Install Vista Upgrade Without Preexisting XP

Johannes K. writes "It has previously been claimed that to install Windows Vista from an upgrade DVD requires having Windows XP installed on your computer. DailyTech reports on a workaround: no previous version of Windows is required at all." Anyone know whether this workaround moots the finding by LXer that during upgrade Microsoft invalidates your original XP CD-key?

Comments

Re:Use a dodgy XP key

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Unless MS note your fake XP CD-key is linked with Vista and cut you both off.

"Vista upgade cupon $60"

[RyanFenton]

Intentional or not? I wonder if this will end up increasing the value of Vista upgrade coupons on eBay, or if this will be patched before more are mailed out.

Ryan Fenton

Wow

[T-Bone-T]

Isn't this kind of thing one of the most basic ways to try to cheat the system? How could something this obvious slip through?

Re:Wow

[T-Bone-T]

Are you familiar with the saying "When you assume it makes an ass out of u and me"? In this case it is making an ass out of you. I didn't even hint that "all" customers are thieves. I'm just saying that if, for some reason, I decided to try to install the upgrade without actually upgrading this is probably the first thing I would try. This method isn't supposed to work. It is way too easy. It is so easy a caveman can do it. Most of the hacks I've seen involve changing registry values. Most of the people I know don't even know what the registry is much less how to go into it and change things.

Easier way

[Agelmar]

If you bought Vista Ultimate, and have a 64-bit CPU, there's an even easier way... install Vista Ultimate 64-bit version.

The 64-bit DVD booted fine and let me do a clean install from the upgrade CD. I typed in my ugprade CD key, hit next, and it prompted me to accept the license. (The 32-bit CD would not let me do a clean install, I did try that out. It said I had to start the process from within windows.)

Re:Easier way

[Anonymous Coward]

I once had an Office 2000 upgrade CD. When it asked me to point to a previous installation I could just select the CD drive with the install CD in. Worked every time!

Re:What a solution.

[robosmurf]

True, it is a rumour that the XP keys get invalidated.

However, the EULA does explicitly say:

13. UPGRADES. To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligible
for the upgrade. Upon upgrade, this agreement takes the place of the agreement for the software
you upgraded from. After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from.

which does imply that you are not allowed to go back to XP.

And don't say that doesn't matter if the keys don't get invalidated. If you are going to
completely ignore the EULA, why are you not just pirating it in the first place?

It's also a benefit

[rsilvergun]

for people with those damned OEM restore partitions who've had a harddrive crash. Or if you just never got install media.

Re:Use a dodgy XP key

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the XP install have to be activated before installing Vista? If it doesn't, MVF4D-W774K-MC4VM-QY6XY-R38TB should work. That's the System Locked Preinstallation key used by many OEMs, so they can't exactly disable it.

Re:Still asking questions? Ok here are MY suggesti

[giorgiofr]

does Vista dump if you change your motherboard like XP does because of the IDE drivers only being changeable during an install? That has never been the case, you can simply disable your current drivers, swap mobo and it will work just fine. It will install the correct drivers on first boot. I've done it a few times in a row and it never fails. Well I suppose it would fail if you put in an unsupported chipset, in which case just install the drivers before the swap.

Re:Or... just install GNU/Linux

[fotbr]

And what advantage does that give me? I'd still have to set up XP or (soon) Vista in a VM.

Its extra overhead so I can say I run linux. Quite frankly, I don't give a damn about being able to say I run linux, or have a mac, or whatever the trendy OS of the week is. The computer is a tool, nothing more. Sometimes, as much as it pains the linux crowd to hear it, Windows IS the better solution.

well, *i* know.

[Anonymous Coward]

installed vista upgrade over valid XP. attempted to install XP using same key on another computer - denied activation (the expected behavior, else activation would just be more useless than it already is). deinstalled vista, then attempted to install XP using the same key again - activation successful.

ta-da.

Re:well, *i* know.

[toleraen]

When you say "deinstall"...do you mean you formatted and just installed XP, or is there a roll-back feature built into Vista that lets you drop back? More specifically, would there be data sent to MS saying you're no longer going to use Vista? If you just formated, I assume that your ability to restinall XP was due to the way MS registers your computer. They denied your install on another box because the hardware you had registered to that key differed from what you were installing on.

Re:No evidence for XP key invalidation

[gstoddart]

The only problem is that when you upgraded to XP, MS had no way of "deactivating" your old copy of Win98, since you weren't required to register 98 to use it. Now they have the ability to flat out deny your registration of XP the next time you install. It's probably still FUD, but who knows.

See, my fears with this are what I'm usually skeptical about with 'upgrade' installs of Windows operating systems.

They sell you the upgrade to go from the old and busted to the new hotness. You can only upgrade the old and busted, but you can't install the new hotness from scratch.

So, assume they invalidate your key, and your OS needs to be reinstalled (work with me here, I've heard that people occasionally need to do a reinstall of their OS). Can you still install your XP, and then upgrade back to Vista?? These upgrade versions seem to always ignore the possibility of needing to do a from-scratch OS install.

As much as these upgrade-only versions seem to appeal to people who want to save a little money, you end up without the ability to restore your own damned machine. If they're invalidating the license from the original install, when it breaks, you get to keep all the parts, but you're SOL.

Cheers

EULA vs copyright law

[Bananenrepublik]

If you are going to
completely ignore the EULA, why are you not just pirating it in the first place? Unauthorized copying is forbidden by copyright law. OTOH I'm not aware of laws that make EULAs binding.