Windows Vista: Undocumented Shortcuts and Price Cuts

In my posting of three days back, I pointed out that you could save some money when buying a Windows Vista standalone or upgrade edition by purchasing a so-called 'OEM' version….with three notable qualifiers:

• OEM versions are intended for sale with hardware, not standalone, although something as simple as a mouse will usually satisfy the licensing terms.
• OEM version support comes from the OEM, not from Microsoft….in this case, that means you're on your own.
• If you ever change the motherboard version that your registered OEM copy of Windows is installed on, you'll need to buy another Windows license. Conversely, with a non-OEM version, you can call up Microsoft Activation Support, citing a hardware failure, and get a new activation key.

Want to save even more money? An undocumented feature discovered by Windows guru Brian Livingston, which I just saw in the latest version of the Windows Secrets newsletter, lets you clean-install a lower-priced upgrade version of Vista (OEM or regular) without any proof of prior Windows ownership required. I'm not going to comment on the ethics involved here; that's up to you to decide for yourself. From Livingston's writeup:

Step 1. Boot the PC from the Vista DVD.

Step 2. Select "Install Now," but do not enter the Product Key from the Vista packaging. Leave the input box blank. Also, turn off the option Automatically activate Windows when I'm online. In the next dialog box that appears, confirm that you really do want to install Vista without entering a Product Key.

Step 3. Correctly indicate the version of Vista that you're installing: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate.

Step 4. Select the "Custom (Advanced)" install, not the "Upgrade" install.

Step 5. Vista copies files at length and reboots itself one or more times. Wait for the install to complete. At this point, you might think that you could "activate" Vista, but you can't. That's because you haven't installed the Vista upgrade yet. To do that, run the DVD's setup.exe program again, but this time from the Vista desktop. The easiest way to start setup again is to eject and then reinsert the DVD.

Step 6. Click "Install Now." Select Do not get the latest updates for installation. (You can check for these updates later.)

Step 7. This time, do enter the Product Key from the Vista packaging. Once again, turn off the option Automatically activate Windows when I'm online.

Step 8. On this second install, make sure to select "Upgrade," not "Custom (Advanced)." You're not doing a clean install now, you're upgrading to Vista.

Step 9. Wait while Vista copies files and reboots itself. No user interaction is required. Do not boot from the DVD when asked if you'd like to do so. Instead, wait a few seconds and the setup process will continue on its way. Some DOS-like, character-mode menus will appear, but don't interact with them. After a few seconds, the correct choice will run for you automatically.

Step 10. After you click a button labeled Start in the Thank You dialog box, Vista's login screen will eventually appear. Enter the username and password that you selected during the first install. You're done upgrading to Vista.

Step 11. Within 30 days, you must "activate" your copy of Vista or it'll lose functionality. To activate Vista, click Show more details in the Welcome Center that automatically displays upon each boot-up, then click Activate Windows now. If you've dismissed the Welcome Center, access the correct dialog box by clicking Start, Control Panel, System & Maintenance, System. If you purchased a legitimate copy of Vista, it should quickly activate over the Internet. (You can instead activate by calling Microsoft on the phone, which avoids your PC exchanging information with Microsoft's server.)

Livingston's instructions are an elaboration of a prior hint published by another Windows guru, Paul Thurrott, which dealt with another Vista quirk. Unlike prior Windows O/S upgrade versions, which could be installed on a bare HDD if you inserted the upgraded-from O/S disc (or floppy) when prompted part-way through the install process, Windows Vista upgrade editions seem to require that the upgraded-from O/S already be installed on the HDD prior to the upgrade to Vista. Thurrott's workaround gets around this limitation, and Livingston takes it to the next level.

Another Vista note; reportedly (but not definitively), when you install a Vista upgrade version using the normal procedure, it invalidates your existing Windows XP registration key, thereby subsequently rendering your copy of Windows XP unusable. Although this may seem onerous at first glance, you have, after all, bought an upgrade edition of Vista. If, on the other hand, you'd like to (for example) be able to double-boot XP and Vista, installed on different HDD partitions or different HDDs of the same system….reread this blog post.

Oh, and by the way, if you'd like to take advantage of T-Mobile's three free months of Wi-Fi access prior to your Vista install (with the same ethics qualifier as before)….

Followup: the 'install-upgrade-as-new' trick also seems to work for Microsoft Office 2007

Followup II: Extend the 30-day Vista trial to 120 days