I expect Microsoft to patch this problem when SP1 ships.

http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/
lol

Step 7 is wrong. You need to do Custon Instatll>Clean Install, not in-place upgrade. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932

Some rumors have been floating around that Vista OEM can be activated multiple times on different configurations a la WinXP OEM. If this is true doesn't it make Vista Upgrade a waste of $40?

Just goes to show the level of sophistication we are dealing with. These are the guys that want us to trust our system's security with. Yeah, thanks Microsawft.

It is unlikely that this would work. One of the requirements to perform an upgrade is a previous OS that is activated. By installing without a product key the first Vista installation will not be activated and thus when the upgrade is launched from within that environment I expect that the option to upgrade will be grayed out. I certainly have been unable to perform upgrades on VLK Windows XP corp systems here at work. They were not activated and thus only clean installation was available.

If this is true, then all I can say is "Wow" !

This isn't even a new style of bug/workaround for them (so if it was unintended its unforgiveable). Office 2000 Upgrade would work by checking your disc-and the upgrade disc would work. Crazy.

Somebody really really needs to try this out. I wish I could, but I can't.

I'm kinda surprised to see you guys post such a clear exploit on front page news. This would allow someone with no legitimate claim to upgrade at all to install it, even without a previous XP disk check, if I'm reading correctly.

The real question is (assuming it works), what will Microsoft's response be. Can they tell on their side that someone did this later on? If not, all they can do is repress the DVDs with an updated installer, but all the old DVDs out there will continue to let you do this indefinitely.

TR is not doing this right .. [/microsoft]

8. Once setup has completed for the second time, you should be able to activate Windows Vista normally. You can also delete the Windows.old directory which contains information from the first Vista install.

Maybe this is intentional.

Possible scenario, 3 years down the road: you bought a new PC, and want to reinstall Vista. However, your spiffy new SATA3-enabled motherboard doesn't have XP drivers. You're suddenly stuck. This workaround enables you to get past that, and might been purposedly left that way.

Buying a Vista upgrade license and then using it all by itself would be illegal anyway (and easily detectable I bet, it probably keeps data somewhere about which OS it was installed over).

It has apparently been confirmed here:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932

so...is this the first BUG ? ROFLMAO

Wow. If true, that's a pretty significant oversight on MS's part.

Whoa, so if it works and you don't need XP at all, a huge hole like that through which you could drive a truck and which affects $$$ will probably be quickly, uh, "patched" by MS. That's incredible.