As many of you are now finding out, in order to upgrade your copy of XP to Vista, you need to have XP currently installed on the computer and the setup program must be run from withing XP. No longer can you boot off of the setup DVD and just insert the media of older versions that you are upgrading from. What this means is that there is no true way of doing a clean install from a formatted hard drive as when you enter the Vista product key it will tell you the setup must be run from within the previous operating system. Another issue that occurs is that you will invalidate the XP product key that you are upgrading from.

Paul Thurott has discovered from internal Microsoft documents another method that you can use to perform a full install. To do this follow the steps below:

1. Boot your computer form the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD. When you get to the setup screen, start a new setup of Vista.
   
   
2. When prompted to enter your product key, Do not enter it. Instead click on the Next button and continue with the setup. This will install Vista as a 30-day trial.
   
   
3. When prompted select the edition of Vista which you had purchased. So if you purchase Home Premium, select Home Premium. This is important, so do not pick a version that you did not purchase as it will affect later steps.
   
   
4. Once the setup has completed and you are back at your new Vista desktop, run the setup program from the Vista DVD again from within the new Vista 30-day trial.
   
   
5. Go through the setup, but this time when it asks for your product key, enter in the product key that came with your upgrade.
   
   
6. When asked whether to perform an Upgrade or a Custom (advanced) install, choose the Custom (advanced) option to perform a clean install of Vista. Yes, you are performing a second installation of Vista.
   
   
7. Once setup has completed for the second time you will be able to activate Windows Vista as normal. You are now left with a fresh clean install of Vista and your original Vista install has been renamed C:\Windows.old. You can now delete the Windows.old folder as it is not necessary to be on your computer.

Why does this work? It works because Microsoft let the Vista 30-day trial act as a valid upgrade path for Vista and because you can install the trial to a empty drive. This keeps the process as clean as possible for those who do not own a Full install version of Vista.

That link doesn't work and has anyone done this to see if it actually works?

Here is the correct link. The other one is the PDA version.

I have not as all my product keys for vista are full ultimate installs.

One of the guys at work said that this worked for him last night. Haven't seen it myself, but he's reliable.

I am going to LAUGH very hard at MS if this option works without having to verify the ownership of a previous version of Windows.

I will be there with you. Kinda unbelievable that this is possible.

I'd expect a patch to be issued to prevent this - it essentially allows you to get the full version for a lot less than Microsoft intended it to sell for.

A patch will fix future versions burnt onto the media, but with the media thats currently out there there is nothing they can do. I also understand why this happens...its because they need to allow vista to be an upgrade path for more "feature rich" versions.

There big mistake was allowing a trial or at least a trial that can be upgraded from..

From this it sounds like Microsoft was already aware of this, and also possibly left it so.

time to go buy an upgrade version

-Steve

If I were you, I would hold off on installing Vista. It's going to take Microsoft, "The evil Empire", about 6 months to a year to get all the kinks, bug, etc, out of it. Also, remember that many programs and apps are not yet compatible with Vista and you're going to run into a lot of problems as some of my friends have told me. Me, I'll wait about a year then I'll think about it. So far, my XP and Linux are running just fine.

WooHoo! Works 100%!! Saved about £100 on full ultimate version

Does the same apply when downgrading from Vista to XP? I have a user who purchased a laptop with a ready installed Vista OS but she prefers Windows XP. Can i run the XP install from within Vista or do i have to boot using the XP disc?

More and more, my Linux box is doing everything I need as well.

Cheers

Good post Grinler! Your steps worked for me just fine.

Cheers,
Jesse

I'm no preacher, far from it... but I'm curious about the ethics of this discussion. Does M$ deserve this? Is this "ok"?

From what I understand, it is OK since Microsoft designed it this way and knew about it when they released Vista.

Unless someone else has seen anything specific from MS,

as far as I know they have not come out and specifically stated that it is improper.

M$'s history has always been upgrade is upgrade and full version is full version. If this was meant to be a full version, you wouldn't have to do all this work to make it work. So... is it right? Anybody can buy the upgrade off the street and install it on a clean system, true, but that wasn't the purpose for M$ selling it that way. Their rules say for an upgrade you need a license from a previous full install version.

So, is it any better than having a pirated copy?

Do you need to do this if you bought a computer that is Windows Vista Premium Ready and you get the free copy in the mail?

No you will use your copy to upgrade it if you do not care about having a 100% completely clean install. Otherwise, yes you have to deal with this.

Okay so here's my problem. I bought a crappy compaq a few months ago that came loaded with Vista basic. Recently I was at a CompUSA that was going out of business and I picked up an upgrade to Ultimate for cheap.

But when I tried to upgrade, it was telling me I did not have a legitimate copy of windows to upgrade from. Weird. After awhile of messing with my computer and becoming angry and not thinking, I ended up wiping my hard drive clean without ever having created system recovery discs. Then I found this thread and my life was saved! I followed the steps and it installed great. I activated my copy of windows with no problem.

Well, while making some system upgrades I somehow damaged the master boot record, so I just reinstalled Windows. Again, I followed the steps in this topic to the letter. Only now, when I try to activate I get an error that tells me my product key can only be used for an upgrade and not a clean install.

It worked flawlessly the first time, why won't it work anymore?

Did you remove your previous version of windows? You could also have fixed your MBR by booting into the recovery console and typing:

fixmbr

you cant run the xp install from withing vista

I wanna do this but i dont have the CD anymore....idk wut happened 2 it. So could i still do it without the CD?

Nope - you need the Vista upgrade CD to install it. Unless you have proof of purchase and can plead your case, my guess is you're SOL. Sorry!

And, does anyone know if this still works? I'm about to build a new PC with a friend that'll dual-boot Vista Home Basic and Kubuntu.

So, you're saying that I could go out, buy the upgrade DVD instead of the full one, install the trial, and upgrade it from itself? Nice! Save me $200.

u cud dual-boot vista and xp tho...if u have enough disk space:

http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp


i have a dual-boot system too. Works great, although i installed XP first, then vista.

Is this still a viable option or has MS blocked it?

TIA

Hello:

Just reading the posts on here.
I would also like to know if anyone knows if this is still possible
or if Microsoft has blocked this ?

Does anyone know ?

Thanks, Ruth

This is sort of funny, because I just upgraded my development system from XP Pro to Vista, and it said that I needed to do a clean install, which it did. I didn't have to do anything special at all.

well, i upgraded from XP to VIsta the propper way but Vista didn't install properly and with XP fies clogging up Vista programs would open and would get in title bar (Not Responding) so i just inserted Vista Home Premium Upgrade CD and selected CUSTOM INSTALL and installed a new version leaving the product key blank, then once done you have 30 days to acticate now without have to click on upgrade as people sugest, i just went to control panel where your index score is and down the bottom theres a link "Change Product Key" click it and enter your product key, clikc activate. Now i can't confirm if this will activated directly from the internet but it works via the phone. Saves trouble of using the upgrade.

I just did a an install with Vista 64 bit Ultimate Upgrade. I didn't do anything special except that I didn't enter a product key during the initial set-up...I waited until after the 30 day trial version was running and then put the product key in. It worked just fine and windows is activated.

did you phone activate or internet activate?

i used phone method because mine had already been activated by internet because i wanted to reinstall vista via clean install to rid of XP components making Vista stupid and non responsive (works nice now).

I did the phone activation because my computer wasn't hooked up to internet yet.

I just installed the upgrade as explained this weekend and it installed and is running so far no problems

Hello Everyone!

I Don't Know If This Helps Any, But I Stumbled Upon Another Way To Do A Clean Install.
I Was Re-installing Vista On My PC, And It Just So Happened That I Did Not Have Enough HDD Space.
It Would Not Let Me Upgrade Because It Would Not Fit. Clean Install, No Problems!
Another Note To Add... I Didn't Have Enough Room On My OS's HDD, But... I Had Just Installed A New
500GB HDD! It Alowed Me To Install A Clean Version Of Vista On The Clean 500GB HDD Using Windows
Anytime Upgrade CD.

P.S. If You Don't Feel Like Filling Your HDD Up To Do This, You Can Shrink You Current Drives Space To
Make Room For A New Partition, I Had Enough Space On A Second Partition, But The Upgrade
Only Looked At The OS's Partition.

P.S.S. It Was Easy With Vista To Shrink The Primary Partition
(Windows Key+R To Run > DiscMgmt.msc > Click Run, Right-Click On Your OS's Partition > Click Shrink)
I'm Not Sure For XP, May Have To Do It From Boot.

P.S.S.S. Lol, I Like P.S.'s... To "Un-Shrink" Your Partition, Just Follow The Same Steps In P.S.S. And Choose
"Expand" Instead.


Hope This Makes Things Easier,

DooMeeD

Hi to all and thank you for this forum.

Sorry for my lack of understanding (or intelligence) but I am not sure if I understand this correctly. I have a laptop that came with premium and I can get ultimate by doing this with the "recovery dvd" that came with or the "anytime upgrade dvd" that came with the computer? Thanks to all.

Well, I have a Windows Anytime Upgrade disk and this does not work.

I have an Acer 5315 laptop and want to dual boot with XP and Vista.

I was able to do a clean install of the trial version of Ultimate onto a new hard drive. But when I went to insert my Product Key, on the repeat install, it said I could not perform this type of install from the version I had.

So, I tried to create an image of the original install (which was an upgrade from Vista Home Basic first to Home Premium and then to Ultimate) from the original hard drive but that failed as well. (I tried using Ghost 11.0).

So, anyone have these kinds of problems and would anyone have a way to resolve this, without buying any more copies of Vista?


Thanks all.

DR

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, be sure you really want Vista, as its not as simple just to go back to XP.

JUST A NOTE FOR THIS TO WORK:
You need a Pre- SP1 Vista Upgrade CD/DVD for this to work. And if you install it don't have your PC connected to the internet otherwise it installs the updates that will not allow you to do it.

Thanks for the info.

thx for this info as it is really appreciated.

OTheo

I don think Microsoft will ever come across and get off the bugs, Windows Xp has bugs in it as so does Vista, there is this bug in Microsoft Word 2003, which appers in Microsoft Word 2007. The commmand is =rand (200,99) The bug givs some error codes which are diffrent in vista and xp. When Microsoft is aware about it, y don they make a hotfix for the same

what if your laptop didnt come with a disc? you just press f9 or whatever at boot up?
jules2u

pressing that key will show up the drives boot list

ahmmmm....if i hadn't activated my vista os within 30 days......what would happen???

Why install Vista when you get better with XP or Win 7 ?


Vista is bad, bad, bad release by microsoft i think..

plz the key does not work would send authenticated one again i would be grateful to you!

its working to me too, I'm just worried with possible future issue.
I wish this is legal and no patch will be released by microsoft to deal with it hehehe!!!

thanks for the share!

Hi,
This is Jimmi,

Let's start with a few essential facts:

* All retail copies of Windows Vista use the exact same media. The DVD contains all editions and can be used to perform a full installation or an upgrade. If you compare a full retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate and an upgrade copy of Windows Vista Home Basic, you'll find that the installation media for the two products are virtually identical.
* The product key included with the copy you purchase determines how the Setup program behaves. These behaviors are hard-coded into the Setup program based on the key you enter. Specifically, the Setup program is able to look at your key and use an algorithm to determine the edition it "unlocks." The same algorithm determines whether you are allowed to use that key for an upgrade or a clean install or both.
*
The license agreement for a Vista upgrade copy requires that the machine already be licensed for Windows. This license agreement does not restrict the method of installation in any way. Section 13 of the agreement reads as follows:







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

Jimmi.

..