Vista Upgrade Editions for Clean Installing

I had intended to buy an Upgrade edition of Vista Home Premium. I was surprised to learn that the upgrade method is different to how it worked for XP. Having to have an existing Windows install before installing Vista is unacceptable as I want to have a totally clean install.
Fortunately, I found this workaround. You install Vista without activating it (i.e. 30-day trial) and then install an upgrade Vista over it (the upgrade will accept Vista as a valid prior OS). Apparently, you also have the option to format before the upgrade installs (can anyone confirm this?), which helps towards a clean install .

I'm making this thread to ask for people's experiences with this workaround (or others) to get a clean Vista install.
Some things I was wondering about:
* The workaround was discovered 5 months ago. In the mean time, have Microsoft patched this and put new copies into circulation?
* How 'clean' an install is this? It seems to me it would essentially be as if I'd carried out the install with a full Vista edition (which is the result I'm after)?
* Am I just better off getting the full version? I really don't want to spend the £80 extra. Especially considering I have purchased older editions of Windows, so should be eligible for a 'real' upgrade.

(Another question, less related to the thread: Do Windows prices tend to go down after a while? I'm considering just waiting [e.g. until SP1])

(BTW, I appreciate that Vista is rubbish at the moment, but I'm intrigued by it enough to dual boot on my forthcoming laptop.)

 

I like Vista... I was aprehensive at first but I like it now. May be the fact that I have been certified on it so I know the in's and out's of it... But every tech I have talked to (certified or not) has loved it cause it is easy to diagnose your problems and then fix them.

Anyway...

the upgrade disk that I recieved let me boot from it and repartition the HDD and install a clean OS. It was an oem version though so it might be different then the retail version.

Prices do typically drop but not usually until after the next OS comes out. I do remember XP dropping after a year but stayed at that price for the time remaining.

The only problem with doing it the way you are is that the upgrade creates a folder called Windows.old that stores the previous OS' files and folders. Now, you can simply delete this folder to make it go away, but you do need to be awaire of it. Other then that, I don't know any other work around.

 

Hmm. If the upgrade edition is anything like the OEM upgrade, I'll be happy. Sounds like a pretty clean install. Hopefully it hasn't been patched yet.

Anyone else with experience on this?
(This thread keeps getting bumped off the front page by the over-abundance of silly, mindless poll-threads =/)