Hey all. I have one of those Windows Vista "Express" Upgrade discs with key from way back when you could buy a "Vista Capable" pc and later on Microsoft would mail you a free upgrade disc & key. Needless to say I never bothered upgrading the old eMachine it was meant for. Question is... can I use the disc and key to do a clean install on another machine? If I can't use the disc, could I use the key with a vanilla Vista install disc?

If it's a regular Vista key, then installing from a vanilla disk should work. However, if its an OEM version, it might not.

Well I doubt it is a regular/retail key.... the disc and key were sent to me by Gateway as part of the Vista Express Upgrade program.

What if I just use the upgrade key with a full install disc? Can I do that to do a clean install?

Sooooo.... nobody knows?

i'm pretty sure i've tried that before to no luck. really though it'll take less time for you to try it than to wait for a definitive answer

i'm pretty sure i've tried that before to no luck. really though it'll take less time for you to try it than to wait for a definitive answer The purchase of a new hard drive hinges on whether or not this is going to work, so I can't really try it first.

You can use the key with a vanilla install disk; I've used a Vista Ultimate retail DVD to install Vista Home Premium (using the OEM key). As for installing on a different machine, it should work as well. A friend of mine used a Dell OEM upgrade key (with a retail DVD) to install Vista Business on someone elses Sony laptop. (The manufacturers are irrelevant; just to illustrate that it should be fine.) Using the included upgrade disk may not work if it's branded by Gateway/eMachines, since they might include their own drivers and have the install process automated. I'd say get a retail disk and use the OEM key to install off of it.

Is is clearly an upgrade disc, so you will not be able to do a clean install. In addition, who in his right mind would like to use Vista after all.

There are workarounds to do clean installs using upgrade keys, although I think it's a breach of the EULA. Vista's not that bad, though; it got a lot of negative press when it came out due to the lack of drivers and things like that, but it's pretty decent (especially now, after two service packs).

In addition, who in his right mind would like to use Vista after all. A few months ago I might have disputed this, but now that Windows 7 is out you're unmistakably correct. Of course, if he's a student it might be worth upgrading to Vista so that he could spend a measly $30 on Windows 7's upgrade. Only if he wasn't comfortable doing a clean install of 7 for whatever reason.

It's hard to complain about Vista when the price is free. I do have a retail disc of Vista... do I have to work any kind of magic to make the upgrade key I have work with the retail disc for a clean install?

It's hard to complain about Vista when the price is free. I do have a retail disc of Vista... do I have to work any kind of magic to make the upgrade key I have work with the retail disc for a clean install? To install the an upgrade first do a fresh install of the version you will be doing without a key. Then do an upgrade install with a key, it will go insanely quick and you will have Vista freshly installed. Microsoft left this in here because most people like yourselves do have a licensed version of Windows installed and for example windows 2000 is an OS that is considered upgradable to Vista but can't do a standard upgrade.

The thing to note is that after doing the second install you may have the "old" install in a windows.old folder in the root of the system drive. Just nuke it to free up the space. (I'm not too sure on whether or not that applies, since I may have gotten the process mixed up a bit.)

The thing to note is that after doing the second install you may have the "old" install in a windows.old folder in the root of the system drive. Just nuke it to free up the space. (I'm not too sure on whether or not that applies, since I may have gotten the process mixed up a bit.) I don't think you will get the Windows.old when you are doing an in place upgrade of vista with vista.

It's hard to complain about Vista when the price is free. I do have a retail disc of Vista... do I have to work any kind of magic to make the upgrade key I have work with the retail disc for a clean install? To install the an upgrade first do a fresh install of the version you will be doing without a key. Then do an upgrade install with a key, it will go insanely quick and you will have Vista freshly installed. Microsoft left this in here because most people like yourselves do have a licensed version of Windows installed and for example windows 2000 is an OS that is considered upgradable to Vista but can't do a standard upgrade. Can you do a fresh install without a key at all? I've used a gateway restore cd to restore a dell laptop (didn't have a xp home cd) and then changed the key to the one for that specific laptop in windows afterwards in order to activate it, but I didn't know you could install vista without a key at all and then just enter the key once in windows and activate it. Sounds like a good solution.

It's hard to complain about Vista when the price is free. I do have a retail disc of Vista... do I have to work any kind of magic to make the upgrade key I have work with the retail disc for a clean install? To install the an upgrade first do a fresh install of the version you will be doing without a key. Then do an upgrade install with a key, it will go insanely quick and you will have Vista freshly installed. Microsoft left this in here because most people like yourselves do have a licensed version of Windows installed and for example windows 2000 is an OS that is considered upgradable to Vista but can't do a standard upgrade. Can you do a fresh install without a key at all? I've used a gateway restore cd to restore a dell laptop (didn't have a xp home cd) and then changed the key to the one for that specific laptop in windows afterwards in order to activate it, but I didn't know you could install vista without a key at all and then just enter the key once in windows and activate it. Sounds like a good solution. That's the trick for trial purposes, and this works with office 2007 as well, you don't have to enter the key in to start with. But you can't do an an upgrade that way because it needs to be started from windows. That's why you have to do the second install as an upgrade. Then it only looks for files it needs to update which is none and its done in a jiffy.