HP link for ordering Windows Vista Upgrade kits now up

Just make sure you check your address on the tracking page, they got my address wrong and there seems to be no easy way to correct that.

 

so has anybody here gotten thier vista upgrade yet? it says ill get mine a week from today. just got the email.
if so is it possible to dual boot windows xp/vista? cause i heard there was a way around the upgrade and make a complete install.

 

Yipee! I got that email today as well Yeah there is a way to do that. It's on winsupersite.com. Or just search google, "vista upgrade clean install" or something like that. It's fairly easy.

 

got a second email saying they shipped it.. both link to same think and same tracking number with a shipped date of the 7th.. so hopefully shows up soon..

 

MS upgrade disks, would allow you to do a clean install, on a blank hard drive. You would boot to the upgrade CD - start the install, it would then prompt you to insert the OS disk during install (to prove you are upgrading from a valid OS version ) then would continue to load the new OS.

Who knows what type of disk you will receive from HP. But you might still need an XP CD, to validate the upgrade install.

 

Finally!!! Got my upgrade discs today...

 

Congrats! Tell me if you have any driver problems because i'm on a V3000 too except mines a T not a Z. Did you only get the upgrade disc or a driver disc too?

 

yes, it does have an upgrade disc along with the Vista DVD. The driver disc contains the SWSetup folder and you can choose to install the software and drivers manually. Although if you let the DVD autorun it will probably install all the extra junk.

Here's whats included in the package...

 

Thats kinda stupid that it gives u bloatware. I was looking forward to a non bloatware laptop. Tell me how installation goes.

 

Got mine today also. Same pkg. as Miner

 

Did you guys get it exactly a week later from when you got the email?

 

Yep, i got mine exactly 1 week after the email... I'll be playing around with the Vista disk tomorrow on a VPC to see if it can install fresh...

 

Yes it can do a fresh install and the HP drivers DVD will allow you to pick and install the doftware and drivers you want. No bloatware issues(unless you consider Vista itself to be bloatware)

Not bad for waiting all this time and after installing all the drivers I havent noticed any issues with the drivers. I took some pictures and will post a write up on the installation procedure that I followed later tonight. Overall the installation went like clockwork. No problems.

 

How do you go about doing a fresh install? Upgrade once to Vista, then run it again from within Vista?

 

Yeah, upgrade without using the key (don't activate it) and then do the upgrade.

 

Nope, I just booted off the Vista DVD and installed using the key attached to the back of the DVD cover. The Express upgrade disc did a fresh/clean install.

 

Miner, did it ask for your COA of XP when you installed Vista?

 

so what did u mean by "autorun". i mean i know what you meant but did u mean the vista upgrade dvd or the driver disc?

also did u try to dual boot vista yet?
also did you encounter any problems?

 

No. The process is the same as you would if you bought a retail Vista disc. The Vista DVD is a clean disc, no bloatware or any extra HP software.

I meant the HP driver utilities disc. The drivers disc is only needed after you have installed Vista. HP does recommend to run the disc first but that is not really necessary.

These are the exact steps I took to install Vista:

1. Backed up my personal files.
2. Downloaded and installed the latest BIOS for the system.
3. Booted with the Vista Express Upgrade DVD.
4. Used the key attacthed to the back of the DVD cover and went through a standard Vista installation.
5. After booting into Vista ran the HP drivers DVD. Installed the drivers and skipped one the HP extra software. The disc allows you to install specific drivers and software..so you can pick and install whatever you need.
6. Restarted the system and ran the windows experience index to update the scores since I installed the drivers. aero was enabled after I did this.

Basically what we get is a retail disc and they wont bother asking for any COA since they already know your COA since it is necessary to register for the upgrad!

I havent dual booted since I have another system running XP and ubuntu. But dual booting should be possible since the installation procedure is the same as a retail version of Vista. As for as problems, I havent encountered any yet, but its been only a few hours so cant really answer that as of now.

 

but do u have to update the bios, in my case because i want to dual boot with vista and xp. so if i do update the bios will xp have problems?

 

Well, HP recommends it but its optional IMO. I have installed Vista RC2 on older HP BIOS, dual booted & had no issues. The latest BIOS has a negative impact on Quickplay(directplay part only) which wont work when you press the Quickplay button with the system turned off. Other than that there shouldnt be any issues with using either the old or the latest BIOS version. If you want to go Vista only then you might as well install the latest version.

 

I have not yet gotten my upgrade disk and it has been a week since I got the email. My mail is probably just a little slower. Hopefully it will come tomorrow.

 

well i dont have quick play so i guess i dont need to update the bios

 

i got my update disk today, upgraded about half an hour ago. Everything is great except that I am missing the windows logo on the splash screen while starting up. Is there suppose to be a logo there? I never saw any other vista boot splash.

 

There is no splash screen in Vista. The green/blue scrolling bar is what you get. Although you should see for a brief second or 2 the round Vista logo before it loads the desktop.

 

So if I want quickplay to work I shouldn't update the BIOS... I know the BIOS update's main function is to force more basic machines to have 64MB of VRAM so that Vista requirements are meant... I have no issue with this, so do i really need to update?

 

Only the bootable half of Quickplay. QP will still work fine in Windows. But I don't think it will work with Vista installed. QP requires XP and since Vista deletes the boot sector and installs it own variant, you will probably have a broken installation of QP. I have only heard of one member here who has both XP & Vista installed along with the directplay half of Quickplay.

The BIOS also includes Vista specific updates for OEM's. Since if you buy a system with Vista pre-installed you dont need to activate. The BIOS validates the system. They also changed the Quickplay button characteristic. Now if I press the button when the system is turned off, it boots into Vista and then launches QP3.

 

So did you have to activate when you upgraded your BIOS?

 

I upgraded the BIOS before installing Vista. In any case you will have to activate Vista no matter which BIOS you have installed. The no activation thing is only if you buy a system with Vista pre-installed.

 

I finally received my Vista upgrade DVD's today. I plan to do the installation tonight after the kids go to bed.

 

Dang it. Why hasn't mine shipped? I ordered in December...

I've been stuck at the following since last week. And before that, my status equally changed to a pointlessly different status.

Funny thing is, I live in a suburb of Chicago. And if the orders are shipping from IL, I would think I should be getting my shipment fast enough. ...When it ships...

 

Exact same, I was thinking about e-mailing them asking why, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

I finally installed my express upgrade last night. It was relatively easy though I did mess up somehow (still not sure what I did) as I just went with the upgrade option and somehow that did not work and I had to do a clean install so I ended up having to reinstall all my programs that I use. Anyway, overall it took me a couple of hours but I think I will like Vista. It is definitely different and will take some getting used to but so far it seems nice. Just one example of an improvement I noticed was the load time in a Wild Tangent game I play called Fate. Loading that on XP has been fairly long but in Vista it loads up real quick. I'm thinking this may be the case more and more as companies optimize for Vista. Wild Tangent has a console now for Vista and that was what I am now using so I think that games will actually work better when the drivers and such get caught up.

 

I'm relatively new here and have never posted much, but have found these forums to be a very good resource and have appreciated everyone's input, so I thought I'd share my own experience.

My Vista Express Upgrade package arrived yesterday. A week had passed since my receipt of the initial "your order has shipped" e-mail. Interestingly, USPS tracking with the tracking number provided by Mail Extress yielded virtually no actual tracking information until the package was delivered to my mailbox, at which point I got an e-mail stating that it had been delivered.

My system is a DV9008nr (Turion 64x2 TL-50, 1 GB RAM, nVidia Go 6150). (Basically a Best Buy-only variant of the DV9000z.)

The install, generally speaking, went very well. I did the following - much of this, like the defragmentation and virus scanning of the existing XP install, may have been overkill, but I'd rather be safe than sorry:

Preparation (within existing XP install)

-Defragmented all my hard drive space (XP partition plus a logical partition where I store my documents)
-Ran virus and spyware scans (probably irrelevant to Vista install since I was putting it on a different partition)
-Backed up entire HD using Norton Ghost
-Created an additional primary partition for the Vista install, using Norton Partition Magic (hint - upon install, Vista doesn't identify partitions by drive letter, so if you want to dual-boot, give the new volume a name and note its size so you can identify it more easily when asked where you want to put the new OS)
-At this point, per the instructions, I inserted the drivers DVD provided by HP and let it autorun. I went through the first several steps ("have you backed up your data?" etc) , but quit the application when it wanted to "prepare the hard drive for Vista," as I didn't want it to blow away my existing XP installation.
-The next step in on the DVD would be to update the BIOS, so I just downloaded the BIOS file from the HP website and updated manually.
-I then restarted the machine with the Vista DVD in the drive, and booted from the DVD.

Vista installation
-DVD booted without a hitch, and after a couple of questions (product key, etc.) it asked me where I wanted to install the Vista OS. I pointed it to the partition I'd just created, and it started cranking away.
-After a reboot or two, Vista itself booted from the hard drive. Just had to pick an administrator name and password, a background image, and my time zone, and I was in. I'd say the elapsed time between the first boot from DVD and the first view of the desktop was no more than 15 minutes.
-Initially the desktop looks rather ugly, to be honest, because the resolution settings aren't correct. (I think it was defaulting to 640x480 or something like that, on my 1440x900 monitor - everything was very grainy and the icons were much bigger than they should be.) This proved to be easy to fix.
-I reverted to the HP instructions and put the drivers DVD back in. I told it to load all the drivers and some, but not all, of the software. (I don't need Movie Maker and all that garbage.)
-The driver installation process hummed right along until it came to the nVidia video driver. It stayed on that for a good 20 minutes and was clearly stuck, so I stopped it, at which point it said that drivers were updated and it was time for a reboot. I let it do so.
-Upon reboot, the graphics reverted to the normal 1440x900 and looked great, and the nVidia video driver appears to be installed correctly. I updated my Windows Experience Index score, which ended up at 2.8, then after a second scan, it landed at 3.0, with the graphics card being the lowest sub-score, not surprisingly. Once I reached the 2.8 level, Aero Glass switched on automatically.
-Everything else seems to be working fine so far. Wireless is working, and indeed, as soon as Vista connected to the internet, the automatic update process started. One more reboot after this was done and everything was complete.

Issues
-I only had an hour or so to play with it, but so far the only issue I've had is getting the Nortel Contivity VPN software to work so I can check my work e-mail. I installed the version provided by my company (I suspected it might be XP-only, but decided to try anyways), and while the installer ran fine when I ran it in XP compatability mode, it failed to make a connection. I got some sort of socket error. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get Nortel Contivity VPN working in Vista? Could I run it in XP from within Vista, via Virtual PC, and if so, any ideas how? (I have no experience with any virtual environments.)
-For those who may be curious, I downloaded the latest Norton Internet Security for Vista and installed it using my NIS2007 product key without a hitch. It seems to run very smoothly and doesn't bog the system down at all, from what I can tell.
-Despite all the fretting about UAC that I'd read prior to the installation, so far it doesn't seem overly intrusive to me. It asks things now and again, but I find myself saying, "Good, thanks for asking." I like to know when changes are being made to my system; if the only way the OS can accomplish that is to ask me a question even when it's painfully obvious that I want to proceed, I really don't mind.
-Overall, in fact, this Vista installation seems decidedly faster and more responsive than my existing XP install. I'm sure it's a matter of open debate whether that can be attributed to the fact that it's clean and doesn't have much "junk" on it yet, or if the OS itself is faster and more efficient. At this point, I don't care - it seems to work very well and it looks great. If I can figure out a way to make the VPN work, I will probably be ready to abandon XP entirely within a few weeks.

Hope this is helpful. If anyone has insight into my VPN issue, I'd be thrilled to have a response.

Brgds

Evan

 

i haven't activate vista yet? should i do it. I know i will doing many upgrades for this OS and I know how microsoft is getting more strict about activating Vista

I know there is a way of extending the vista activation expiration date

 

Would you rather do it the legal way or the illegal way?

 

Or are you planning hardware upgrades. Only major Hardware upgrades will cause you to re activate.

 

Wow. I installed my Vista Upgrade today. I'm using 512mb of RAM with Home Premium and it works. My RAM will be here tomorrow so I won't need to use it much longer. Just wanted to let some people know. Aero is even working with it. So far... V for Vista!

 

haha.... fedex came to my house and tried to drop it off.... i wasnt expecting it cuz i didnt send in my receipt or anything! weird! so i had them drop it off next time, so i should get it tomorrow. awesome!

 

Odd if Fedex is shipping it to you because mine was shipped via us mail.

 

Yeah, mine was shipped the mail too.

 

Got my upgrade kit on Saturday, the same day my HP notebook went back to Costco.

 

My Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Horror Story, to long to post

Please Digg-It

http://www.digg.com/microsoft/Horror_Stories_of_Express_Upgrade_to_Vista_Moduslink_responds

 

hmmmmm maybe its not that then, maybe someones sending me a gift or something... lol

 

When I did my upgrade, It said it was validated and emailed saying so but every time I checked the status, it would say it could validate the COA, even after an email to them and response of it was validated, It still showed it wasnt validated....

THEN I get an email saying will be shipping soon, went to https://upgradeweb.moduslink.com/vista/Default.aspx
as was in my original email. still not validated, I not too worried about getting vista so i just didnt care, then I got a 2nd email saying they are shipping soon, i clicked on the link that email which was, https://upgradeweb.moduslink.com/Vista/HP/ a little different email, and it said i was validated and everything was set, and bout 5 days ago i got my upgrade.. I donno whats up with their site, and why they changed addresses but that little difference made it act like i wasnt validated for bout 3 months

 

My story is basically like NanoTube's except that my order was cancelled. Emailed both Moduslink and HP for all the good that will do.

 

haha that was not my upgrade. sorry guys.

it should come soon though.

 

It's been two weeks since my order was shipped and still nothing! They did say allow 3 weeks in the email though...

Anyone from Europe receive there's yet?

 

Nowt yet...

 

Received mine today =D Plan to do it next week when I don't have so many deadlines to meet!

(I'm from the UK and got the email saying my order was shipped on the 08/03/07 if that helps anyone).

Has anyone tried reverting back to XP afterwards? Does it invalidate your XP key?