- #HOW TO REGISTER WINDOWS VISTA PRODUCT KEY INSTALL#
- #HOW TO REGISTER WINDOWS VISTA PRODUCT KEY UPDATE#
This keeps the process as clean as possible for those who do not own a Full install version of Vista. Why does this work? It works because Microsoft let the Vista 30-day trial act as a valid upgrade path for Vista and because you can install the trial to a empty drive. You can now delete the Windows.old folder as it is not necessary to be on your computer. You are now left with a fresh clean install of Vista and your original Vista install has been renamed C:\Windows.old. Once setup has completed for the second time you will be able to activate Windows Vista as normal.Yes, you are performing a second installation of Vista.
When asked whether to perform an Upgrade or a Custom (advanced) install, choose the Custom (advanced) option to perform a clean install of Vista.Go through the setup, but this time when it asks for your product key, enter in the product key that came with your upgrade.Once the setup has completed and you are back at your new Vista desktop, run the setup program from the Vista DVD again from within the new Vista 30-day trial.This is important, so do not pick a version that you did not purchase as it will affect later steps. So if you purchase Home Premium, select Home Premium. When prompted select the edition of Vista which you had purchased.This will install Vista as a 30-day trial. Instead click on the Next button and continue with the setup.
#HOW TO REGISTER WINDOWS VISTA PRODUCT KEY UPDATE#
Press Windows icon on the keyboard > Settings > Update & Security > Activation (or you can input Activation on the search box after setting page pop up.) Step 3. When prompted to enter your product key, Do not enter it. If you can find your 25-character product key, you can activate Windows 10 right now.When you get to the setup screen, start a new setup of Vista. Boot your computer form the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD.Paul Thurott has discovered from internal Microsoft documents another method that you can use to perform a full install. Another issue that occurs is that you will invalidate the XP product key that you are upgrading from. What this means is that there is no true way of doing a clean install from a formatted hard drive as when you enter the Vista product key it will tell you the setup must be run from within the previous operating system.
No longer can you boot off of the setup DVD and just insert the media of older versions that you are upgrading from. As many of you are now finding out, in order to upgrade your copy of XP to Vista, you need to have XP currently installed on the computer and the setup program must be run from withing XP.