Installing Vista Clean with an Upgrade Licence

Following on from my guide on how to install Vista Upgrade onto a fresh hard drive, I’ve noticed that the internet has been rife with guides on how to install Vista without any other media at all, such as on the Windows IT Pro site.

I can confirm that this method works so here goes:

1. Install Vista onto a new hard disk drive by booting from the DVD.
2. When asked for a serial number, do not enter the key. Press ‘Next’ and then ‘No’.
3. Select the edition of Vista that you are licensed to run (it’s important that this is the same, or at least follows the correct upgrade path).
4. Once installation is complete, log onto Windows Vista, and run the setup for Vista from the DVD.
5. When prompted, select Upgrade and then enter your serial number.

Basically what this does is fools the setup program into believing that you are upgrading your version of Windows Vista.

The downside of this method is that the upgrade takes a very long time. If you do have Windows on another partition, I strongly recommend that you begin your installation from there instead.

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