Vista Upgrade version requirements…
In the past when installing an upgrade version of Windows it meant having your original disk handy to prove that you were REALLY eligible for an upgrade license. What this meant is that if you wanted to follow the advice of MOST in the TECH community you could do a clean install. That’s right, wipe the disc and start from scratch, provide the disks when asked and then the installer would be on it’s way. Well, sorry, the joy is over. (Actually… there wasn’t a whole lot of JOY in it… but… it’s now worse.) Now, with Vista, it is required that you have the previous version of Windows that you are upgrading installed on the disk.
According to this the change will still allow you to install the upgrade into a clean folder (THANK GOODNESS…) but this does make a complete system rebuild from a failed harddrive a ROYAL pain. (New drive, install XP , presumable update it to current, then upgrade…) Also it should be noted that only XP and 2000 are eligible for the upgrade version.
Ultimately Microsoft does NOT really want to sell upgrade versions, they want you to pay for the full license. This may be done in part to make up for the expected slower uptake of Vista. (Since for many users XP SP2 is tolerable and the average user doesn’t undertake an OS upgrade.)
Ah well… the screws tightening a bit more each release it seems. They say that they are confident that the repair process of vista will mean that you won’t have to scrap and rebuild from the original xp install.