Vista upgrade invalidates your XP key

[Rudy]

wow....this is getting worst and worst....why are they shooting themselves in the foot?

[xpablo]

this make me feel like seting up a fund and the one who can provide all of the below would win the Cash from the fund.

1.) Keygen that will work for ALL ver of Vista

2.) file that reads Microsoft Installs and if it find that an update stops the crack it will NOT install

3.) setup a clone Vista Update site that mimics a Vaild Copy of Vista then takes you to the real updates

Thats the stupidist thing I've heard, since that idiot wanted to crack an actual DVD and return it to Best Buy.

FYI.

You can upgrade Vista from Windows 2000, If Vista upgrade cancels my XP key, then I would just install win 2000 and then upgrade to Vista.

But since I am an MSDN subscriber I don't have to do any of this.

But that's what I would do, if a Vista Upgrade cancelled my XP Key for future activation.

[jimbo12141]

The thought "Im Glad i switched to Linux" comes into mind :D

Still, that is pretty daft and a pain in the arse.

[Kaidiir]

Now now chickens, have you actually seen the sky falling?

Which is to say, has this been tested? Has it actually been verified that your XP key becomes invalid when you activate Vista?

[Deactivated Account]

Thats the stupidist thing I've heard, since that idiot wanted to crack an actual DVD and return it to Best Buy.

FYI.

You can upgrade Vista from Windows 2000, If Vista upgrade cancels my XP key, then I would just install win 2000 and then upgrade to Vista.

But since I am an MSDN subscriber I don't have to do any of this.

But that's what I would do, if a Vista Upgrade cancelled my XP Key for future activation.

I'm sorry what you said is the stupidist thing I've heard... so its OK that if you Upgrade to Vista and for some reason you dont like Vista your Stuck with vista till you go out and buy a New XP key?? because the XP key that you used for the Vista Upgrade is NOW VOID.

[-Hiroshi-]

-coughcorpcoughcoughcorpcough- Seriously though, true or not. This is quite honestly, bordering on theft. You buy a license, what gives Microsoft the true right to take that license away from you? It's yours, your license, you bought the license to use the software.

[fkid]

If you're buying the upgrade version, you will face some restrictions. It's logical and reasonable. I find it amusing how so many people are upset with the supposed "problems" the Upgrade edition brings about. Yes, you may have paid for the license of Windows XP, but if you buy a discounted, Upgrade version of Vista, the assumption is you are upgrading permanently and to compensate for the lower price, they are replacing your license, invalidating your old XP one. If you're worried or not permanently upgrading, it may be a good idea to get a NON-Upgrade edition of Vista, which although might cost more, does not invalidate your XP license and is free of the restrictions you would face with the Upgrade edition purchase.

So many cheap asses too. Many of you I'm sure willing to spend the same amount of money the Ultimate Vista edition is worth (and much more for a lot of people) on things like sick fast food throughout the year or movies or dates with girls or beer or cigarettes (!!!) and you complain like psychopaths about the limitations or downfalls of (one version of) the new operating system from Microsoft.

Hate Vista? Don't upgrade or use it and shut your mouth already.

Want to try it? Download a free version online to try for 30 days (yes, arguably illegal or unethical).

Don't want to do the above but still want to try it? Try it at a computer store or at a friend's place.

Getting a new computer? You'll likely get Vista for 'free' with a system.

Going to University/College? Possibly, you can get a free Vista copy. I personally just got Business Ed. for free.

My final point. If you're so right about Microsoft making tons of dumb, bad decisions with Vista, you must be smarter than all of the economic, marketing, law, advertising, financial, managerial and business specialists and highly-qualified employees that advise on and/or make all of these decisions this huge, magnificent corporation is making. You should really go to Silicon Valley and give them advice. I'm sure they'll appreciate it so much, they'll hire you immediately and praise your high business intellect and amazing commentary. I'm sure their stock will rise quickly and everyone will be happy on Neowin forums and around the world.

A cliche, popular, almost universal but also historically sound and very logical quote comes to mind:

"You can't always get what you want."

Edited January 30, 2007 by illz55

[Julius Caro]

Not only this doesn't make much sense, but it has to be illegal. Their licensing model is becoming way too problematic for legit users.

[-Hiroshi-]

If you're buying the upgrade version, you will face some restrictions. It's logical and reasonable. I find it amusing how so many people are upset with the supposed "problems" the Upgrade edition brings about. So many cheap asses. Many of you I'm sure willing to spend the same amount of money the Ultimate Vista edition is worth (and much more for a lot of people) on things like sick fast food throughout the year or movies or dates with girls or beer or cigarettes (!!!) and you complain like psychopaths about the limitations or downfalls of (one version of) the new operating system from Microsoft.

Hate Vista? Don't upgrade or use it and shut your mouth already.

Want to try it? Download a free version online to try for 30 days (yes, arguably illegal or unethical).

Don't want to do the above but still want to try it? Try it at a computer store or at a friend's place.

Getting a new computer? You'll likely get Vista for 'free' with a system.

Going to University/College? Possibly, you can get a free Vista copy. I personally just got Business Ed. for free.

My final point. If you're so right about Microsoft making tons of dumb, bad decisions with Vista, you must be smarter than all of the economic, marketing, law, advertising, financial, managerial and business specialists and highly-qualified employees that advise on and/or make all of these decisions this huge, magnificent corporation is making. You should really go to Silicon Valley and give them advice. I'm sure they'll appreciate it so much, they'll hire you immediately and praise your high business intellect and amazing commentary. I'm sure their stock will rise quickly and everyone will be happy on Neowin forums and around the world.

Ah I see, so since you obviously know SOO ****ing much, how about you find the true justification of MS VOIDING legit keys without making it clear to the user?

[rajputwarrior]

If you're buying the upgrade version, you will face some restrictions. It's logical and reasonable. I find it amusing how so many people are upset with the supposed "problems" the Upgrade edition brings about. So many cheap asses. Many of you I'm sure willing to spend the same amount of money the Ultimate Vista edition is worth (and much more for a lot of people) on things like sick fast food throughout the year or movies or dates with girls or beer or cigarettes (!!!) and you complain like psychopaths about the limitations or downfalls of (one version of) the new operating system from Microsoft.

Hate Vista? Don't upgrade or use it and shut your mouth already.

Want to try it? Download a free version online to try for 30 days (yes, arguably illegal or unethical).

Don't want to do the above but still want to try it? Try it at a computer store or at a friend's place.

Getting a new computer? You'll likely get Vista for 'free' with a system.

Going to University/College? Possibly, you can get a free Vista copy. I personally just got Business Ed. for free.

My final point. If you're so right about Microsoft making tons of dumb, bad decisions with Vista, you must be smarter than all of the economic, marketing, law, advertising, financial, managerial and business specialists and highly-qualified employees that advise on and/or make all of these decisions this huge, magnificent corporation is making. You should really go to Silicon Valley and give them advice. I'm sure they'll appreciate it so much, they'll hire you immediately and praise your high business intellect and amazing commentary. I'm sure their stock will rise quickly and everyone will be happy on Neowin forums and around the world.

i am the biggest apple fanboy ever, and don't like Microsoft, but i whole heartily agree with that. Seriously, we are all geeks (some of nerds) here. Why the hell would we buy and upgrade version when you can get OEM versions for so cheap? NCIX has them starting at 114.99 canadian(http://www.ncix.com/vista/) and guess what, you don't lose your key for XP. Do any of us really call microsoft for help? No, we come here. Do any of us need a fancy box.. most of has have cd cases. How many of us have actually bought and HP or (*shrugs*) a Dell? Not many, we built our own systems. So OEM makes sense for a lot of us and it's so damn cheap. Chances are 75 percent of us are going to pirate it anyway. Me this is the first time i will be buying windows. I got media center for free (OEM copy, i was using pro before through different means...) 2000 i got for free and 98 came with the first computer my family purchased. Christ, i owe my 134 dollars (which i will be spending for Home Premium) to microsoft. As much as i hate them and as much as i whole heartily beleive OSX is better then windows and the best OS out there. Seriously, wether it's apple or microsoft, all people do is complain about their policies, DON"T BUY FROM THEM THEN!

[fuBar.]

Cool. :)

[fkid]

Ah I see, so since you obviously know SOO ****ing much, how about you find the true justification of MS VOIDING legit keys without making it clear to the user?

I never really directly put myself on a pedestal as some highly knowledgable and business-sound individual in my previous post. It was just a strong opinion. However, I'll try to answer your question here:

First, your question is worded such that any justification I provide will not be good enough to you as you seem to presume there is no valid, true justification for the voiding license decision (and others I'm sure) by Microsoft for Vista. I'll write anyway...

It actually is made clear to the user because the user has to agree with the EULA before moving forward with the operating system upgrade. Microsoft is under no obligation to make the point about voiding your XP license any more bold or prominent in the user agreement than its position right now. Everything is important in the EULA reading and if you read the whole agreement properly, you'll notice anything that makes you uncomfortable or upset easily, including that point. If, thereafter, you don't agree with the EULA, you don't have to upgrade.

The justification is that it is good for Microsoft and legally fair to customers. They offer various other alternative editions that do not void your XP key, so there is no forcing your into losing your XP license. Moreover, they want people to buy the full versions for Vista and thus this invalidation of your XP Key if you get the Upgrade version might influence many who notice it (like you) to get the more expensive editions that don't have this restriction. They probably know this, but that doesn't mean they're horrible, dumb fools for doing it - in fact, they are quite smart, even if a little 'evil' ethically. Notice I said legally fair to customers. It may be arguably unethical, but many EULA's have had arguably unethical provisions in the history of computers and software. It's up to you to agree to them. The average user simply clicks OK or Next without reading everything and if Microsoft makes changes to the EULA, they are under no obligation to ring alarms or make the screen shake, vibrate and display a red warning animation so you read the Upgrade edition EULA. They can legally write all of this in the EULA and the justification is that they are the business, the creators of the operating system and therefore, can make all these decisions. How unfair the EULA is deemed by customers like you brings up an ethical and subjective issue, but it has nothing to do with an economic, financial, business or legality justification debate in terms of Microsoft. They do tread close to making explicitly monopolistic changes and decisions here, but they are not crossing that thin line and that's why it's okay. Furthermore, their stance in the market for operating systems is so overwhelmingly grandiose, they are just scoffing at little whining, annoying flies like you. They have to cater to customers but only minimally (unlike Linux for example), but not to individuals, subjective nay-sayers or people looking for more 'fairness' or 'better EULA's'. Think of Linux - it would be pretty much suicide for any company to start making people pay tons of money for their Linux variant and create a EULA that invalidates your previous Linux distro key everytime you upgrade. It's ridiculous. For Microsoft however they can do these sorts of things with no problems. They don't care and as ruthless as it might seem, they are a stunning corporation. Vista is a wonderful OS in many ways and I think there's nothing unjustifiable or truly unfair about their new EULA or their prices or other aspects of the new OS.

Ultimately, complaining and whining does not do anything. ...and as I said before, why are all you people breaking your balls over such a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things? And if you even think of challenging me on this one - the price that is - think of beer, cigarettes, fast food, restaurants to start with (how about a year's worth of buying any of those) and then try and argue how Vista is too expensive. If they weren't selling so many goddamn copies of Vista, you could say it would be fair if it cost A LOT more!

Edited January 30, 2007 by illz55

[benac]

Well that's a dumb move on their part...

Not really. Vista is Microsoft's new "flagship" OS. Of course they're going to try and migrate users over to it, and they will succeed too. With the amount of money they dumped into it, they will ram it down the consumer's throat whether you like it or not.

[dL]

Assuming the XP key will get invalidated, now may I ask, what if a person only has one copy of genuine Windows XP, and when the person is required to do a system format due to corruption or error, what is he going to do? Buy another copy of Windows XP just to install and get activated again to install Vista again?

dL

[dL]

i am the biggest apple fanboy ever, and don't like Microsoft, but i whole heartily agree with that. Seriously, we are all geeks (some of nerds) here. Why the hell would we buy and upgrade version when you can get OEM versions for so cheap? NCIX has them starting at 114.99 canadian(http://www.ncix.com/vista/) and guess what, you don't lose your key for XP. Do any of us really call microsoft for help? No, we come here. Do any of us need a fancy box.. most of has have cd cases. How many of us have actually bought and HP or (*shrugs*) a Dell? Not many, we built our own systems. So OEM makes sense for a lot of us and it's so damn cheap. Chances are 75 percent of us are going to pirate it anyway. Me this is the first time i will be buying windows. I got media center for free (OEM copy, i was using pro before through different means...) 2000 i got for free and 98 came with the first computer my family purchased. Christ, i owe my 134 dollars (which i will be spending for Home Premium) to microsoft. As much as i hate them and as much as i whole heartily beleive OSX is better then windows and the best OS out there. Seriously, wether it's apple or microsoft, all people do is complain about their policies, DON"T BUY FROM THEM THEN!

OEM copies may seem like the choice, but once you perform a major hardware change such as motherboard or processor upgrade, you would need to purchase a new license.

dL

[InternalStorm]

You're so right! I really despise Microsoft's "my way, or the highway" attitude with Vista... XP was easy, simple, and "just works." Vista is just a bloated piece of crap, honestly. I beta tested Vista...and guess what? I don't even have Vista installed. I don't feel proud of it at all. Blast me as a lousy beta tester all you want, but trust me, Vista is NOT going to last long.

This practice really ****es me off... it really does. What the heck is wrong with Microsoft? What if you don't like Vista? What if you want to go back to XP? What if you need to reformat? Then how can you activate, AND then install Vista, if the key is valid?

Nothing makes sense with Vista, honestly. NOTHING. It's been one big frustration.

I say, BOYCOTT VISTA!

To be honest, I have to say Vista isn't groundbreaking, but it is BETTER than XP in basically everyway. It works exactly the same, and you get amazing search features (start menu... finally!), graphical GPU driven interface, a cleaner, more modern redesign of menu's, popups, and OS options, as well as being more stable and being better at managing RAM and system resources. XP was great, but Vista is just a little bit better so there is no reason to complain about it being worse. I can tell you that you haven't given it a chance and are trying to make a moot point by saying it's so horrible.

AND AS TO THIS POST... I believe what it's saying is:

1) if you install Vista ontop of XP as an upgrade, the XP key will be deactivated, meaning you can't install it on another computer as long as Vista is activated.

2) if you uninstall Vista, you can then again install the XP and activate it.

3) Microsoft offers phone activation for a reason, call them and they will make it happen

Enough of this childish "this makes me want to pirate" non sense... This won't affect most of you anyways as you won't be using an upgrade disc, and if you are, read the above and become informed before posting rubbish.

[rajputwarrior]

OEM copies may seem like the choice, but once you perform a major hardware change such as motherboard or processor upgrade, you would need to purchase a new license.

dL

no you don't, you can switch computers if you like

http://forum.ncix.com/forums/index.php?mod...6&subpage=1

[dL]

And where does he get his sources from?

dL

[DKAngel]

i agree with what ms is doing, your buying an upgrade license not a new one, so in essance the old one should be deactivated =]

if u want to keep your xp crap then buy a full copy of vista instead =D

[Coolme]

i agree with what ms is doing, your buying an upgrade license not a new one, so in essance the old one should be deactivated =]

if u want to keep your xp crap then buy a full copy of vista instead =D

What if your installation of upgrade vista gets corrupt after installing some vista updates? Then you are left with no choice but to buy the full version.

[DKAngel]

no u wont, im sure there will be a way of being able to reinstall they wont just cut u off, they might just flag the xp key as usuable only for installs that wont activate

[Kaidiir]

Everyone, hold your fire. Wait a second.

Has this been proven yet or hasn't it?

Have any of you tried to use an XP license which had supposedly been invalidated by a Vista install? Sorry if it's right there in front of my big face in an earlier post, but I'm rather tired and bleary-eyed.

And for crying out loud, everyone stop fighting. Bitching on here isn't going to do a damn thing. Remember what fighting on the internet is like?

[trek]

What is the big deal about this? The legal jargon pretty much the same as the XP EULA:

8. UPGRADES. To use Software identified as an upgrade, you must first be licensed for the software identified by Microsoft as eligible for the upgrade. After upgrading, you may no longer use the software that formed the basis for your upgrade eligibility.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/proeula.mspx

13. UPGRADES. To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligible for the upgrade. Upon upgrade, this agreement takes the place of the agreement for the software you upgraded from. After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from.

Source: winver

[dL]

What is the big deal about this? The legal jargon pretty much the same as the XP EULA:

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/proeula.mspx

Source: winver

Tautology.

dL

[Sockie]

Ermm. What's so unfair about that? You've paid less for Vista because you're upgrading, makes sense that if you have upgraded that you can't go back to Windows XP.