Why can't I install Vista home preimum on XP Pro SP2 system with NO REPORTED ISSUES as a upgrade?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Adam Albright
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A

Adam Albright

Get as far as install accepting product key, then it goes out on the
web for upgrade then comes back and gives no reason for stopping and
suggests I upgrade to business, ultimate or enterprise versions or
that I do a clean install. Neither a a good option for me. A clean
install with the complex system I have would be a multi day nightmare.
Thanks but no thanks, just went through that a month ago when I build
a brand new "Vista Ready" system. EVERYTHING, the processor, the
motherboard, the graphics card are all Vista approved.

WHY is Vista so pigheaded? I ran the useless Vista advisor and it
reports no problems. I did attempt to install from XP Pro with the
Vista DVD in. I did not try to install from the DVD.

Why does Microshaft keep mistreating its customers like this? Every
time they dick around for YEARS "developing" a new "improved" Windows
and the same old BS. I'm damn sick of it!
 
If you indeed ran the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, it would
have suggested either Windows Vista Business or Ultimate.
One cannot use Windows Vista Home Premium to upgrade
over Windows XP Professional.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Get as far as install accepting product key, then it goes out on the
| web for upgrade then comes back and gives no reason for stopping and
| suggests I upgrade to business, ultimate or enterprise versions or
| that I do a clean install. Neither a a good option for me. A clean
| install with the complex system I have would be a multi day nightmare.
| Thanks but no thanks, just went through that a month ago when I build
| a brand new "Vista Ready" system. EVERYTHING, the processor, the
| motherboard, the graphics card are all Vista approved.
|
| WHY is Vista so pigheaded? I ran the useless Vista advisor and it
| reports no problems. I did attempt to install from XP Pro with the
| Vista DVD in. I did not try to install from the DVD.
|
| Why does Microshaft keep mistreating its customers like this? Every
| time they dick around for YEARS "developing" a new "improved" Windows
| and the same old BS. I'm damn sick of it!
 
You are attempting a downgrade by going from Windows XP Pro to Windows Vista
Home Premium.
The operative word here is "Home".
You have some choices which you seem to reject two:
1. Perform a Clean Install using Windows Easy Transfer to save your data and
settings.
2. Returning Windows Vista Home Premium and purchasing Windows Vista
Business or Ultimate. Enterprise is probably not an option available to
you.
3. Returning Vista and stay with Windows XP Pro.
 
You are attempting a downgrade by going from Windows XP Pro to Windows Vista
Home Premium.
Click to expand...

Laughable comment. I paid MORE MONEY for XP Pro then people paid for
XP Home, yet they can do a "upgrade". As yet, nobody has gave a
logical reason why Microsoft is f...ing their customers that they
already made MORE money from. You sure haven't.

Get this, I saw a least one MVP claim elsewhere you can install Vista
Home Premium over XP Pro.

Give me a TECHNICAL reason why Microsoft is shafting its customers
over this. Lots of luck.
The operative word here is "Home".
You have some choices which you seem to reject two:
1. Perform a Clean Install using Windows Easy Transfer to save your data and
settings.
Click to expand...

How? From the typical and utterly useless Microsoft documentation if
you can ever call the garbage that Microshaft scatters in dozens of
places all over their web site it appears that "Easy Transfer" is part
of Vista so in other words you can't unless and until its on your
system. If not, how then?

For people that have extremely complex systems like I do,(over 2 TB of
applications and files), a clean install is a nightmere and a poor
choice.
2. Returning Windows Vista Home Premium and purchasing Windows Vista
Business or Ultimate. Enterprise is probably not an option available to
you.
Click to expand...

Your solution is pay more money for features I don't want and never
will use. Explain how that makes any sense.
3. Returning Vista and stay with Windows XP Pro.
Click to expand...

Anybody have any USEFUL suggestions or is this newsgroup just infested
with Microshaft butt kissers?
 
"claim elsewhere you can install Vista Home Premium over XP Pro."
Please post the source.
You can use windows Easy Transfer and install Vista, but you an not perform
what you want because it is a downgrade.
This is as it has been in the past and is not new with Vista.

"yet they can do a "upgrade""
Yes, and as has already been said, you can not downgrade.
They are not the same regardless the $ spent.
That is one of the many differences between an OS written primarily for the
home and another written for business use.

As for "Give me a TECHNICAL reason..."
You would have to ask Microsoft for the details.

As for "shafting its customers"
Some feel that way, but it is you that made the choice.
 
How about writing an OS primarily for - computer- use? There are so many
"flavors" of Vista that unless somebody's a computer professional it's very
easy to get confused and flummoxed.

I upgraded from Media Center to Home Premium, since there is no Vista
Professional and using the camparison charts MS provides seemed to meet my
needs, spending more money for that than I have for any OS upgrade,
including from ME to 2000 to XP Pro. Upgrade Advisor told me nothing in the
four times I ran it which suggested that wouldn't be an option. And yes, for
many people the cost is a/the determinate factor; why be forced to pay lots
more for things that are useless to someone for how they use their
computers?

Now Vista has obliterated the wireless network connection I had with my
laptop via my router and is cryptic about wht I need to do to get that set
up again, denied me access to setting up Meeting Space and some other things
even though I'm the only user of my computer and have administrator rights,
put some bogus user icon on my login screen with the same name but no
acceptable password where I have to Switch Users every time to even log in
to a computer no one else uses and was working fine under XP SP2, and
generally continues to be a daily pain in the ass trying to figure out
what's wrong and having to hunt down ways to fix it.

Of course I could go back to XP and recreate years of updates, settings, try
to find the apps I downloaded from the Internet and reinstall them, plus all
the apps I was using without any problems just days ago, and get my home
network connection set up again, but all that would take days or maybe
(shudder) weeks.

Or I could go back, take several hours reinstalling XP Media Center as it
existed on my machine when I bought it a year and two months ago, then spend
eight more hours trying to upgrade to Vista Home Premium again and hope this
time it worked right, and then more days getting everything set up and
reinstalled (and uninstalled from the HP factory install) but who has
another week to dedicate to that? What about the actual work I need to use
my computer for? I don't have the time, or the perseverence, to fall more
than a week more behind.

As someone who installed Vista last Wednesday and is still trying to get the
glitches and foulups fixed (and having little luck from using these usenet
groups also) I can understand why someone would get po'ed with Vista, and
with someone who says "buy an Apple" or something else like that as a
solution. Perhaps someone who'd say something like that is a holdover from
the old days when, as a rule, techies were people who didn't have very good
people skills. But frustration causes some of us to enjoy "smart ass humor"
less than we ordinarily would.

I can also understand why someone would see all this as a way of shafting
MS's own loyal customers who aren't major corporations or don't have the
money to buy new computers with Vista already installed and then go through
the rigamarole of installing all their apps, work, doenloads, music,
pictures, etc. and settings all over again. I pretty much feel that way
myself.

There should, IMO, be a Vista Home, a Vista Pro/Media Center/Tablet PC
(since they were all supersets of Pro supposedly), and a Vista Server. The
rest is just a way of confusing customers so MS can charge more money, again
IMO, like the cable company, the unregulated utilities, or car companies.
"You need this option, or that option, or this or that in combination with
this, which will cost you extra, but there's a "current promotion" which
will save you some money, but unfortunately it's Tuesday afternoon and the
moon isn't out so you're not eligible for it this week, etc."

And don't get me started on not being able to clean install with just a CD
of a former OS without having to install it over first, like it's always
been.

Vista as packaged just seems to be MS's middle finger salute to it's loyal
customers who aren't major megabusinesses or who can afford to buy new
computers with Vista already installed, and having to add to that insult
with support that isn't, or is bitchy, is a lot for anyone to put up with.
IMO.

John
 
Adam, you can't do an in place upgrade like you want to do.
But, you can do a "custom install", which is basically a clean install.
More than likely, whether or not you could "upgrade", you'd
be better off with a custom install.

Use Windows Easy Transfer and save you settings and stuff.
Then put them back into your new Vista install.

I understand your point. It seems to me, that there is
no technical reason why it couldn't be have been done-
except, Microsoft doesn't allow it. They made the install work like that.
All installs of Vista are technically "clean" installs- there is
no old code left over from a previous version. After, the
image is laid down (block copying instead of file copying),
all the users' settings and programs are put back. What the
install deems unsuitable, it puts in the windows.old folder.
The install program could have been easily setup to determine
XP Pro's features would not be part of your Home install.

Folks here are blowing smoke up users' asses. They are right,
an upgrade in place won't work. But, it's because that's the way
it was made to be. That's the way Microsoft wanted it.

-Michael
 
"claim elsewhere you can install Vista Home Premium over XP Pro."
Please post the source.
You can use windows Easy Transfer and install Vista, but you an not perform
what you want because it is a downgrade.
This is as it has been in the past and is not new with Vista.

"yet they can do a "upgrade""
Yes, and as has already been said, you can not downgrade.
They are not the same regardless the $ spent.
That is one of the many differences between an OS written primarily for the
home and another written for business use.

As for "Give me a TECHNICAL reason..."
You would have to ask Microsoft for the details.

As for "shafting its customers"
Some feel that way, but it is you that made the choice.
Click to expand...


Your "advice" is as amateurish and as useless as your web site. Thanks
so much for nothing. Typical MVP. You only are capable of parroting
Microsoft BS. They pay you for that, or do you worship Microsoft of
your own free will?
 
"There are so many "flavors" of Vista that unless somebody's"
If you say so, but four is really all there is and that does not seem like
"so many" to me.
Home Basic
Home Premium
Business
Ultimate
Then all of those have upgrades but the upgrades net the same as the full
version.
Enterprise is not included since people do not have that option unless they
are an Enterprise user (larger business)

If Someone has Windows XP Home and wants comparable Vista, Home Premium is
probably what they want.
If they use Windows XP Pro, they probably want Vista Business.
Vista Home Basic and Vista Ultimate have no comparative product in the
previous versions of Windows.

"There should, IMO..."
That sounds good to you.
How about for others who like the increased selection with more varying
costs?
Your idea would give buyers less freedom of choice which anyone is free to
do with the operating system they create.
Microsoft chose to give buyers more options than you would.

"Vista Server"
No such thing and probably never will be.
However Microsoft just got the Longhorn Server Beta in full swing.
Longhorn Server is rumored to be called Server 2007 when released probably
later this year.

"And don't get me started"
You brought that up, no one else.
So you should not get yourself started.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org
 
A said:
How about writing an OS primarily for - computer- use? There are so
many "flavors" of Vista that unless somebody's a computer professional
it's very easy to get confused and flummoxed.

I upgraded from Media Center to Home Premium, since there is no Vista
Professional and using the camparison charts MS provides seemed to meet
my needs, spending more money for that than I have for any OS upgrade,
including from ME to 2000 to XP Pro. Upgrade Advisor told me nothing in
the four times I ran it which suggested that wouldn't be an option. And
yes, for many people the cost is a/the determinate factor; why be forced
to pay lots more for things that are useless to someone for how they use
their computers?

Now Vista has obliterated the wireless network connection I had with my
laptop via my router and is cryptic about wht I need to do to get that
set up again, denied me access to setting up Meeting Space and some
other things even though I'm the only user of my computer and have
administrator rights, put some bogus user icon on my login screen with
the same name but no acceptable password where I have to Switch Users
every time to even log in to a computer no one else uses and was working
fine under XP SP2, and generally continues to be a daily pain in the ass
trying to figure out what's wrong and having to hunt down ways to fix it.

Of course I could go back to XP and recreate years of updates, settings,
try to find the apps I downloaded from the Internet and reinstall them,
plus all the apps I was using without any problems just days ago, and
get my home network connection set up again, but all that would take
days or maybe (shudder) weeks.

Or I could go back, take several hours reinstalling XP Media Center as
it existed on my machine when I bought it a year and two months ago,
then spend eight more hours trying to upgrade to Vista Home Premium
again and hope this time it worked right, and then more days getting
everything set up and reinstalled (and uninstalled from the HP factory
install) but who has another week to dedicate to that? What about the
actual work I need to use my computer for? I don't have the time, or the
perseverence, to fall more than a week more behind.

As someone who installed Vista last Wednesday and is still trying to get
the glitches and foulups fixed (and having little luck from using these
usenet groups also) I can understand why someone would get po'ed with
Vista, and with someone who says "buy an Apple" or something else like
that as a solution. Perhaps someone who'd say something like that is a
holdover from the old days when, as a rule, techies were people who
didn't have very good people skills. But frustration causes some of us
to enjoy "smart ass humor" less than we ordinarily would.

I can also understand why someone would see all this as a way of
shafting MS's own loyal customers who aren't major corporations or don't
have the money to buy new computers with Vista already installed and
then go through the rigamarole of installing all their apps, work,
doenloads, music, pictures, etc. and settings all over again. I pretty
much feel that way myself.

There should, IMO, be a Vista Home, a Vista Pro/Media Center/Tablet PC
(since they were all supersets of Pro supposedly), and a Vista Server.
The rest is just a way of confusing customers so MS can charge more
money, again IMO, like the cable company, the unregulated utilities, or
car companies. "You need this option, or that option, or this or that in
combination with this, which will cost you extra, but there's a "current
promotion" which will save you some money, but unfortunately it's
Tuesday afternoon and the moon isn't out so you're not eligible for it
this week, etc."

And don't get me started on not being able to clean install with just a
CD of a former OS without having to install it over first, like it's
always been.

Vista as packaged just seems to be MS's middle finger salute to it's
loyal customers who aren't major megabusinesses or who can afford to buy
new computers with Vista already installed, and having to add to that
insult with support that isn't, or is bitchy, is a lot for anyone to put
up with. IMO.

John
Click to expand...
yes you can install premium over just xp pro, not media center edition!!!!
 
MICHAEL said:
Adam, you can't do an in place upgrade like you want to do.
But, you can do a "custom install", which is basically a clean install.
More than likely, whether or not you could "upgrade", you'd
be better off with a custom install.

Use Windows Easy Transfer and save you settings and stuff.
Then put them back into your new Vista install.

I understand your point. It seems to me, that there is
no technical reason why it couldn't be have been done-
except, Microsoft doesn't allow it. They made the install work like that.
All installs of Vista are technically "clean" installs- there is
no old code left over from a previous version. After, the
image is laid down (block copying instead of file copying),
all the users' settings and programs are put back. What the
install deems unsuitable, it puts in the windows.old folder.
The install program could have been easily setup to determine
XP Pro's features would not be part of your Home install.
Click to expand...

Since when is buying a newer version of an operating system a "downgrade"???
I'm having the same problem. Here is what the front of the box says:

UPGRADE
For users running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP or Windows
Vista only. Backup and clean install may be required. See back of box for
details. *


The back of the home premium upgrade
box says this written in tiny tiny letters:
(I had to read this quote with a magnifying glass, showing that Microsoft
did this
very much on purpose IMHO. This is a deceptive practice that shows just how
savvy the marketing folks and lawyers are at Microsoft)

"You must perform a clean install of Windows Vista and then reinstall your
existing files, settings and programs, UNLESS you are upgrading from Windows
XP SP2 Home or Media Center edition, or Windows Vista Home Basic. "

So the front of the box states you can upgrade from Windows 2000
Professional using this upgrade, but the small print says that you cannot do
this. The only path
for upgrades (and this is sold as an 'upgrade') is listed above as "unless
you are upgrading from Windows XP SP2 Home or Media Center, or Windows Vista
Home Basic"...... nowhere does it say that you can upgrade from Windows 2000
Professional on the back of the package in the small print.

Microsoft has been purposefully misleading in this case. Why do you sell an
'upgrade' version that will fail?????

Windows 2000 Professional is not able to be upgraded with Vista Home
premium. I know because I tried. But the front of the box says you can.
That is an out and out lie. Period. No arguments. If you try and do a
clean install and then try to activate this 'upgrade' it tells you no way,
you cannot use the key that comes with Home Premium UPGRADE to do a clean
install. It will not let you. So why lie on the front of the package that
you can use this version to upgrade Windows 2000 Professional.

Folks here are blowing smoke up users' asses. They are right,
an upgrade in place won't work. But, it's because that's the way
it was made to be. That's the way Microsoft wanted it.

-Michael
Click to expand...

I'd like to see this logic applied at a car lot. If you came in driving a
2005 Cadillac and the salesman/dealer sold you a newer 2007 Cadillac he be
very happy to Upgrade you to the new car. If you wanted to trade for a 2007
Honda Accord can you imagine the dealer saying "NO, Can't do it. You can
only upgrade to a new Caddie fella/lady (gotta be PC). I can't sell you a
new Honda Accord because that WOULD BE A DOWNGRADE." What a crock.


There is no technical reason you cannot disable "Professional features" if
you 'downgrade' your OS from XP Professional to Home Premium. I'm a computer
programmer and it's their code. They can turn on or turn off any feature
they want. They wrote the OS in the first place. It's not like you are
buying aftermarket parts on a car for Christ's sake.



I'm totally behind you on this and as you can see I've not kissed anyone's
butt at Microsoft. Thanks for listening. I'm now going to have to return
this Home Preium UPGRADE and spend more money for Vista Business or Ultimate.
 
Correct. XP Pro upgrades to Business or Ultimate. Home Premium is for users
of (guess what?) XP Home. To install HP on an XP Pro machine, a custom
install would be used resulting in a clean installation.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
 
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