBP 40,95):
Perpetual licence, which includes the following application:
Windows Vista® Ultimate Upgrade*
*You must be a licensed user of one of the following products to be eligible
for purchase of Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade License.

Qualifying Operating System for purchase of Windows Upgrade License

Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
Business (N, K, KN) / NOTE: "N", "K", and "KN" are specialized editions
available for certain markets
Business Blade PC Edition
Ultimate
Home Premium
Home Basic

Windows XP (32-bit or 64-bit)
XP Professional
XP Tablet PC Edition
XP Pro N
XP Pro Blade PC Edition
XP Home Edition

Windows 2000 Professional
Windows NT Workstation 4.0
Windows 98 (including 2nd edition)
Apple Macintosh

 

[Rick Rogers]

You are absolutely correct.

As it applies to retail. This is not retail, this is a package for education
institutions and different rules and conditions apply. Microsoft has long
sponsored programs for colleges to distribute software to their students far
cheaper than mainstream, and the rules are often quite different.

Dillon, I suspect you probably need to order the disk per the offer details
as I don't know of any way of initiating the upgrade from within a Win98
system. While it may be a qualifying OS, it won't actually upgrade but
rather it will be a clean installation. I would check with your University's
technical folks for additional assistance, they may be more familiar with
the program.

A second concern would be installing Vista on a Win98-era machine, it would
likely be horribly unsuited for this. Likely to be way underpowered in terms
of processor speed, memory capacity, hard drive capacity, and
motherboard/bus speed issues.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Dillon Farmer]

Thanks Rick.

No help from the University but MS technical support (Escalation Dept.)
phoned me back after I pointed this
out to them earlier today.

Apparently, they fear they will be swamped with similar queries/complaints
and in a few days there will be a
solution on the www.theultimatesteal.co.uk (and other countries) web site.

As for my setup, I built a new machine a few days ago and put on a full
edition of Win98 (Goes really fast and was quite a nostalgic experience)
in preparation for the upgrade. There's also a trusty XP machine and I don't
want to lose this OS in the upgrade. I take your point about a clean install
though. Thanks.

Dillon

 

[Chad Harris]

Dillon--

I wasn't aware of the possible inclusion of Win 98 in the packages for
academic institutions Rick pointed out, and I'm admittedly confused as to
why they would include anything to do with Win 98 SE or not unless there
were a way to upgrade from it. Please let us know how it turns out.

Good luck,

CH

 

[Dillon Farmer]

It's been quite a struggle so far and contrary to my initial high hopes of
it being sorted quickly the issue has been passed higher and higher up the
MS hierarchy.

The thing that strikes me most is the abscence of anyone at MS who seems to
know about the promotion and how to manage this problem. Even after pointing
out the terms and conditions fairly senior people told me I had interpreted
the relevant clause incorrectly. It took quite a time to convince them my
interpretation was correct. So that's a small success at least.

At the time of my original order, I requested a backup DVD also. This
arrived today and turned out to be bootable. I installed the OS cleanly but
now the product key I was given says it's only valid for an upgrade not a
clean install.

Yet another call to MS technical support. I'm told I will be contacted
tomorrow with a valid key. This sounds hopeful but we'll see.
If tomorrow does not end with an activated OS, frankly, I'm not sure what to
do next as I've pretty much exhausted the usual channels.

Anyway tomorrow...

Let you know.


Dillon

 

[Dillon Farmer]

Success!

MS gave me a full product key this PM and OS now activated.

Dillon