Upgrade Version?

Have him buy it here and mail it to you. On the USPS Customs Form 2976 that he'll have to fill out, he can declare it as a gift and put a nominal value on it. It takes about a week to get it via Global Priority Mail.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. MS send me software from time to time and they usually list its value at $0.20 on the customs form IIRC (ie the nominal value of the CD itself).

Thanks guys, that's a brilliant idea.

It's worth checking with Customs anyway -- you might be able to get away with more than you think. I can get anything under AU$1000 worth posted to me without paying duty (although if the same person/company sends me three $500 packages within a week or two they reserve the right to treat them as one shipment).

Thanks Tuttle, very interesting.

My son's trip to the US is not until May, thought to myself I can wait that long, no problem. Went food shopping with my wife this morning, got a bit bored and went into Currys, next thing I know I was walking out with the Home Premium Upgrade edition, that box was so cute I couldn't resist.

Although I'm entitled to the upgrade edition, I'm going to try the install twice trick and see if it works. Back later (I hope) after an intensive backup and install.

Quote:

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next thing I know I was walking out with the Home Premium Upgrade edition, that box was so cute I couldn't resist.

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Just can't resist a pretty face, can you!:D

Impulse buyer :D :D

I've been reading that installing the upgrade versions over themselves has been deliberately programmed in to help overcome those times when conventional upgrades fail, so I think it will work just fine. But I'd like to hear how you get on with it.

I know I'm just so weak :D

Copied my DVD and used it, will put original away.

Done my backup in case I nuked my other partitions.

Deleted my C: partition with partition manager although I could have done this from the upgrade DVD.

Done my first install, this went without hitch but there was some very long pauses at the start, thought something was going wrong but I'm there. I read somewhere that you don't need to actually re-install and you can just change the product key. Gave that a go and I was refused with the message along the lines of "This product key can only be used for upgrades and not clean installs.

I'm now going for the second install from within Vista.

Second install went without hitch, a bit faster methinks, worth noting that there was no option to delete partition etc. like there was with the first install.

Once finished I was only given 3 days before automatic activation, decided to activate immediately and the next window said I had 30 days. Anyway activation went without hitch and I now have a 8.09GB folder called "windows.old" which I will now delete.

If I'm now a criminal then please visit me in Jail, or I can use my get out of jail free card (Win2K CD).

Good to hear that it went OK :)

I don't think there are any legal issues with doing it that way, as long as you have a qualifying OS to upgrade from. You might find this article interesting:

http://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/070208#story1

Thanks for that, very interesting.

That`s so weird. I was in Curry`s today as well. Went in to interfere with the Vista laptops :)

As usual I was accosted by a salesman who tried to sell me a machine which I don`t need as this one is capable of running Vista.
I asked a few questions and found out that nearly all the machines are pre-installed with Home Premium with the expected disk image for recovery. So it looks like there will be problems in store for us soon.

Got into an argument with him about the Upgrade DVD. He insisted that you would still have a valid XP licence after upgrading to Vista, I could not persuade him otherwise. No mention of the "workaround".

The Home Premium Upgrade is priced at £150 with the retail version being £220. They only had Upgrades on sale.

I`ve been reading a lot about the Upgrade and have not yet decided which way to go. Am a bit concerned that MS will close the loophole sometime. If this happened I would qualify for the Upgrade, but would lose XP which I do not want to happen as I intend to dual boot them.

Unlike Philgo I managed to resist the urge to buy today. :D

Elaine

The urge will be too strong, resistance is futile :eek:

"folder called "windows.old" which I will now delete."
Pilbo:
you deleted the whole content of windows.old?
Shall I go ahead deleting mine,too .without harm?
Thanks