Just upgraded to Vista Ultimate - MS Action Pack

["Paul Gale" <groups2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I know there are several MS action pack subscribers here =96 so
thought I=
=92d post my findings.

I installed Vista Business upgrade when I got my action pack update a week
=
or two ago. I=92ve been hitting the =91Windows Anytime Upgrade=92 site
ever=
y day since then, but only today with the official launch did it go live.
I=
went to control panel and selected the anytime upgrade icon =96 took me to=
the web site where I could choose a supplier for the upgrade key (it=92s a=
digitally signed small file that you either download and use on another PC=
or on your current PC =96 Vista of course). If you don=92t have a Vista up=
grade disk (the MS action pack Vista Business upgrade installer DVD works
j=
ust fine), you can also get a copy of the disk and pay an extra =A35 or so
=
(for P+P they say).

NOTE: the prices of all the suppliers vary CONSIDERABLY!!!!  (I=92m
writing=
this from memory as the upgrade option has now disappeared as I=92ve done =
the upgrade to Ultimate). Some retailers were showing several hundred
Euros=
for the upgrade but Sony was the cheapest at =A375.49 which is only around=
=A35 more than the direct conversion of $139 MS was quoting for the MAPS u=
pgrade.

You can also do this through the web site although it seems to be changing
=
by the minute and there are still dead links and clicking on the upgrade
op=
tion asks for a login! The system obviously still isn=92t fully live yet.

www.windowsanytimeupgrade.com

So, I thought, what the hell =96 and did the upgrade.

It basically does an in-place re-install it seems =96 and does take some
ti=
me to complete. It also saves the current O/S install in case you need to
r=
oll back (From what I can tell =96 but I=92m no expert).

I had a few problems =96 the first was with a copy of Daemon tools =96
upon=
re-boot after the main install, I got a BSOD with the SPTD.sys driver. Aft=
er a bit of googling, I rebooted from the install  CD and brought up a
comm=
and prompt and deleted the driver =96 all was well and the install
continue=
d.

I had two other problems =96 the device drivers (both beta) for my nVidia
8=
800GTX cards (two of them) and Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty card seemed to have
b=
een broken and I had to re-install them both (no problems with this
though)=
.

So now running Vista Ultimate =96 time to play with MCE etc and bit locker
=
next=85

I hope that helps a little?

I=92m very impressed with Vista so far =96 OK, many peripheral and
hardware=
manufacturers haven=92t got their acts together yet (but that=92s no surpr=
ise =96 the same was true with XP and I didn=92t expect any different!)
=96=
lots of surfing forums reveals lots of complaining posters! General Office=
app use etc has been a very positive experience :-)

Paul.





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