Lyte Byte

I got an upgrade version of Windows Vista Home Premium as I already had an original version of Windows XP Home. But I wanted to do a clean install to avoid any incompatibility problem. As per Microsoft’s earlier news one has to have the original CD of the old OS (i.e. Windows XP or 2000) to do a complete installation.
But actually one can do a clean install without an earlier windows installed from an upgrade DVD, ethically. The idea behind this is actually released by Microsoft, though they haven’t mentioned it this clearly. Microsoft designed the upgrade process to work in such a way that one can upgrade from XP, Win 2000 or from Vista itself. Follow these steps to do so:

Step 1: Boot the PC from the Vista CD or DVD.

Step 2: Select ‘Install Now’ and when asked to enter the License Key, just leave the space blank and proceed.

Step 3: Choose the version of Vista that you want to install: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business or Ultimate.

Step 4: Select the ‘Custom or Advanced install’ rather than the ‘Upgrade Install’.

Step 5: The whole installation process will continue and it will restart couple of times in between. During that don’t boot from the DVD (You can do that by just waiting for the windows to take care and not interacting). The current installation you have now is a trial version which will work for 30 days.

Step 6: After you login to Windows Vista, auto-run Vista DVD again.

Step 7: Select ‘Install Now’ and at this time enter the license key you got with the DVD.

Step 8: Select ‘Upgrade Install’ this time and wait for the windows to do the rest. It will restart couple of times and during that don’t boot from the DVD.

Step 9: After the ‘Thank You’ dialog box, login screen will appear. Enter the login details if you have given it earlier during first install else you won’t get this option.

Step 10: That’s it! Done! Just make sure you ‘activate’ your copy of Vista within 30 days which you can do either online or by phone.