Vista upgrade license discount

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I have XP Pro and will most like upgrade one of my computers to Vista. If I
buy the upgrade Vista how is Microsoft going to determine my XP Pro is valid?
Will I still be able to use the XP Pro (that I used for the upgrade) in
another computer? I just have the license/product key, everything else has
long been lost or thrown away.
 
Hi,

One reason an upgrade is cheaper is that the license to use it incorporates
the license of the upgraded OS. In other words, you aren't supposed to use
the upgraded OS license on another machine, as it has become part of the
upgrade license. Technically, there will be nothing preventing you from
doing so provided it is a retail license, at least as far as I know. I am
unsure at this point whether or not the upgrade will bother to try and
determine if the XP license is valid, it will more likely only be concerned
about determining that its own license is legitimate.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Will be interesting to see if the "upgrade" path remains the same as current
You do not need a copy of the previous software on the pc to upgrade
Nor did you need to provide a product key of the older software to install
Both Office and Windows just needed proof of a previous version
This was succeeded by putting the old Office/OS cd or even in the old days
floppy in the drive
Then you could do a clean install of the "upgraded" software
The system was not really being upgraded it was the user.
 
Rick, WGA is getting sophisticated enough to pick up such usages. I don't
know if the capability is still in testing or in production but I am betting
that there will soon be something to prevent casual misuse of the license
like this.
 
Pretty much the same way Windows upgrade editions have verified eligibility
for upgrade pricing in the past.

If you run the Vista Upgrade Setup from the XP desktop the Vista upgrade
edition installer will know you qualify for the upgrade because it will find
XP already running. If you are upgrading to Vista x64 from XP x86 however
you will not be able to do this. In that case you must boot with the Vista
dvd and use the verification process to qualify for upgrade pricing.

If you boot with the dvd the upgrade installer will ask for proof of
qualification for the upgrade by instructing you to insert the cd for your
previous copy of Windows. After scanning the cd (verification), it will
instruct you to reinsert the Vista cd and Setup will resume.

If your XP cd came with the computer you cannot transfer the license to
another computer anyway so you might as well use an upgrade edition.
However, even if it is a retail cd you cannot transfer the license to
another computer after using the license in an upgrade scenario. In order
to transfer a retail license for XP to another computer you must install a
full edition of Vista on the first.

Note: This does not mean that you cannot use the upgrade capability of a
full edition of Vista to install Vista. You can. A full edition of Vista
can do an upgrade for convenience that does not tie up your XP license. It
is just that the full edition does not need to verify anything like the
upgrade edition does. In any scenario where you have purchased a Vista full
edition, you retain the right to transfer the XP (retail) license to another
computer after intalling Vista.

If your XP software was purchased separately (retail) from your computer,
your best bet is to buy the full edition of Vista so that the XP license is
free for transfer.
 
I too was wondering if that would implemented. Logistically, it may be too
much at this point, but I don't think that there's any question that we may
eventually see it. A lot would depend on how the upgrade is validated, as
currently it's a copy of the OS (either installed or on a disk) that
currently legitimizes the upgrade install. I can see where WGA may come into
play on an upgrade, but not on a clean install with an upgrade disk using
the prior OS disk as proof of ownership as no key is entered - at least not
yet.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
What about verification when the OEM Software is preinstalled and the
manufacturer doesn't offer any installation media? I'd like to do a clean
install of Vista 64 on my notebook that came with Windows XP Home. I've got
a Windows XP License sticker on the notebook, but no disks are available.
 
The Vista Upgrade disk should be able to search hidden partitions for a
qualifying version.
 
Usually, a clean install involves formatting the disk first. Are you saying
that if I format the disk and boot from the Vista CD, that the Vista Upgrade
disk should be able to search hidden partitions for a qualifying version?
 
Re: "Are you saying that if I format the disk and boot from the Vista
CD, that the Vista Upgrade disk should be able to search hidden
partitions for a qualifying version?"

No, but you can still do a clean install.

On ALL versions of Windows (going back to at least 98, perhaps 95), an
update CD can do a clean install. When doing a clean install, of
course, there is no earlier version of Windows on the hard drive. What
people don't understand is that an update does not use any of the code
from the "old" operating system*, and never did (in any version of
Windows). So a previous version isn't needed (or used even if it is
present) for TECHNICAL reasons. It's only required -- and has only
ever been required -- for "license" reasons, to verify that you are
permitted to use an "upgrade" copy (which costs much less than a full
version).

So, when an upgrade version doesn't find a previous edition of Windows
to validate use of the update copy, it will stop and ask you to insert
the actual product CD from a qualifying previous version of Windows into
the CD drive, and it won't proceed until (and unless) you insert such a
qualifying CD. However, while it needs to "look at" the CD to insure
that you have it, it does not actually use any files off of that CD for
the installation. It's purely a license verification. The actual
installation is performed entirely from the new version of Windows (from
the "update" copy, which, in this case, is doing a full-product like
clean install).

*[Note, while an upgrade installation does not use any actual code files
from the old version of Windows (if an old version is present), it DOES
use the old version's registry and non-Microsoft drivers and installed
software in an attempt to have the new installation of the later version
of Windows retain all installed hardware drivers and applications
software. This attempt is not always 100% successful; the drivers and
applications software that worked with the old version of Windows won't
necessarily work with the new version (e.g. XP drivers won't necessarily
work with Vista), which is why a "clean install" is more reliable than
an upgrade installation.]
 
Thanks for the reply, Barry. I know that I can buy a full install version of
Vista and install it. My question relates to the fact that I have an
preinstalled OEM version of Windows XP Home on my notebook that did not come
with any install media. Instead of allowing folks to buy install or recovery
disks, the vendor (Averatec) relies on Phoenix recovery software installed in
a separate partition on the hard drive. I would like to format the drive and
install the cheaper upgrade version of Vista, but I if I will need to insert
my old media to verify my right to use an upgrade instead of a full version,
I've got a problem. On the other hand, I do have a license number for a
Windows XP license on a sticker on the notebook. I'm trying to find out if I
need to buy a full version or if I can instead use the upgrade disk without
having any old media to use for verification.


Barry Watzman said:
Re: "Are you saying that if I format the disk and boot from the Vista
CD, that the Vista Upgrade disk should be able to search hidden
partitions for a qualifying version?"

No, but you can still do a clean install.

On ALL versions of Windows (going back to at least 98, perhaps 95), an
update CD can do a clean install. When doing a clean install, of
course, there is no earlier version of Windows on the hard drive. What
people don't understand is that an update does not use any of the code
from the "old" operating system*, and never did (in any version of
Windows). So a previous version isn't needed (or used even if it is
present) for TECHNICAL reasons. It's only required -- and has only
ever been required -- for "license" reasons, to verify that you are
permitted to use an "upgrade" copy (which costs much less than a full
version).

So, when an upgrade version doesn't find a previous edition of Windows
to validate use of the update copy, it will stop and ask you to insert
the actual product CD from a qualifying previous version of Windows into
the CD drive, and it won't proceed until (and unless) you insert such a
qualifying CD. However, while it needs to "look at" the CD to insure
that you have it, it does not actually use any files off of that CD for
the installation. It's purely a license verification. The actual
installation is performed entirely from the new version of Windows (from
the "update" copy, which, in this case, is doing a full-product like
clean install).

*[Note, while an upgrade installation does not use any actual code files
from the old version of Windows (if an old version is present), it DOES
use the old version's registry and non-Microsoft drivers and installed
software in an attempt to have the new installation of the later version
of Windows retain all installed hardware drivers and applications
software. This attempt is not always 100% successful; the drivers and
applications software that worked with the old version of Windows won't
necessarily work with the new version (e.g. XP drivers won't necessarily
work with Vista), which is why a "clean install" is more reliable than
an upgrade installation.]
Click to expand...
 
Barry Watzman said:
So, when an upgrade version doesn't find a previous edition of Windows to
validate use of the update copy, it will stop and ask you to insert the
actual product CD from a qualifying previous version of Windows into the
CD drive, and it won't proceed until (and unless) you insert such a
qualifying CD.
Click to expand...

Someone on hear is claiming that this won't work and that an activated
install of XP is required to use an upgrade Vista licence.
 
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