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General discussion

Not just a dual boot on two different drives

by wbatie Aug 11, 2008 2:54PM PDT

I would like to upgrade XP ProX64 to Ultimate X64, unfortunately everything I have read says the upgrade has to be clean. This would entail re-installing over a hundred programs. Of course if someone knows of a way to avoid this everything would be simple solution. I have thought of installing a full backup including system after Ultimate X64, but afraid this will not work. I know I can install and boot the two OSs but first can I do this with an upgrade Ultimate X64 on the second drive while keeping XP intact and second if this can be done will the original programs work?

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6 Posts
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No
by Jimmy Greystone Aug 11, 2008 4:10PM PDT

No, even if you installed Vista on a second drive, most apps installed under XP would NOT work under Vista.

XP x64 was always going to be a dead end path, and you should have taken note of this before you went ahead and installed it. XP x64 was never really intended for widescale distribution. It was mostly a dry run for Vista x64, and also to make a few big name clients happy who do a lot of things that would have benefited from a 64-bit OS.

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Also...
by John.Wilkinson Aug 12, 2008 12:27AM PDT

Using an 'upgrade' edition of Vista for a clean installation alongside your existing installation of XP x64 is a EULA violation...you'd have to purchase a 'full' retail or OEM license in order to do that.

John

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Retail and Upgrade are about the same price on Ebay
by wbatie Aug 12, 2008 4:34AM PDT

Even a retail version does not eliminate clean instillation, Correct?

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Correct...
by John.Wilkinson Aug 12, 2008 5:17AM PDT

The only difference between upgrade and full retail is that the upgrade license requires that you be replacing a previous, qualifying version of Windows with it.

John

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There is no getting around that
by Jimmy Greystone Aug 12, 2008 5:56AM PDT

There is no getting around that clean installation requirement. It doesn't matter if you buy the retail version of Vista Ultimate, you'll still have to do a clean install.

Also, be very careful buying software on ebay. Make sure it comes with a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) and that the seller doesn't have any bad reviews from people who bought software from them and found out it wouldn't activate or that what they got was just a DVD someone burned on their home computer, etc.

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Thanks everyones
by wbatie Aug 12, 2008 11:30AM PDT

Thanks everyone, this is the first time using a forum, and your response has been fantastic.
I am going to buy a retail version of Ultimate X64 along with Linux and install both on their own hard drive. I will slowly re-install programs and see if Vista offers any advantage over the so called Pro X64 quick fix. Vista is slower ( at less five times) on my wife laptop which came with it installed compared to downgraded to XP Home. Maybe Linux or someday Mac OS Z will be the salvation and one can forget Microsoft OS. Bill Gates only wanted to develop basic.

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