01.29.07
Do NOT buy the Vista upgrade
I can’t believe Microsoft’s stupidity on this one, and the support costs are really going to hurt them in the long run. According to their support site, there is no way to do a completely clean installation of a Vista upgrade. You have to put a copy of a previous operating system down first, then you can do a “clean” install (which wipes your hard drive anyway) from the Vista CD. Too bad if you’ve tossed your XP CDs out when you bought Vista. Too bad if you don’t want to waste the hour or two installing a system that is just going to be erased anyway.
This is pure marketing stupidity.
So, now I can only reinforce my original recommendations – don’t upgrade to Vista. It’s only worthwhile if you get it with a new PC.
Ryan Murtagh Said:
January 29, 2007 at 11:15 pm
And how is this different to previous “upgrade” versions of Windows? Having never bought an “upgrade” version I may be ignorant here, but I thought this was the standard.
Furthermore, I thought it was selective on what it would allow you to use as a “previous” version. I thought it required a “full” version (ie: not OEM or Upgrade) such that you could not upgrade an upgrade. Of course, I might just be buying the Linux FUD.
jw Said:
January 30, 2007 at 1:06 am
Previous upgrades only required either the installation media or the software key to be entered when you installed the “upgrade” version, if it couldn’t find the full system already installed.
I believe you’re right about it not upgrading an OEM version as well – wouldn’t surprise me if Vista was the same, not that I have a real issue with that. It’s more with the inability to do a fresh install.
Tallas Said:
February 7, 2007 at 2:12 pm
There’s a work around for this:
http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=37711