Jack Hoelz posted on February 09, 2007 06:36
As indicated in my previous post, I'm not a believer in upgrading an OS so I go for the "Clean Installation". After installing Vista over XP-Pro and having no major issues I decided it was time to do the "Long Haul Install". The "Long Haul Install" is the OS installation I plan on using to support my system for a long period of time. I make sure all of the old drivers and .dll's are gone and that I have a very strong foundation without any cob-webs.
As usual I boot the system from the DVD drive and start the installation process. I get to the part where it asks me if I want to format my disk and I select "Yes" and then I'm confronted with an error message indicating that I can not upgrade as my previous version of Windows is not genuine.
It only took me a few seconds to realize what was going on, and a few more to understand the implications. I had purchased an "upgrade" not a "full version". In the past Microsoft had allowed you to validate your installation by inserting a previous version of the software into your drive during installation. Not any more! You need to have a validated copy of the previous OS on your disk.
To say I was upset would be an understatement. Every time I wanted to clean my machine I would not need to install XP, validate it and then install Vista! I understand why they do it, Adobe has been doing it for years. Adobe requires at least one full version of any of their software for you to upgrade. Piracy costs software developers and the consumer lots of money every year, but this was going to make my life more difficult.
I immediately picked up the phone and called Redmond. THis was going to be great. It was the day after the release of Vista and I'm calling the largest software developer in the world to complain. How long was this going to take? To my surprise, someone answered the phone immediately, politely listened to my problem and promptly forwarded me onto someone who would be able to help me. That individual listened again to my complaint, made sure they had the details and copied me on our discussion with a follow-up email.
I at least felt better for picking up the phone and venting. I also felt better that someone actually listened and I did not need to wait for an hour. And I was shocked when two days later the phone rang in my office and it was Microsoft on the other end following up on my call. The individual calling seemed very concerned about addressing the issue. It was obvious that I was not the only person who called!
A simple search on this will yield about 2,000,000 results and there have been many reports of a workaround.
See this for some details.
In the end everything installed fine and my "Long Haul Install" was ready to go. No driver issues, no error messages, everything was working perfectly. Now it's time to install some software.......