Vista Product Keys?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nigel Molesworth
  • Start date Start date
Why can't you use 1 full version to upgrade all 5 pc's in your home? Why
should each pc have to have an individual license. They should have an
enterprise for home use in cases like this so you could receive a discount
for multiple pc's. you're loooking at $1000 bucks
 
actually no you dont!
just boot the comp from the vista cd and choose not to enter the validation
key at that time (just click next)
be sure to choose the correct version of the os you purchased and install away

after it is installed you will have to activate windows and you will then
need to input your product key.
 
"> Why can't you use 1 full version to upgrade all 5 pc's in your home?
Because you are limited to one installation per license

Why should each pc have to have an individual license.
Read the license.
 
i read somewhere that if you have the upgrade version and need to do a clean
reinstall after having installed vista (eg if hard drive fails) you insert
vista cd and install, but when it asks for product key, leave it blank.

this installs vista ultimate. you then put in the cd inside vista nad choose
upgrade, inserting the cd this time.

done. and the vista install is 1/2 hour compared to xps 1+ hour.

still a bit annoying...
 
I am having a problem now where I did a clean install with the upgrade
version by booting from the DVD, not entering my Product Key when asked, then
removing my C: partition and re-creating and reformating it. I assumed that
the install program allowed me to do this because it could see that I had XP
installed. But now I can't activate it!! I only did this to ensure any
residue of XP wouldn't interfere with Vista and to remove junk that may have
accumulated on my drive.

Does this mean that I need to reformat AGAIN and install XP only to remove
it minutes later? Why would the Vista install program allow me to do what I
did if it isn't "legal"??
 
Upgrade the Vista from the Vista DVD. Bypass the key again, then
activate with the key after the 'upgrade' of Vista.
 
This is the problem I've been having too. I bought the ultimate edition and
the two extra licenses for my family laptop computers. But, when I tried to
install one of the "upgrade" it would not install from windows because I had
a FAT32 formatted drive and it only installs on an NTFS. I didn't see why it
couldn't accept, reboot and format. So I tried to install from boot and it
said that it would only install on that license from windows? Microsoft
needs to fix this Catch-22. Why can't they go back to inserting the original
software CD during install?

T. Bently Durant
 
This is the problem I've been having too. I bought the ultimate edition and
the two extra licenses for my family laptop computers. But, when I tried to
install one of the "upgrade" it would not install from windows because I had
a FAT32 formatted drive and it only installs on an NTFS. I didn't see why it
couldn't accept, reboot and format. So I tried to install from boot and it
said that it would only install on that license from windows? Microsoft
needs to fix this Catch-22. Why can't they go back to inserting the original
software CD during install?
Click to expand...

I did not buy an upgrade because I want the ability to do a clean
install without the requirement of re-installing XP Pro. Now I read
if you don't enter the key the upgrade will install a Vista trial
which you can then upgrade. If true, then there is a fine line
between genius and idiot and the Microsoft employees have crossed that
line!

Maybe the company is now being run by lawyers and bean counters.

Ak
 
I saw somewhere it is possible to run the upgrade DVD from Vista itself and
then the Product Key would work because it was installed from within Windows.
This does not make much sense though because anyone could do a clean install
with an upgrade but without a previous version of Windows! Why didn't Bill
just stick to his usual policy of requiring insertion of the CD from the
previous version, or at least letting us know he had made this change before
we installed Vista the first time?
 
Alfred said:
I did not buy an upgrade because I want the ability to do a clean
install without the requirement of re-installing XP Pro. Now I read
if you don't enter the key the upgrade will install a Vista trial
which you can then upgrade. If true, then there is a fine line
between genius and idiot and the Microsoft employees have crossed that
line!

Maybe the company is now being run by lawyers and bean counters.

Ak
Click to expand...

There's an interesting discussion of the ethics of this "upgrade"
scenario by Brian Livingston, author of the #1-selling (on Amazon) Vista
book "Vista Secrets," in the latest edition of his newsletter. He
points out that this ability to "upgrade" an unactivated version of
Vista installed without a product key is absolutely certain to be known
by the Vista product team. He reasons therefore that they tacitly
approve of it, even if they don't recommend or publicize it. I don't
think there are many idiots over at Microsoft.

And, yes, almost all American companies are run by lawyers and bean
counters. I don't think that BillG would have become the wealthiest man
in the country had he not employed early on the best lawyers and bean
counters available.
 
Hello? Anybody there? XP has to be installed & activated. And then the Vista
upgrade will work.

MS assumes:

a) We are all thieves and deserve to be treated like one.

b) Software never fails and corrupts a system such that it would never need
to be clean installed.

c) Hardware never fails and therefore invalidates an activation or requires
a new/clean install.

d) That optical media never fails containing the originally licensed OS

e) The customer never fails by loosing their 5 or 6 year old optical media
or license key

f) That Microsoft never fails it its assumptions when they are trying to
thwart the tricks of the pirates. Of course such attempts to thwart pirating
to easy to circumvent when you are dealing with a medium called SOFTware.
Hello Microsoft? You are only alienating your paying, honest customers (I
have spent $550 with Microsoft since January 30) while pirates hack together
something that will work for them anyway.

Meanwhile, here I am looking for a solution to get the Vista Home Premium
Family Pack Upgrade installed on this Tablet PC after the first upgrade
refused to boot (& left a horrendous mess behind.

The least MS could to if the are going to treat us the thieves is to allow
us tol register out legitimate copies and keys to out MS products online as
the TRUE test as to whether we a eligible for an upgrade.

They keep going on about this is needed because of pirating but I bet that
is BS. Truth is I bet they make more money off people who have to repurchase
licenses after failed HD, or optical media, or other HW failure, or lost
Product Key then then loose to pirates.

So quit pussyfooting around and say what MS really thinks of it's customers:
give us your damn money and get out of our face: you'll be treated as an
idiot thief at all times, even after just spending 400 dollars to do business
with us.

Barry Watzman said:
I don't think it's that bad; the "clean install of Vista" will wipe out
WHATEVER was there before, so just install XP ... don't put ANY effort
into "cleaning it up" (as you might if you were actually going to use
it), and then install Vista.


Jeff said:
So if I want to do a "clean installation" I have to reformat my drive,
use the inane "recovery disks", delete all the AOL and other crap that
automatically loads and THEN install Vista????


"Darrell Gorter[MSFT]" said:
Hello,
That is correct. The media is the same, the behavior is different
depending on whether you use an upgrade key or a full product.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights
--------------------
|>From: "Kerry Brown" <[email protected]*a*m>
|>References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
|>In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
|>Subject: Re: Vista Product Keys?
|>Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:49:02 -0800
|>Lines: 27
|>MIME-Version: 1.0
|>Content-Type: text/plain;
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|>X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6000.16386
|>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6000.16386
|>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
|>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>NNTP-Posting-Host: s01060080c8133852.vn.shawcable.net 24.82.123.204
|>Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP01.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl
|>Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup:2196
|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>
|>All the media is the same. All versions of Vista (either 32 bit or 64
bit,
|>each has their own media) are on the media. What is installed
depends on
the
|>product key you enter. As far as I know the upgrade media is the
same as
the
|>full media. The only difference is the key that is supplied.
|>
|>-- |>Kerry Brown
|>Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
|>http://www.vistahelp.ca
|>
|>
|>|>> On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:30:29 -0800, "Jeff Gaines"
|>>
|>>>>Yikes! So what happens if your HD dies and you need to re-install,
|>>>>surely you don't have to install an older version first!
|>>>
|>>>Oh yes you do :-(
|>>
|>> So back to my original question. Could you use a full copy to do a
new
|>> install, but use the key from the appropriate upgrade version?
|>>
|>> -- |>> Nigel M
|>
|>
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Please note: I did NOT have to use a previous OS to install on a clean drive.
However you still need to install once, and then install again - the first
time you install Vista WITHOUT entering the Product Key, selecting 'do not
activate, selecting 'full install', continue until done, (also do any Windows
updates, virus checker installs, install a couple or programs, etc), - then
startup this '30day limit version' and after it fully starts up, insert the
Vista CD and 'install from inside of windows' - this time DO enter the
Product Key (don't activate yet) and select an 'Upgrade Install' - continue
until done and Voila! - after reboot you have a full version of Vista with
all your 'first version installations' still intact - go ahead and activate.
Note: I did this with XPPro on my first partition, and just installed the
above into my second partition. (I used Partition Magic to resize my existing
XPPro partition into half its size.)
Oh, and I also used VistaBootPro at the end of the 'first install' to be
able to edit the BDC (what used to be XP boot.ini file, which is no longer
available).
 
I have upgraded my XP version with a full version of Vista, which required a
clean install. Starting the installation from within windows the installation
program then lets you remove the entire partitions if you so wish, and after
that it installs an clean version of Vista.
This may however be different if you use an upgrade version, but I doubt it.

Surley you can intall Vista without installing XP first if you have access
to the XP CD? I would be impressed over Microsoft incompetence if it would
not be possible :)


For the CD-key question. You ask if you can use an upgrade key with a full
version DVD/CD. For XP this was not possible, so my guess is that it still
isn't possible. Guess you should call Microsoft and ask, allthough I guess
you may not need the full version from what I said above?
 
Search the internet there are ways around the install old OS first BS

Jeff Daly said:
So if I want to do a "clean installation" I have to reformat my drive, use
the inane "recovery disks", delete all the AOL and other crap that
automatically loads and THEN install Vista????


"Darrell Gorter[MSFT]" said:
Hello,
That is correct. The media is the same, the behavior is different
depending on whether you use an upgrade key or a full product.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
|>From: "Kerry Brown" <[email protected]*a*m>
|>References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
|>In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
|>Subject: Re: Vista Product Keys?
|>Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:49:02 -0800
|>Lines: 27
|>MIME-Version: 1.0
|>Content-Type: text/plain;
|> format=flowed;
|> charset="iso-8859-1";
|> reply-type=original
|>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
|>X-Priority: 3
|>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
|>X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6000.16386
|>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6000.16386
|>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
|>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>NNTP-Posting-Host: s01060080c8133852.vn.shawcable.net 24.82.123.204
|>Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP01.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl
|>Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup:2196
|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>
|>All the media is the same. All versions of Vista (either 32 bit or 64
bit,
|>each has their own media) are on the media. What is installed depends on
the
|>product key you enter. As far as I know the upgrade media is the same as
the
|>full media. The only difference is the key that is supplied.
|>
|>--
|>Kerry Brown
|>Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
|>http://www.vistahelp.ca
|>
|>
|>|>> On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:30:29 -0800, "Jeff Gaines"
|>>
|>>>>Yikes! So what happens if your HD dies and you need to re-install,
|>>>>surely you don't have to install an older version first!
|>>>
|>>>Oh yes you do :-(
|>>
|>> So back to my original question. Could you use a full copy to do a new
|>> install, but use the key from the appropriate upgrade version?
|>>
|>> --
|>> Nigel M
|>
|>
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hey Darrell I'm Matthew

Would you be able to find me a Valid Windows Vista Home Basic Product Key
Please. Thankx oh to Contact me email me on this.......

(e-mail address removed)

kk thankx man i really need this too i only got 9 days Left kk.
 
Matto_Bino said:
Hey Darrell I'm Matthew

Would you be able to find me a Valid Windows Vista Home Basic Product Key
Please. Thankx oh to Contact me email me on this.......
Click to expand...


You'll receive a valid Product Key when you purchase a legitimate
license; no one's likely to just give you one.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
You have to buy one and you should not expect any of the volunteer on this
newsgroup to send you a personnel e-mail. Hopefully not too many SPAM miners
have seen your post with your real e-mail address.

Matto_Bino said:
Hey Darrell I'm Matthew

Would you be able to find me a Valid Windows Vista Home Basic Product Key
Please. Thankx oh to Contact me email me on this.......

(e-mail address removed)

kk thankx man i really need this too i only got 9 days Left kk.

"Darrell Gorter[MSFT]" said:
Hello,
That is correct. The media is the same, the behavior is different
depending on whether you use an upgrade key or a full product.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights
--------------------
|>From: "Kerry Brown" <[email protected]*a*m>
|>References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
|>In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
|>Subject: Re: Vista Product Keys?
|>Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:49:02 -0800
|>Lines: 27
|>MIME-Version: 1.0
|>Content-Type: text/plain;
|> format=flowed;
|> charset="iso-8859-1";
|> reply-type=original
|>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
|>X-Priority: 3
|>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
|>X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6000.16386
|>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6000.16386
|>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
|>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>NNTP-Posting-Host: s01060080c8133852.vn.shawcable.net 24.82.123.204
|>Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP01.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl
|>Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup:2196
|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
|>
|>All the media is the same. All versions of Vista (either 32 bit or 64
bit,
|>each has their own media) are on the media. What is installed depends
on
the
|>product key you enter. As far as I know the upgrade media is the same
as
the
|>full media. The only difference is the key that is supplied.
|>
|>--
|>Kerry Brown
|>Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
|>http://www.vistahelp.ca
|>
|>
|>|>> On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:30:29 -0800, "Jeff Gaines"
|>>
|>>>>Yikes! So what happens if your HD dies and you need to re-install,
|>>>>surely you don't have to install an older version first!
|>>>
|>>>Oh yes you do :-(
|>>
|>> So back to my original question. Could you use a full copy to do a
new
|>> install, but use the key from the appropriate upgrade version?
|>>
|>> --
|>> Nigel M
|>
|>
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Nigel Molesworth said:
Does anyone know how the Vista Product Keys are going to work? Let me
explain why I ask.

I have 5 PCs in my household, all with XP Home or XP Pro. Eventually I
will want to upgrade them the Vista Ultimate, Home, or Home Premium,
depending on their specifications and usage.

In the past I have always bought "upgrade" software, but it's a real
PITA having to insert the old CD, so I figured if I bought one "full"
copy (and 4 upgrades) I could use that to do any new install, but use
the key from the appropriate version. Will this work?

Also, will all the versions be like the RTM version I have now: all
the versions are on the CD, but you only get a key for one? If so,
does this mean you could buy a key to get a different version?
Click to expand...
 
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