Vista Upgrade with newly formatted HD

[misterbadnback]

Read the article about upgrading to Vista without having XP on your HD. Just scroll down to "Get Vista Upgrade, never pay full price"

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070201/

[renegade600]

just be careful doing any installs that violates microsofts rules. You may get an unpleasant surprise.

[The Wizard]

I wonder what Microsoft's logic was, in removing the option to insert the disk of a qualifying product, during upgrading.

Doesn't make a lot of sense

[Redapple]

indeed, it does not make any sence, the only problems you will probably have regarding violates microsofts rules is with Genuine software from microsoft or the OS itsselfs.

[IronAces]

you'd have genuine software, because the upgrade is genuine

[30111987]

It's perfectly OK in my mind as long as you do own a genuine copy of XP or 2000.
Personally I think it poor of Microsoft to make the upgrade version only work over an existing installation. Obviously a lot of people do not want to inherit all the junk on their PC when they install Windows Vista - the junk kinda deflates the "WOW" we keep being battered with.
Also what happens if a years time your Vista installation gets slow and you want to format and reinstall. It would be crazy to expect users to install an older OS like 2000 yet again just so they could then "upgrade" to Vista!

[misterbadnback]

Microsoft just wants to make more $ because they want people to purchase the full product and not the upgrade. There is no reason for them to make the upgrade like that but its just like them to want more and more $ from us pee-ons. Like M$ doesn't have enough money already!

[renegade600]

one of the reasons its being done is to prevent the reuse of xp. In the past, when software was upgraded, people would still install the old software on other computers inspite of it being used as the basis for an upgrade. Microsoft is basically killing the key to prevent this. If you decide to go back, you will have to call microsoft.

[Miz]

Maybe Microsoft finally figured out that upgrading over an existing Windows installation was not doing their PR much good. XP upgrade installs were going bad everywhere...judging from the posts on computer help forums...so Microsoft got the blame regardless of the actual cause.

By eliminating the majority of upgrade installation, the majority of upgrade wrecks could also be eliminated. After all, the advice almost always given when answering questions about upgrade installations includes "A clean install is always best."

Yes, MS is in business to sell a product and make money. I'm pretty sure all the MS stockholders are not griping about the return on their investment. I'm also pretty sure that the majority of their stockholders are not in the "have enough money already" category. :)