Vista licence/key question

Inquisitor · 14 May 2008 at 02:00

Can anyone tell me if a key provided with an MSDNAA download of Vista Business be compatible with any (Business) installation of Vista?

I've got a copy of a Vista upgrade DVD from my dad's laptop on my computer, which I'm under the impression contains all versions of Vista (I may be wrong here; correct me if I am

). Can I just burn this to DVD and use the key from MSDNAA during installation, or do I actually have to download it from MSDNAA too?

I'd rather not download it as we're given pretty restrictive bandwidth limits in my halls

bitterSTAR · 14 May 2008 at 02:06

I don't know myself, but I'd always recommend a clean install of an operating system, not an upgrade. Unless the upgrade disc does clean installs?

Inquisitor · 14 May 2008 at 02:09

bitterSTAR said:
Unless the upgrade disc does clean installs?

Yep, upgrade discs in fact contain the full version; they just ask you to insert another Windows CD to verify during installation I think. Something like that.

Slogan · 14 May 2008 at 02:42

Inquisitor said:
Yep, upgrade discs in fact contain the full version; they just ask you to insert another Windows CD to verify during installation I think. Something like that.

They don't ask you for a Windows CD.

I imagine discussion and potential practice of this is forbidden content on here though.

Inquisitor · 14 May 2008 at 10:19

Slogan said:
They don't ask you for a Windows CD.

I imagine discussion and potential practice of this is forbidden content on here though.

I was thinking this, but then it's the actual key that matters, isn't it? It's not like it's been illegally obtained or will be used with an incorrect key.

If this isn't OK to ask then sorry, lock away!

Bradmax57 · 14 May 2008 at 10:23

Inquisitor said:
Yep, upgrade discs in fact contain the full version; they just ask you to insert another Windows CD to verify during installation I think. Something like that.

Whilst it does do a full install its not like previous windows updates unfortunately, to do an upgrade an existing os must be installed (it doesnt just ask for old os disk like xp upgrade did etc) and the upgrade ran from that, there is a way around it but im not sure its 100% legit so I wont go into that :cool: