The upgrade horse may be gone, but ...

It seems to me that the new rules for Vista upgrade versions are going
to create a huge mess. I understand the desire to prevent "borrowing" of
previous version CD's for qualifying purposes, but there must have been
a better way.

It may be too late, but wouldn't something like the following have been
much better:

1. The basic idea is to tie upgrade qualification to validation, not to
installation.

2. Only upgrades from XP would be allowed (at least by this method).

3. All Vista DVD's would be the same. Only the Product ID's for upgrade
versions would be different (just as MSDN product ID's are different).

4. The owner of an upgrade could install Vista in any way he/she
chooses, just as for a full version.

5. When the time comes for validation (for the first time using this
Product ID), the user would be asked to provide both the XP CD and its
Product ID. A warning would be issued that proceeding would invalidate
the XP Product ID, preventing validation or Windows Update for this copy
of XP in the future.

6. The Vista upgrade version is now the same as any full version that
has been previously validated. There is no need to ever provide the XP
CD or its Product ID again.

Wouldn't something like this have worked much better? A bit more work
for the Validation Server, but much less hassle for the user.

David Wilkinson
Visual C++ MVP