I havent tried it yet, but if you need to do a clean install of Vista from your upgrade cd this looks to be a pretty good solution. Could be helpful if you OS has crashed or something, and makes it so you dont have to install and OS just to upgrade it.
http://www.techwrighter.com/index.p...ask=view&id=67&Itemid=27&limit=1&limitstart=2
Install the 30 day trial
Begin by disabling User Account Control (UAC). There are numerous methods for doing this, but the quickest and simplest is a registry edit.
Hold down the Windows key and tap R to get the Run box.
Type regedit and press the Enter key to launch the registry editor.
On the left pane, locate and select the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Locate the entry EnableLUA in the right pane, double-click it and alter the value to 0 to disable UAC. (You can repeat the procedure later, changing the value to 1, to turn it back on.)
Exit the registry editor and reboot the PC, and UAC will be inactive when you arrive at the desktop again.
Activate from the command line
With UAC disabled you can now issue a couple of commands which will fully activate your Vista installation using the Product key which accompanied your Vista Upgrade purchase.
Hold down the Windows key and tap R to get the Run dialogue box.
To assign your product key to the installation issue the command:
cscript C:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk <upgrade product key>
(Dont type <upgrade product key> of course. That where your actual product key goes, in full!)
You can now activate your installation online by firing up the Run dialogue again and issuing the command:
cscript C:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs ato
Verify that Vista is activated by issuing the command:
cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs dlv
http://www.techwrighter.com/index.p...ask=view&id=67&Itemid=27&limit=1&limitstart=2
Install the 30 day trial
Begin by disabling User Account Control (UAC). There are numerous methods for doing this, but the quickest and simplest is a registry edit.
Hold down the Windows key and tap R to get the Run box.
Type regedit and press the Enter key to launch the registry editor.
On the left pane, locate and select the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Locate the entry EnableLUA in the right pane, double-click it and alter the value to 0 to disable UAC. (You can repeat the procedure later, changing the value to 1, to turn it back on.)
Exit the registry editor and reboot the PC, and UAC will be inactive when you arrive at the desktop again.
Activate from the command line
With UAC disabled you can now issue a couple of commands which will fully activate your Vista installation using the Product key which accompanied your Vista Upgrade purchase.
Hold down the Windows key and tap R to get the Run dialogue box.
To assign your product key to the installation issue the command:
cscript C:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk <upgrade product key>
(Dont type <upgrade product key> of course. That where your actual product key goes, in full!)
You can now activate your installation online by firing up the Run dialogue again and issuing the command:
cscript C:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs ato
Verify that Vista is activated by issuing the command:
cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs dlv