For those that are too lazy to click on the link I provided:


"How to Clean Install Windows Vista with Upgrade Media


When I began inquiring into various Windows Vista installation options
late last year, Microsoft and its representative grew quiet and seemed to
begin selectively answering my questions. Previously, Microsoft had said
that Vista's upgrade experience would be similar to that of XP: You'd be
able to perform an in-place upgrade using the Vista Upgrade media or, with
qualifying media (i.e. a Windows 2000 or XP CD-ROM), you could use the
Upgrade media to perform a clean install. When rumors began surfacing that
Vista Upgrade versions would not support clean installs, however, a veil of
silence descended over Redmond.

These rumors grew louder as Vista's broad release date of January 30, 2007
approached. Then, finally, Microsoft dropped the bomb: The weekend before
Vista's launch, the company quietly posted a support note on its Web site
ominously titled Upgrade installation keys are blocked when you start from
the Windows Vista DVD, Microsoft explains: "Windows Vista does not check
upgrade compliance. You cannot use an upgrade key to perform a clean
installation of Windows Vista." The support note recommends that users who
run into this issue first install a compliant version of Windows first (i.e.
Windows 2000, XP, or Vista) and then run Setup from within that install,
upgrading the OS to the new version. Or, you could simply purchase a Full
Product license. Hey, there's some great advice.

The reaction in the Windows community was predictably swift and damning.
Clearly, Microsoft was disabling this previously handy option in order to
inconvenience users (at best) or force them to spend more money on a Full
product version (at worst). Either way, the company had pulled a fast one,
silently taking away a feature we had all come to know and expect.

Well, it turns out that Windows Vista Upgrade media can indeed be used to
perform a clean install of the operating system, at least sort of. Using an
undocumented workaround which I first revealed in WinInfo Daily UPDATE
earlier this week, you can fool any Upgrade version of Windows Vista into
installing itself on a PC without upgrading a previous OS install.

Here's how it works.
Step 1: Install Windows Vista

Boot your PC with the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD. After the preliminary
loading screen, click the Install Now button to trigger Vista Setup. In the
next screen, you normally enter your product key. However, there's a
little-known trick in Windows Vista Setup whereby you can simply skip this
phase and use the install media (Upgrade or Full, any version) to perform a
clean install of virtually any Vista product edition. What you do is leave
the Product Key field blank, deselect the option titled "Automatically
activate Windows when I'm online," and then click Next. Vista Setup will ask
you whether you would like to enter your Product Key before continuing.
Click No.

In the next Setup screen, you'll be presented with a list of the Windows
Vista product editions you can install. This list may vary from locale to
locale, but in the US, you'll see Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business,
Ultimate, and some N editions. Choose the product edition you actually own.
You'll be asked to verify that you've chosen the correct version. Do so to
continue past the End User License Agreement (EULA) screen.

In the next screen, you select the type of install. Choose Custom (Advanced)
instead of Upgrade. Next, you choose the partition to which to install
Windows Vista. If you need to format the disk, select the Drive options
(advanced) option to do so and then continue.

Now, Setup copies the Vista install image to your PC, expands it, and
installs Windows. This phase of Setup should take about 15 to 20 minutes and
trigger at least one reboot. When Vista is installed, you'll step through
the penultimate phase of Setup in which you enter, in succession, your user
name and password, computer name, and the date, time, and time zone. Then
Setup runs its final task, a performance test that could take about 5
minutes. If everything goes well, and you're running fairly modern hardware,
you should hit the Welcome screen and, after logging on, the new Vista
desktop less than 30 minutes after you began this process.
Step 2: Upgrade

What you've installed is decidedly temporary. You've got 30 days during
which you can run this non-activated version of Windows Vista. If you try to
activate Windows now, it will fail, because you've performed a clean install
of Vista and you only have an Upgrade product key.

What to do, what to do? If you read Microsoft's support note carefully, you
will have seen that the Upgrade versions of Vista support upgrading from "a
compliant version of Windows, such as Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP,
or Microsoft Windows 2000." Well, you just installed Windows Vista, so why
not just upgrade from this install? That's right: You're going to upgrade
the non-activated clean install you just performed, which will provide you
with a version of the OS that you can, in fact, activate.

To do this, just open Computer and double click on the icon for the DVD
drive that contains the Vista Upgrade media. Run Setup again, this time from
within Vista. Choose Install Now, and then "Do not get the latest updates
for installation" in the next screen. Then, in the now-familiar Product Key
phase, enter your product key. It's on the back of the pull-out Vista
packaging. You can choose to automatically activate Windows when online or
not, it's your choice. In the next screen, accept the Windows EULA.

Now, choose the Upgrade option. Windows will install as before, though you
might notice that it takes quite a bit longer this time. (Upgrade installs
seem to take up to 45 minutes, compared to 30 minutes or less with clean
installs, and reboots at least one additional time.)

Because you've just completed an upgrade install, you won't be prompted to
enter your user name and so forth (only the time zone screen is presented).
Instead, you'll just boot directly to the Welcome screen when the
performance check is complete. Using the user name and password you created
during the first install, logon to Windows.

Once again, you have 30 days in which to activate Vista. However, this time
activation will work: To activate Vista immediately (unless you told it to
do so during Setup), open the Start Menu, right-click Computer, and choose
Properties. Then, at the bottom of the System window that appears, click the
link titled Activate Windows now.
Is this legal?

One might naturally wonder whether the aforementioned instructions describe
an action that is legal or ethical. After all, anyone could purchase an
Upgrade version of Windows Vista (therefore saving a lot of money when
compared to a Full version) and use it to perform a clean install even if
they don't own a previous, compliant Window version.

After telling my "Windows Vista Secrets" coauthor Brian Livingston about
this workaround, he wrote that using this process was indeed ethical, in his
opinion. "Microsoft itself created the upgrade process," he wrote in a
newsletter article describing the workaround. "The company designed Vista to
support upgrading it over a previously installed copy of XP, W2K Pro, or
Vista itself. This isn't a black-hat hacker exploit. It's something that's
been deliberately programmed into the approved setup routine."

Fair enough. Of course, if you do use this workaround to clean install Vista
with the Upgrade media, and you don't own a previous, compliant version of
Windows, you're most certainly violating the Windows EULA and, thus,
breaking the law. Proceed at your own risk.
Final thoughts

This is an interesting and viable workaround for anyone who owns a previous
Windows version but would like to perform a clean install of the new
operating system on their existing hardware. While I'm a bit nervous about
legal implications and Microsoft's ability to cut off this process in the
future, I'm glad that innocent Windows upgraders do in fact have all the
options that were available to them in previous Windows versions. For its
part in this silliness, Microsoft gets a virtual slap on the wrist:
Sometimes, it seems, the company forgets that Windows is expensive and
paying customers should be able to easily install the new OS without taking
on the added clutter of a previous Windows installation.

--Paul Thurrott
February 3, 2007"

"Wayne Wastier" wrote in message
...

Wayne, that's all well and good but your advice to click on the Change
Product Key link could not work because a product key had not been entered
yet. You remember from TechBeta that the link only works to replace a pk,
not enter the first one. If he activates and enters the upgrade pk there
that will reject also because when he performed the keyless install a full
edition was installed and only a full edition pk will be accepted by the
activation wizard. The workaround can ONLY work if the upgrade pk is
entered up front during the second (in-place-upgrade) installation.

but my vista
ultimate disc is an upgrade disc (from xp) and so its not working. any
suggestions?
"The easiest way to handle this is to install Vista x64 and leave out the
serial when prompted. Then choose the version you have from the list and
finish install. Next, you need to change the serial number by left click on
the START button, then right click on Computer, and left click on Change
Product Key under Windows Activation.

Wayne"

The installation using the workaround would work but is not supported by MS
PSS and he qualifies for that with his retail pk. Also, it is not clear
from what I have been hearing from MS contacts what will happen with the
workaround and licensing questions. It is just better if he plays by the
book here and installs XP and then upgrades.

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message
news
"Wayne Wastier" wrote in message
...



The installation using the workaround would work but is not supported by
MS PSS and he qualifies for that with his retail pk. Also, it is not
clear from what I have been hearing from MS contacts what will happen with
the workaround and licensing questions. It is just better if he plays by
the book here and installs XP and then upgrades.



All I know is that it works, and I haven't seen a retraction by Paul
Thurrott. And yes it still works. Many times I have installed and didn't
enter my serial until after I had installed all drivers and programs that
are mandatory for me, thus saving me a call to the activation center.


Wayne

P.S. Microsoft made a big mistake by not allowing clean installs after
proving ownership of the qualifying product as they did in the past. One
should simply be able to enter the serial of the qualifying product during
install, and just as WPA looks at the hardware, it could verify the serial
right after the install and if not found could disable the install. It
doesn't take a genius to figure this out, as I could do it.

Later

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:49:45 -0700, "Wayne Wastier"
wrote:

P.S. Microsoft made a big mistake by not allowing clean installs after
proving ownership of the qualifying product as they did in the past.

Change your name to "Wayne Wacky".

The old method allowed one to use an upgrade installation disc by
simply borrowing a qualifying disc from a friend.

One
should simply be able to enter the serial of the qualifying product during
install, and just as WPA looks at the hardware, it could verify the serial
right after the install and if not found could disable the install. It
doesn't take a genius to figure this out, as I could do it.

Later

"Wayne Wastier" wrote in message
...
P.S. Microsoft made a big mistake by not allowing clean installs after
proving ownership of the qualifying product as they did in the past. One
should simply be able to enter the serial of the qualifying product during
install, and just as WPA looks at the hardware, it could verify the serial
right after the install and if not found could disable the install. It
doesn't take a genius to figure this out, as I could do it.

Later



Wayne, I agree. You should see the mess if a user only has an upgrade
product key and attempts a retromigration from x64 Vista to x86 using a
Custom install instead of a clean install. Without a classic clean
installation he gets a messed up Vista x86. I have posted a description of
that in microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general if you care to see. While
the workaround is an option the jury is still out on whether MS is going to
take steps to invalidate activations of Vista installed using it. In any
case, it is clearly not the user experience MS wants. I have been hammering
at MS to let x86 Setup work the same way as x64 Setup when using an upgrade
pk. x64 Setup does not require running from existing Windows when using an
upgrade pk and I think it is stupid not to let x86 Setup do the same.

"Nonny" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:49:45 -0700, "Wayne Wastier"
wrote:

P.S. Microsoft made a big mistake by not allowing clean installs after
proving ownership of the qualifying product as they did in the past.

Change your name to "Wayne Wacky".

The old method allowed one to use an upgrade installation disc by
simply borrowing a qualifying disc from a friend.

One
should simply be able to enter the serial of the qualifying product during
install, and just as WPA looks at the hardware, it could verify the serial
right after the install and if not found could disable the install. It
doesn't take a genius to figure this out, as I could do it.

Later


I think Wayne's point is that x86 Setup forces the user to run from existing
Windows when using an upgrade pk. The problem is that the disk tools are
not available to do a clean install. Unfortunately, MS did not block
running x86 Setup from within existing x64 Windows, allowing the user to do
a Custom install from there. Doing so is a fatal mistake. A custom install
of x86 on x64 is a mess. I commented on that today in
microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general. You get things like a Program Files
(x86) folder in a 32bit Windows. x86 cannot rollup a 64bit Windows into
windows.old. It copies everything there but cannot delete so you get left
with a parallel installation in the same partition.

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message
...
"Wayne Wastier" wrote in message
...
P.S. Microsoft made a big mistake by not allowing clean installs after
proving ownership of the qualifying product as they did in the past. One
should simply be able to enter the serial of the qualifying product
during install, and just as WPA looks at the hardware, it could verify
the serial right after the install and if not found could disable the
install. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out, as I could do it.


Later



Wayne, I agree. You should see the mess if a user only has an upgrade
product key and attempts a retromigration from x64 Vista to x86 using a
Custom install instead of a clean install. Without a classic clean
installation he gets a messed up Vista x86. I have posted a description
of that in microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general if you care to see.
While the workaround is an option the jury is still out on whether MS is
going to take steps to invalidate activations of Vista installed using it.
In any case, it is clearly not the user experience MS wants. I have been
hammering at MS to let x86 Setup work the same way as x64 Setup when using
an upgrade pk. x64 Setup does not require running from existing Windows
when using an upgrade pk and I think it is stupid not to let x86 Setup do
the same.


I wish you well in your endeavors with Microsoft in this matter. And thanks
for your input.


Wayne

Colin, if Microsoft hasn't forbidden using Paul's method for doing a clean
install, why are you posting at first that it doesn't work then posting that
it does but that one day Microsoft might forbid such upgrades?

Not on your case, just wondering where this is coming from?

Wayne