From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Reading more it appears that one can do a clean install of an upgrade
version of Vista as long as a genuine copy of XP ( not sure about 2k )  is
installed which still appears to leave a user that needs drive replacement
with a messy 2 OS install ( first XP then Vista ), 2 OS validation to
recover



"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in
message news:45bebbc4$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> Given the option  I prefer a clean install even with an upgrade. I also
> wonder how the upgrade version of Vista will hande a drive failure/OS
> reload?
>
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=414&tag=nl.e589
>
> In the past, Microsoft has always respected their customer's time and
> allowed upgrade versions of Windows to install on a fresh machine so long
> as the customer could provide proof of possession of the old software.
> These new Vista Upgrade DVDs which I'm assuming have already been stamped
> out will lack the ability to install on a system unless Windows XP or 2000
> was present.  This means anyone looking to do a fresh install for any
> reason will not be able to.  Someone who is doing disaster recovery after
> a hard drive failure or a virus infection won't be able to wipe their hard
> drive and install Vista, they'll have to install XP first and then install
> Vista on top of XP.  That could easily mean nearly an hour wasted.  If
> you're paying someone to rebuild your computer, this will mean an extra
> hour of labor that will be billed to you for the installation of Windows
> XP.  Will Microsoft pick up the extra hour tab from Geek Squad for
> everyone?
>
> Some might just say tough; you don't have to buy Windows Vista Upgrade
> Edition if you don't like the terms of the agreement.  But the problem is
> that there are probably already millions of people who bought in to the
> promise of Vista upgrade coupons during this last holiday shopping season
> with their new computers or their copy of Windows XP and they weren't told
> that the upgrade terms have been changed.  The Vista Upgrade coupons were
> used to lure people in to buying brand new computers for the holiday 2006
> shopping season when many people would have probably opted to wait until
> after Vista launches at the end of January had they known about these new
> restrictions.  Now these people are going to be in for a big shock after
> they wipe their computers and find out that their copy of Vista won't
> install without XP on the computer.
>
> So why is Microsoft making a bone headed decision like this?  One
> possibility is that Microsoft is afraid that people might try to keep
> running XP or Media Center on their existing machines and use Vista on a
> new computer.  This would mean that Microsoft would be giving away two
> copies of Windows for the price of one
>
>

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