Cheap Vista

Post by **Class--** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:10 am

well thats what the headline says

<a href="http://www.instantvista.com/windows-vista-upgrade.html" target="_blank">cheap vista secret</a>
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/12 ... _everyone/" target="_blank">the Registers take on it</a>

Class

Post by **Hippy** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 9:10 am

Cool, how much is an upgrade?

Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:45 am

So you could potentially have the student version of xp and upgrade to Vista and be totally legit ? is their any way of not having to install XP tho initially, now that would be intersting.

Post by **Hippy** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:59 am

Yes, that's the whole point isnt it?

You buy the upgrade, install without entering a cdkey, it lets you into windows, then you upgrade from the 30 day trial of vista.

Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:54 pm

Yeah but Windows upgrade has always been a little flakey, I'm just wondering whether you can get away with installing it in some other manner, so that you get a nice fresh clean full install or the upgrade version, which used to be possible with XP if I remember correctly.

Say install XP to a USB drive, then install Vista to the C drive or something simlar and have no files relating to XP on your machine.

Post by **Hippy** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 1:46 pm

You do have no files relating to anything xp.
You format your drive, start from scratch, install vista as a 30 day trial, then upgrade from that, you're upgrading from vista to vista.
At best it's going to be replacing a load of files with exactly the same files.

Post by **Claw** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:23 pm

Just a note about upgrade paths...

<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... paths.mspx" target="_blank">Upgrade route chart...</a>

GSV Recommends going to your favorite PC store and purchasing a version suited to your computer's usage to engage in the ultimate Wow experience only Microsoft Vista can achieve...

[GSV]Claw MLSE

Post by **madman045** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:08 pm

I can confirm that the upgrade method does work.

When we got vista business in our action pack, its the upgrade version.

So i installed the upgrade as a clean install, without specifying a cd key, then re ran the vista setup, entered the cd key, vista installed it all again, then once you reboot etc.. you just delete the windows.old folder and there you go.

Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:48 am

Cheaper to buy an OEM version with an internal component tho from scan ? so why bother with the upgrade

Post by **Claw** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:42 am

Myocardial Infarction wrote: Cheaper to buy an OEM version with an internal component tho from scan ? so why bother with the upgrade

OEM can/should only be sold pre-installed with a fully assembled PC... gone are the days of selling them with non-peripheral hardware...

Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:28 pm

Oh well Scan, Dabs and a few others are selling illegally then

although I have found a few other bits of info:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE([url=http://sbsbpi.co.uk/phpbb2/viewtopic.ph ... 76fc1e4fae)</div><div class='quotemain'>Small Business Specialist Community[/url]]The goalposts have moved again!

Single OEM XP Pro's now come in brown box. It's five times bigger than the contents need but lets not get into the green issues here! The outer box has some new text on it which is important.

"If you open this package:
Each individual software licence inside this package may ONLY be distributed with a fully assembled computer system. If the individual software licence is for a desktop operating system or application software, it must be pre-installed on the hard drive of the fully assembled computer system. This pre-installation requirement does not apply to server software.

If you do not open this package:
The entire unopened package may be distributed to another system builder. Because an unopened package is not considered an "individual software licence", it can be distributed by itslef, without any accompanying hardware."

Rather seems to me then that a system builder can also be an end-user building or refurbishing his own computer. Microsoft also see it this way, following a reccent meeting with one of the OEM team. I think that in the past, so much OEM software has been sold without qualifying hardware that policing this aspect was too costly. Take away the hardware requirements and it appears there are now no rules to break - just don't open the box!</div>

This information is probably out of date by now though.

Also another interesting article: <a href="http://www.tabletquestions.com/windows- ... tions.html" target="_blank">www.tabletquestions.com</a>

Post by **Claw** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:56 pm

Well... if you're really really really keen on this sort of reading material... just picked this up from MS's Partner site... (should be something dangling at the end of this post if all has worked well)

Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:03 pm

Don't worry claw I'll read that document aswell

I just think I'm sad (others probably know so

), esp as I in no way have anything to do with IT in my job

just legal stuff is rather interesting.

It's the idea that an individual can put themselves up as a system builder. Seems that they should be buying directly off a microsoft approved OEM distributor as per the list on MS's website.

Have you ever had to do any study on the EULA's ?

Post by **Claw** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:16 pm

Myocardial Infarction wrote: Have you ever had to do any study on the EULA's ?

Well, the EULA is just that, for the End User... what should happen is that the one providing the software (esp. MS Software) should make sure they are selling it the right way to the right person. Kinda like the doctor patient scenario... the doctor does the diagnosis and prescribing and the patient follows the advice from the doctor and instructions on the label.

That's the way it's supposed to work anyway...