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Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 94 • 2007-02-01 • Circulation: over 265,000
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For links to every subtopic in this issue, scroll down to the
Index |
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TOP STORY Get Vista upgrade, never pay full price
Save by avoiding the 'full' version Windows Vista, in my opinion, is a big improvement over Windows XP in many ways. But the new operating system is distinctly overpriced. The list price of the "full" (not "upgrade") version of the most expensive edition, Vista Ultimate, is $399.95 USD, with a street price around $380. That gold-plated retail figure is only possible because Microsoft long ago achieved monopoly pricing power in the PC operating system market. Most computer users would prefer to keep using an older version of Windows, such as XP, rather than paying the inflated prices for the "full" version of Vista. To encourage switching to a new OS, Microsoft has historically offered a lower, "upgrade" price to people who can prove that they've previously purchased an older copy of Windows. The difference between Vista's full and upgrade prices can be substantial. Based on the asking prices shown at Shopping.com on Jan. 31 — the day after the consumer version of Vista became available — the four most popular Vista versions will set you back approximately as follows:
The upgrade versions of Vista have street prices that are 32% to 48% cheaper than the full versions. If you're truly installing Vista over an old instance of XP or W2K, the upgrade version of Vista will find the older OS on your hard drive and install without question. The problem is that Vista, unlike every version of Windows in the past, doesn't let you insert a physical disc from an older operating system as evidence of your previous purchase. Vista has an undocumented feature, however, that actually allows you to "clean install" Vista to a hard disk that has no prior copy of XP or W2K. Use Vista's 'upgrade' version to clean-install The secret is that the setup program in Vista's upgrade version will accept an installed copy of XP, W2K, or an unactivated copy of Vista itself as evidence of a previous installation. This enables you to "clean install" an upgrade version of Vista to any formatted or unformatted hard drive, which is usually the preferred method when installing any new operating system. You must, in essence, install Vista twice to take advantage of this trick. But Vista installs much faster than XP, so it's quicker than installing XP followed by Vista to get the upgrade price. Before you install Vista on a machine that you don't know is 100% compatible, you should run Microsoft's free Upgrade Advisor. This program — which operates only on 32-bit versions of XP and Vista (plus Vista Enterprise) — reports to you on any hardware or software it finds that may be incompatible with Vista. See Microsoft's Upgrade Advisor page. Also, to see which flavors of XP Home, XP Pro, and 2000 officially support in-place installs and clean installs of the different Vista editions, see Microsoft's upgrade paths page. Here's a simplified overview of the steps that are required to clean-install the upgrade version of Vista: Step 1. Boot the PC from the Vista DVD. Step 2. Select "Install Now," but do not enter the Product Key from the Vista packaging. Leave the input box blank. Also, turn off the option Automatically activate Windows when I'm online. In the next dialog box that appears, confirm that you really do want to install Vista without entering a Product Key. Step 3. Correctly indicate the version of Vista that you're installing: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate. Step 4. Select the "Custom (Advanced)" install, not the "Upgrade" install. Step 5. Vista copies files at length and reboots itself one or more times. Wait for the install to complete. At this point, you might think that you could "activate" Vista, but you can't. That's because you haven't installed the Vista upgrade yet. To do that, run the DVD's setup.exe program again, but this time from the Vista desktop. The easiest way to start setup again is to eject and then reinsert the DVD. Step 6. Click "Install Now." Select Do not get the latest updates for installation. (You can check for these updates later.) Step 7. This time, do enter the Product Key from the Vista packaging. Once again, turn off the option Automatically activate Windows when I'm online. Step 8. On this second install, make sure to select "Upgrade," not "Custom (Advanced)." You're not doing a clean install now, you're upgrading to Vista. Step 9. Wait while Vista copies files and reboots itself. No user interaction is required. Do not boot from the DVD when asked if you'd like to do so. Instead, wait a few seconds and the setup process will continue on its way. Some DOS-like, character-mode menus will appear, but don't interact with them. After a few seconds, the correct choice will run for you automatically. Step 10. After you click a button labeled Start in the Thank You dialog box, Vista's login screen will eventually appear. Enter the username and password that you selected during the first install. You're done upgrading to Vista. Step 11. Within 30 days, you must "activate" your copy of Vista or it'll lose functionality. To activate Vista, click Show more details in the Welcome Center that automatically displays upon each boot-up, then click Activate Windows now. If you've dismissed the Welcome Center, access the correct dialog box by clicking Start, Control Panel, System & Maintenance, System. If you purchased a legitimate copy of Vista, it should quickly activate over the Internet. (You can instead activate by calling Microsoft on the phone, which avoids your PC exchanging information with Microsoft's server.) I'm not going into detail today on the merits of buying Vista at retail instead of buying a cheaper OEM copy. (The OEM offerings don't entitle you to call Microsoft for support, while the retail packages do.) Also, I'm not touching here on the least-expensive way to buy Vista, which is to take advantage of Microsoft's "educational" rate. I'll describe both of these topics in next week's newsletter. Why does Vista's secret setup exist? It's reasonable for us to ask ourselves whether buying an upgrade version of Vista, and then installing it to an empty hard disk that contains no previous version of Windows, is ethical. I believe it is. Microsoft itself created the upgrade process. The company designed Vista to support upgrading it over a previously installed copy of XP, W2K Pro, or Vista itself. This isn't a black-hat hacker exploit. It's something that's been deliberately programmed into the approved setup routine. Microsoft spent years developing and testing Vista. This upgrade trick must have been known to many, many people within the development team. Either Microsoft planned this upgrade path all along, knowing that computer magazines and newsletters (like this one) would widely publicize a way to "save money buying Vista." Or else some highly placed coders within the Vista development team decided that Vista's "full" price was too high and that no one should ever have to pay it. In either case, Vista's setup.exe is Microsoft's official install routine, and I see no problem with using it exactly as it was designed. We should also think about whether instances of Vista that were installed using the clean-install method will continue to operate. I believe that this method will continue to be present in Vista DVDs at least until Microsoft begins distributing the Service Pack 1 edition of Vista around fall 2007. Changing the routine in the millions of DVDs that are now in circulation would simply be too wrenching. And trying to remotely disable instances of Vista that were clean-installed — even if it were technically possible to distinguish them — would generate too many tech-support calls and too much ill will to make it worthwhile. Installing the upgrade version of Vista, but not installing over an existing instance of XP or W2K, probably violates the Vista EULA (end-user license agreement). If you're a business executive, I wouldn't recommend that you flout any Windows license provisions just to save money. If you're strictly a home user, contributing editor Susan Bradley points out that Microsoft's so-called Vista Family Discount (VFD) is an economical package that avoids any license issues. If you buy a retail copy of Vista Ultimate, MS lets you upgrade up to two additional PCs to Vista Home Premium for $50 each. For example, if you buy the upgrade version of Ultimate for $225, the grand total after you add two Home Premiums is $335. That's about $133 less than buying three upgrade versions of Home Premium. Details are at Microsoft's VFD page. Microsoft did revise a Knowledge Base article, number 930985, on Jan. 31 that obliquely refers to the upgrade situation. It simply states that an upgrade version of Vista can't perform a clean install when a PC is booted from the Vista DVD. A clean install will only work, the document says, when the Vista setup is run from within an older version of Windows (or if a full version of Vista is being used). This article doesn't at all deal with the fact that the Vista upgrade version will in fact clean-install using the steps described above. It'll be interesting to see whether MS ever explains why these steps were programmed in. Personally, I consider Vista's ability to upgrade over itself to be Digital Rights Management that actually benefits consumers. It's almost cosmic justice. I invite my readers to test Vista's undocumented clean-install method for themselves. There certainly must be aspects of this setup routine that I haven't yet discovered. I'll print the best findings from those sent in via our contact page. You'll receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of your choice if you're the first to send in a tip that I print. I'd like to thank my co-author of Windows Vista Secrets, Paul Thurrott, for his research help in bringing the clean-install method to light. Brian Livingston is editorial director of the Windows Secrets Newsletter and the co-author of Windows Vista Secrets and 10 other books. |
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LANGALIST TIPS When your antimalware tools disagree
How to deal with dueling malware removers When malware-removal tools disagree on whether your PC is infected or not, how do you know which one to believe? That's the problem facing reader Thomas Trickey. But rather than focusing just on Thomas' dilemma, let's broaden the answer into a more general problem-solving approach for this type of problem. This way, Thomas' specific example can also serve as a kind of problem-solving template you can use to get to the bottom of other, similar problems:
If the removal tools don't seem to work, as in Thomas' case, the next step is to try to track down the problem file itself. In this case, Thomas reports that the file is csrss.exe. What is it? You may already have a favorite site for looking up various Windows system components, such as the programs and processes that show up in Windows' Task Manager applet. (Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and click Task Manager to bring up this useful tool.) I haven't found any one site that truly does it all, so I usually gravitate to three sites that complement each other: Answers that Work, Uniblue's Windows Process Library, and PCreview. Combining and boiling down the information from those sites, you can see that:
Of course, by default, Windows hides the contents of system folders to prevent novices from getting into trouble. Advanced users can and should unhide the folders: Step 1. In the Windows Explorer menu bar, click Tools, Folder Options, and select the View tab. Step 2. Scroll down in the Advanced Settings list and select Display the contents of system folders and Show hidden files and folders. Step 3. Deselect Hide protected operating system files and Hide extensions for known file types. Step 4. In the Folder Views section of the dialog box, click Apply to all folders. You'll now see every file and folder on your PC in full, "natural," and unmodified form. (You can undo these changes by selecting Restore defaults and Reset all folders in the Folder Options dialog box.) With all files and folders now visible, you can navigate to the Windows folder, see if csrss.exe is there; and delete it if it is. Of course, in Tom's case, if it is there, then he will have proved that NoAdware was correct in sounding the alarm; and that the Norton removal tool wasn't doing its job. But if Tom's csrss.exe isn't in the Windows folder, then Tom's copy of NoAdware was sounding a false alarm, and Norton's removal tool was correct in reporting no infection. Whew — that took a bit of explaining! But now you know how to verify and remove a reported infection in what appears to be a system file. What's more, you also now know how to manually referee cases where one automated tool reports an infection while others do not. And if you do find that a given tool routinely claims to have found infections that no other removal-tool or manual search can find, then it might be wise not to trust the tools that's crying wolf. Who has time for needless false alarms? Speed up Opera 9 by disabling filtering In the article Is IE 7 too slow opening new sites? in the Jan. 18 issue, I discussed several fixes for the slowdown that can occur when IE 7's Phishing Filter is engaged. Reader Fritz Reinders sent in this tip to cure a similar problem in Opera:
Reader-written freeware accesses XP applets Windows Secrets readers are a diverse and talented group. What's more, you're generous in sharing your skills and knowledge, as is shown every week by the great tips we get. (E-mail your tips to Editor at WindowsSecrets dot com.) Sometimes, readers even share software they've written, like this little button bar from Anthony Kinyon that gives you one-click access to XP tools and utilities:
An automated fix for a missing NTLDR In the Dec. 7 issue, What to do when missing NTLDR and Hal.dll discussed tried-and-true manual methods for solving show-stopping problems with those files. But reader "Cyurko" knows of a donationware ($5) fix that largely automates the process using a boot disk:
Fred Langa is editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He was editor of Byte Magazine from 1987 to 1991 and editorial director of CMP Media from 1991 to 1996, overseeing Windows Magazine and others. He edited the LangaList e-mail newsletter from 1997 to 2006, when it merged with Windows Secrets. |
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WACKY WEB WEEK The future of touch-screens looks bright
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YOUR SUBSCRIPTION The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. Vacation breaks occur in late August, Thanksgiving Week, and Christmas/New Year's. Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com LLC, 300 Queen Anne Ave. N. #456, Seattle, WA 98109 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine). Editorial Director: Brian Livingston. Editor: Fred Langa. Contributing Editors: Susan Bradley, Scott Dunn, Mark Edwards, Woody Leonhard, Chris Mosby, Ryan Russell. Research Director: Vickie Stevens. Program Director: Brent Scheffler. Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com LLC. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: Anyone may subscribe to this newsletter by visiting our free signup page. WE GUARANTEE YOUR PRIVACY: 1. We will never sell, rent, or give away your address to any outside party, ever. 2. We will never send you any unrequested e-mail, besides newsletter updates. 3. All unsubscribe requests are honored immediately, period. Privacy policy HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe from the Windows Secrets Newsletter,
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