Workaround For Vista Upgrade Limitation

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One of the big complaints about buying the Vista upgrade edition is that most people thought you had to have a clean XP install prior to installing Vista. According to this, that isn’t the case. If anyone has tried this successfully, let us know.

I haven't tested this yet, as I don't have Vista Upgrade media to test, but I'm told that Microsoft's internal documentation does explain how to clean install Vista using an Upgrade version. It appears to be more of a workaround than a true clean install, however.
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After reading that article it sounds like you dont need any previous versions of windows to use the upgrade via the workaround. So whats to stop somone that has never bought a windows program from just buying the ugrade? Am I missing something here?
 
DocFaustus said:
After reading that article it sounds like you dont need any previous versions of windows to use the upgrade via the workaround. So whats to stop somone that has never bought a windows program from just buying the ugrade? Am I missing something here?
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Nothing.
 
OEM versions are cheaper than the upgrade versions, so it's a little hard to see how this is really going to take a bite out of their bottom line. If they don't do something to make this _not work_, I'll be going with the upgrade version just to dodge the whole stupid "OEM version linked to motherboard" restriction.
 
erwos said:
OEM versions are cheaper than the upgrade versions, so it's a little hard to see how this is really going to take a bite out of their bottom line. If they don't do something to make this _not work_, I'll be going with the upgrade version just to dodge the whole stupid "OEM version linked to motherboard" restriction.
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This method is a tedious method and takes long... the OEM method is the cheapest and easiest method and is easy to navigate around.

With an OEM all you do when you reinstall into a new machine is that your motherboard is fried.
 
erwos said:
OEM versions are cheaper than the upgrade versions, so it's a little hard to see how this is really going to take a bite out of their bottom line. If they don't do something to make this _not work_, I'll be going with the upgrade version just to dodge the whole stupid "OEM version linked to motherboard" restriction.
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Don’t forget that issues such as that can almost always be avoided with a simple call to Microsoft. When you go to install vista after installing the new mobo, and it won’t let you activate/register or whatever due to the different motherboard, simply call Microsoft. I used this to get a dell copy of XP to work on a machine I built.
All you have to do is sound completely clueless: “what is a main motherboard? My friend just told me to reformat my computer caus I had spyvirusware. I don’t even know how to take the side off the case..” usually does it. They give you the code to override the restrictions.
 
Guess microsoft still didn't fix that "glitch" in their upgrade process. I was able to use the trial version of office 2003 as the base for an upgrade to a full version of office 2003.
 
Upgrade is retail but with a sort of loyalty discount. You adhere to a slightly different set of licensing terms. You are the system builder and are responsible for support with the OEM version.

I'll be picking up the OEM version if I don't get a free copy at the Microsoft Across America launch event in Feb at the Waldorf Astoria.
 
stonedwaldo420 said:
Don’t forget that issues such as that can almost always be avoided with a simple call to Microsoft. When you go to install vista after installing the new mobo, and it won’t let you activate/register or whatever due to the different motherboard, simply call Microsoft. I used this to get a dell copy of XP to work on a machine I built.
All you have to do is sound completely clueless: “what is a main motherboard? My friend just told me to reformat my computer caus I had spyvirusware. I don’t even know how to take the side off the case..” usually does it. They give you the code to override the restrictions.
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it's spyrusware, get it right ;)

or, tell them you're beta testing video -card drivers and blew your system up several times, and hate the auth. message.
 
Ockie said:
This method is a tedious method and takes long... the OEM method is the cheapest and easiest method and is easy to navigate around.

With an OEM all you do when you reinstall into a new machine is that your motherboard is fried.
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Not guaranteed to work yet, as they say they are going to enforce the one computer per oem disk more this time.

And one thing you guys missed with the upgrade vs. oem is the upgrade you get both 32bit and 64 bit. With OEM you have to choose one. Useful for someone still using 32 bit but might want 64 in the near future.
 
Just a note, MS has changed the liscencing for OEM versions. It used to be that all you needed was to buy a floppy drive to qualify for an OEM copy of XP. Now it clearly states that the OEM versoin must be sold with a new, fully assembled machine. :(
 
Draco-1 said:
Just a note, MS has changed the liscencing for OEM versions. It used to be that all you needed was to buy a floppy drive to qualify for an OEM copy of XP. Now it clearly states that the OEM versoin must be sold with a new, fully assembled machine. :(
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Well then somebody better tell that to Newegg and ZZF cause they're selling OEM Vista with nothing more then a hard drive purchase...
 
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