Meet Tim. Tim has a simple request. He’d like to run Windows XP on his new laptop and Windows Vista on his old laptop. This requires him to switch the operating systems. Sounds easy. It’s not. Tim writes:
So, I’m running XP on the new laptop and Home Premium on the old laptop. I have the Dell OEM Home Premium disk and the Windows Anytime Upgrade disk with a CD key.Now, the Home Premium on the old laptop says it is not a genuine copy. It has locked me out and it won’t let me upgrade to Ultimate until I validate the Home Premium. I called Dell about this, and they said this is probably because when I upgraded to Ultimate on the new laptop, it invalidated the key for Home Premium and I need to call Microsoft.
I called Microsoft today, and they told me that I cannot switch OS’s (at least with Vista). The Vista that I purchased with the new laptop can only be run on the new laptop.
Not only can Tim not get his laptop running, he can’t even get a straight answer about which company he should be talking to… Microsoft or Dell? Read his email inside… if you have a punching bag nearby.
Tim writes:
Hi,
I am hoping you or some of your readers can answer this question. Back in March, I ordered a new Dell laptop with Vista Home Premium. I really wanted XP, but they were not selling it at the time. I decided to give Vista a try, and actually ordered and installed the Ultimate upgrade (ordered direct from Microsoft for $179).
Soon after that, I decided I wanted to go back to XP, so I swapped OS’s with an older Dell laptop that was running XP Pro. So, I’m running XP on the new laptop and Home Premium on the old laptop. I have the Dell OEM Home Premium disk and the Windows Anytime Upgrade disk with a CD key.
Now, the Home Premium on the old laptop says it is not a genuine copy. It has locked me out and it won’t let me upgrade to Ultimate until I validate the Home Premium. I called Dell about this, and they said this is probably because when I upgraded to Ultimate on the new laptop, it invalidated the key for Home Premium and I need to call Microsoft.
I called Microsoft today, and they told me that I cannot switch OS’s (at least with Vista). The Vista that I purchased with the new laptop can only be run on the new laptop.
I have always thought that the rule is you may run one copy of an OS at a time, but it doesn’t matter where you run it. Microsoft says this changed “6 – 8 months ago”.
Is this true? If so, I cannot even put Home Premium back on the new laptop because it has been invalidated. Help!
Tim
We wrote Tim back, thanking him for his email. He responded:
Thank you for following up. An update since my last email:
* Found Vista Eula online, which says I can transfer Home Premium to another
“device”, and I can transfer my Ultimate upgrade to another device only
once.* Called MS Tech support again, they say I can move Vista to another computer
(I didn’t mention what I found in the EULA). They ask for my Ultimate CD
Key and I gave it to them.MS: “OK, we can fix this now, are you at the computer?”
Me: “No, the computer is at home, I’m at work.”
MS: “No problem, call back this afternoon and we will take care of it.”* Microsoft gives me a Case Id.
* Called MS tech support back after I arrive home. I give them the Case Id.
They say I cannot move Vista to another laptop. I ask to speak to
supervisor. Supervisor says I can move Vista to another laptop. He transfers
me to Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) dept.* WGA says they cannot give me the key, tech support must do it. They transfer
me back to tech support.* Tech support transfers me to “Vista” tech support (I thought I was already
talking to Vista tech support).* Judy, the latest and most helpful MS support person, says I need to talk to a
group that generates the key, but will stay on the phone with me. (It takes
45 min. to reach the next group.)* Person from product key group asks for Home Premium product key on bottom of
new laptop. He says it is an invalid product key. I said yes, Dell told me
it would be invalidated after I upgraded to Ultimate. Person from product
key group says I must contact Dell to resolve this issue (Dell already told
me I must contact MS).* Judy from MS calls Dell while staying online with me.
* Dells says their product key office is closed.
* Judy and Dell person both say they will follow-up with me tomorrow.
The last call lasted 1 hr., 50 min. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Tim
You know, we get a lot of these “Sorry, call Dell.” and “Sorry, call Microsoft.” complaints. Something to work on, guys? —MEGHANN MARCO
(Photo:Sailor Coruscant)
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@skrom: In your world, I suppose everyone is a gamer. This is not your world.
The problem is more they could have simply said “Stuff it, go out and pay several hundreds more for retail copies if you want to do it” within the first minute. Instead, they say it can be done, but then WGA (Windows Gremlins Activation) kicks in.
Also note Dell won’t to my knowledge sell you a legit copy of XP for an upgrade price (a few $ more than their OEM that would avoid these hassles). The only thing harder to get than preinstalled Linux from an OEM is a realy copy of a Microsoft OS (Actually I keep XP but partition it to a minimal size since their tech support will all but demand running something under XP if anything goes wrong with the hardware, and I have a device or two that occasionally need XP to configure).
So after $8 billion, Microsoft succeeds in getting Vista to not work on many computers it thinks aren’t legit. Really good DRM that will muffle and blur your HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray if it doesn’t like your video or audio driver. The rest is mostly eye-candy badly plagiarized from Apple. And popups that warn you with 100 false positives for every malware problem
I notice that not once did he mention that he was trying to use an old OEM copy of Windows for one machine to validate an update to Vista on a different machine. Saying that, explicitly, would have made it obvious where the problem lay.
Consider yourself lucky if you can’t upgrade to Windows Vista, at least not until the first service pack comes out next July. Vista was included in my new Dell in August (Dell claims they informed me it would get Vista but I read back to them what they quoted me). And Dell won’t replace it with XP. Why would I want XP? Because ALL software I tried up upload, except for Windows Office, (even the 2007 version of Norton Antivirus), needs a downloaded patch to be compatible. Even then, most software freezes my Dell XPS computer, which thanks to Vista is running at 65% memory doing nothing.
Then, I get the he-said-she-said you mentioned: “Go the Microsoft, check with your browser, Go to your ISP, Go to Dell, go to H… (well, it’s what they probably wish they could say).