jhoelz wrote:
> I purchased Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade yesterday in loaded it just
> fine on my machine that was running a validated version of XP Pro using a
> clean install. Everything went fine as I poked and tweaked with some of
> my other software installs. After loading all of my stuff, even that I
> did not want just for testing purposes I decided to do another clean
> install of the OS to wipe out any of the junk I did not want.
>
> I installed the DVD, fired up the machine and booted from the DVD. Went
> through the installation process, a clean install, entered the key and
> formated my drive. THats all the farther you can go, I get the "To use the
> product key you entered, start the installation on a computer that is
> running a genuine version of Windows".
>
> So no I need to reinstall XP Pro, do the updates to get the WGA installed
> and then re-install Vista.
>
> If this is right this is total garbage, everytime I want to do a clean
> install I need to install the previous OS first? As someone who works in
> the tech industry I iften need to install other 3rd party software for
> testing and review. In the past when it bunged up my machine I would just
> do a clean install, insert my previous verison of windows and go on my
> way.

This is how the upgrade version for Vista works. What I recommend is to use
the Complete PC Backup included with Vista Ultimate to create an image of
your install once you have it done and activated. This will allow you to
quickly restore that image, saving the steps of need to install and validate
XP first before installing the Vista upgrade.

See
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...b6baf1033.mspx
for more information on Complete PC Backup.
--
Tom Porterfield