Clean install of VISTA not allowed VIA Upgrade Disk

Before I shell out my hard earned money, I decided to determine if I should go with an upgrade disk, or a full version of Vista. I spent the morning tied up chatting with Microsoft MVPs, the know it alls. Right from the horse's (you know what I mean!)

After slumming all day at the Vista Blogs within Microsoft I learned:

To summarize: It has been stated that upgrade DVDs are non-bootable to force the upgrade to be initiated from within the qualifying upgrade-from product.
If it is true that this change in technique (from XP etc.) has been adopted,
the following appear to be true with the Upgrade SKUs:

1 - There is no possible upgrade path from 32-bit existing product to 64-bit
Vista even though the (advertised) right to make that upgrade has been
purchased.

2- Although Complete PC Backups may be performed, there is no way to perform
a restore from any of those backups.

3- There is no way to perform a "Repair" install of the Vista OS

4- There is no way to perform other "Repair" type operations (equivalent of
XP repair console)

5 - There is no way to perform a completely clean install of Vista

So be ready to shell out $400.00 for a FULL copy of Vista Ultimate. If you go with an upgrade disk, you probably will regret it. So, open your wallet, and bend over, its Vista! Coming soon to a nightmare near you.

If people buy an upgrade version of Vista, and can only upgrade the existing operating system, and discover the upgrade was corrupt due to viruses or whatever, they will be forced to reinstall and activate XP, then upgrade again?!? No clean install possible. The idea behind an upgrade has always been if you are a previous owner, you are receiving a discount as a long time user. I predict this apparent change will alienate the enthusiast community.

This is totally unfair, and certainly seems extremely unfriendly towards customers. My XP Professional upgrade disk allows me a clean install, it is bootable, and has diagnostics on it. Why does Vista not?

This is incredibly petty of Microsoft. It’s a mistake. The company will definitely suffer serious repercussions if not corrected. It is simply bad public relations. If Vista were a new movie in theatres that bombed on it’s initial release, they would term it ‘box office poison’. If we can guide and help Microsoft to see reality, maybe it’s not too late to avert disaster.

Reasonable compromise: 1) Make the upgrade disk bootable to utilities ONLY. 2) Force installation start from activated XP, BUT allow the option to have the VISTA install format the drive and install clean after verifying the genuine copy of XP.

None of the people here have even LOOKED at my postings here...I find this very disturbing. They will notice if they foolishly buy a so called upgrade disk to Vista. QUOTE: 'The future ain't what it used to be'. UNQUOTE.

So, if MS had always done this, and you had always bought an upgrade disk....

A reinstall would require:

1. Create 2GB FAT16 C: partition
2. Install MS-DOS 6.22.
3. Install WFWG 3.11
4. Upgrade to Win95
5. Upgrade to Win98
6. Upgrade to WinME.
7. Convert drive to FAT32.
8. Use 3rd party utility to extend the partition to the size of the volume. Additional costs involved here, but Vista isnt going to fit in 2GB so this isnt optional.
9. Upgrade to WinXP.
10. Convert drive to NTFS.
11. Upgrade to Vista.

Wow that would take hours!!!

I know this isn't the case right now, but if they have started this policy with Vista it will no doubt continue with future versions, and you will be doing an equivalent of this in 10 years time

[quote="darkstar782"]So, if MS had always done this, and you had always bought an upgrade disk....

A reinstall would require:

1. Create 2GB FAT16 C: partition
2. Install MS-DOS 6.22.
3. Install WFWG 3.11
4. Upgrade to Win95
5. Upgrade to Win98
6. Upgrade to WinME.
7. Convert drive to FAT32.
8. Use 3rd party utility to extend the partition to the size of the volume. Additional costs involved here, but Vista isnt going to fit in 2GB so this isnt optional.
9. Upgrade to WinXP.
10. Convert drive to NTFS.
11. Upgrade to Vista.

quote]

Lol that is hilarious dude, and also extremely scary, how retarded is MS if that is truly the case, I dont want to believe it right now but if it is true microsoft is basically screwing all the people who are getting upgrade coupons from new purchases leading up to christmas.

How can any OS Disc not be bootable and able to do a clean install of itself, that is a pharce or is it farce?? i dunno but u know what im saying i think