Microsoft used the Express Upgrade to Windows Vista and Microsoft Office Technology Guarantee program to help vendors continue to sell hardware over the holiday season, which of course means people are buying Microsoft Windows as well. The ‘voucher’ that was given to anyone buying a new computer entitles them to Upgrade to Windows Vista. Unfortunately, upgrade is a dirty word when it comes to computer operating systems.

As I noted in my post You’ll Regret Buying the Vista Upgrade Instead of the Full Release, Upgrade Licenses do not allow for a Clean Install, which is the ability to wipe the drive clean, and start from scratch. Instead, you must have your existing OS in place, and then run the upgrade from it, so the existing license can be verified.

If you have a voucher, chances are you haven’t been running your new computer very long, so your Windows install may not be to ‘polluted’ yet, but all that extra ‘crapware’ that came with your computer though, well it’s still going to be there once Vista is installed, even if it doesn’t work properly. How will the upgrade handle your Virus Scanning software, which almost certainly won’t run properly in Vista? No idea, I guess we’ll begin finding out in a couple days as people suffer through this scenario. If you’re one of the sufferers, good luck, and leave a note here on how your upgrade experience goes!