Earlier I wrote about clean installs not being available any longer with Windows Vista Upgrade DVDs. There was conjecture that it might be related to Home versions, but even the mainstream press was confused. Now, it seems Paul Thurott, through some internal Microsoft documents, has discovered a workaround. However, he did not test it, but the enterprising folks at DailyTech did, and they confirm it works.
We Say: You could say this is even more liberal than a “clean install†for XP was (and therefore, probably a bug). Why? Because done as instructed in the DailyTech article, you don’t even have to have an XP key. I’m not going to print the DailyTech instructions verbatim (please use the link above), but to summarize:
With a clean drive, install Vista by booting from the DVD but do not enter the key when asked. This installs Vista as a 30 day trial. Once complete, run the installation from inside Vista and do an in-place upgrade. Viola. (why do I think this is really a bug? … nowhere did I enter my XP key).
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