How to Buy Vista for Half Price
Posted on January 8th, 2007
Upgrading to Windows Vista seems like a costly procedure for most users. Many consumers do not know that they are able to buy Vista at half price. Most retailers will sell you an OEM version of Windows, which only comes with the CD. Most stores will require you to buy a piece of hardware to qualify to buy an OEM Windows. A cheap mouse or surge protector will suffice. Vista is currently not available for sale but Microsoft offers Vista upgrade coupons. The current XP OEM CDs come with the following coupons:
Windows XP Home -> 50% off Vista upgrade Coupon
Windows XP Media Center ->free Vista Home Premium upgrade
Windows XP Pro or Tablet ->free Vista Business
We recommed going with Windows XP Media Center for $109.99, which comes with the Vista upgrade coupon.
January 12th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
It’s not yet clear if an ‘upgrade’ disc will do a clean install, so you may be limited to installing over the top of an existing Windows XP instance (I asked for any info on my site at http://itsvista.com/2007/01/can-a-vista-upgrade-dvd-do-a-clean-install/ and got no confirmed response so far). Also, I believe the upgrade and OEM licenses restrict that license to only work on that one computer, you can’t legally use it on a new one should you upgrade to a new CPU. Things to consider which may make the upgrade or OEM not worth the money saved.
January 13th, 2007 at 7:09 am
Joe,
Upgrade packages are basically full-version installations, except they look for a previous installation. Pretty much the only difference is the costlier “full” version has included in the price a license for first time use, and no nag during install.
OEM discs work just the same as a “full” version, only this time it’s assumed that the manufacturer has paid the licensing fee for a bunch of copies that will end up on customer builds.
Regardless, you can do a clean install with an upgrade disc, so long as you have that proof of a prior version on disc. It can even work if it’s a burned copy of windows 98, all it wants to see is some other windows version. You set whether you want clean install or when you put your disc in.
This is how winXP worked, i don’t see how Vista would be any different.