As a Microsoft partner, I received my Vista and Office 2007 media and licenses today. Contrary to Microsoft’s previous announcement, partners received only Vista upgrade media, which reportedly must install on top of Windows XP. No clean install for you.
This is an intolerable inconvenience. The first thing I do with a new computer (or a new operating system) is reformat the drive and perform a clean install of the operating system. Micrsoft has always alowed this in the past, so long as you had the previous operating system’s original media or valid license key. But no more. To paraphrase Cory Doctorow, Microsoft’s again acting like an unmedicated paranoid and wants to make damn sure your version of XP is legitimate and activated before it will let you install the upgrade version of Vista.
Paul Thurrott provides a workaround:
- Boot from the Windows Vista upgrade DVD.
- Click “Install Now.”
- When prompted for a product key, do not enter one.
- When prompted for the Vista product edition, select the edition you’ve licensed.
- Install Windows Vista normally.
- Restart the DVD-based setup from within Windows Vista.
- Perform an in-place upgrade.
- When prompted for a product key, enter one.
For me, it’s one step closer to Ubuntu on the desktop and one big reason to avoid Vista. Who needs this?
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