Vista Upgrade versus Fresh Install

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M4573R

Gawd
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
522
I just had a major problem today. I previously upgraded my copy of XP pro to Vista Ultimate using my friend's copy. I used his key because I was under the impression that Ultimate has 10 activations. However today I was locked out of my computer by Microsoft telling me I had to buy a key. Windows has been telling me to activate for a while but I was like, "wtf it is?" and ignored it. So I'm guessing Ultimate only has 10 activations for INSTALLS? NOT upgrades?
Bottom line, is there a way to maybe make windows think I have an install, not an upgrade?
My other friend installed Vista with the same copy of Ultimate from fresh and it says his is find and dandy.
 
If I understand you- you want advise on how to bypass Microsoft's anti-piracy tactics... Ain't gunna happen on here.

Your license was used. End of story. Using it again isn't legal.

You might be thinking Ultimate has 10 concurrent sessions (assuming 10, since XP was 10)... Meaning 10 folks can connect to shares on that computer at one time.
But nowhere do you get 10 licenses.

Heck, that drops the price down to like $30-40 an install... Everyone would be on that!
 
Well I was just wondering if I had to resort to a fresh install to get windows valid again. I'm not sure exactly how the 10 things work. I don't know what 10 concurrent sessions would be.

Edit: On one of Microsoft's sites it has a place where you can enter a valid key and buy more licenses, but It says something about needing an upgrade key for more upgrades, or a full key for more full licenses. Will a regular work for me? This is way out of my league here.
 
M4573R said:
Well I was just wondering if I had to resort to a fresh install to get windows valid again. I'm not sure exactly how the 10 things work. I don't know what 10 concurrent sessions would be.
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I think to be *legal* you would need to get your buddy to uninstall his copy.

Most people won't worry about 10 concurrent sessions. It basically means you can have 10 other folks accessing stuff on your computer (shared files, pictures, whatever) all at the same time (hence "concurrent"). Has nothing to do with licensing... This is the only thing I can think of where you got the number 10 from.
 
Well only one friend is using it right now, the one who owns the copy resorted back to XP.
 
That still leaves 1 active copy. Which means until you get that uninstalled- you're screwed.

When you buy Vista- you buy a key. The disks are all the same. And being your friend more or less owns it now- you basically paid for his Vista copy.
 
M4573R said:
I'll just have to use my connections to get 40$ vista.
Click to expand...

If you are involved in Academics (or heck- even KNOW someone that is), you can get Home Premium pretty cheap.
This place has it for $70 (gotta show them ID, or if at a University or something you can "instantly" verify yourself).
It's the upgrade version, but using the workaround is easy enough (just takes double the time).
 
My college offers me completely free software, but not vista ultimate. And I'm assuming any other key wont activate my copy.
 
M4573R said:
My college offers me completely free software, but not vista ultimate. And I'm assuming any other key wont activate my copy.
Click to expand...

If you installed Vista Ultimate- any full Vista Ultimate key will activate it.

Is there a particular reason why you have to have Ultimate, vs. oh, Home Premium?
 
For the record, the "10 install" thing only covers MSDN subscriber editions of Vista. It is 10 *total* activations, which includes re-activations.

Retail versions of Vista, ALL retail versions of Vista, are still limited to one PC.
 
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