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12 April 2007
Vista beta testers face software expiration

By Techworld staff

Millions of people testing beta and release candidate (RC) versions of Windows Vista will find their test software expires on June 1 - and Microsoft is not offering much help on migrating their systems.

Cori Hartje, director of Microsoft's anti-piracy efforts, became the first company executive to note the impending deadline. "As a reminder to those that helped with Windows Vista beta testing, the beta installations are set to expire at the end of May 2007," said Hartje in a Q&A that Microsoft posted March 30 on its public relations website. "So customers need to decide if they want to move to Windows Vista or back to Windows XP if they have test versions of Windows Vista on their PCs."

Details on how best to do that, however, are scant. Despite repeated requests to clarify the exact procedure beta and RC users need to take - and whether Microsoft will provide either guidance or offer a discount to testers - the company declined to spell out its plans.

What information the company has published is on last year's Customer Preview Program (CPP) site, which points to the 1 June expiry date and explains that once installed, the Vista previews do not allow for operating system rollbacks. "You cannot roll back to the previous operating system installation - you will either have to acquire and install the final released edition of Windows Vista or reinstall a previous edition of Windows," the site reads.

Some hints, however, can be found on Microsoft's Vista support forums:

* Only a full version of Vista does the upgrade from Beta/RC to final. Multiple threads on the Vista forums note that it is not possible to do an in-place upgrade from Vista Beta or RC using a final, retail upgrade version of the operating system.

"You can't use an Upgrade edition to move from Beta/RC to final. Has to be a Full version," said a user identified as Richard Harper. That means Beta/RC users cannot take advantage of the lower-priced upgrade Vista stock-keeping units (SKU) to retain their Vista settings and installed applications when migrating to the real deal. The price difference on Vista Ultimate is dramatic: $259 (£130) list for the upgrade edition, $399 (£200) for the full version. And that's important because...

* $399 (£200) buys you in-place upgrade. If testers wondered why Microsoft gave them the most powerful, and expensive, Vista last year, this may be a clue: To do an in-place upgrade from a Vista preview to the final code requires not only a full edition, but a full edition of Ultimate.

"Just as in all past [Microsoft operating systems], downgrading isn't supported," said Dave B. Another user, Chad Harris, was more specific. "It has to be a Full version of Ultimate ... any other version (Home Premium, Business) is considered a downgrade to Ultimate and is not allowable."

* To take advantage of lower-priced upgrade editions of Vista, or to move from the Beta/RC Ultimate SKU to a less-featured version, like Home Premium, testers must reinstall an earlier operating system - most likely Windows XP - before upgrading from that to Vista final.

"So if I return my laptop to XP, then if I bought the upgrade version of Vista, it should work right?" asked NoSpinVette. Rick Rogers answered with a simple "Yes indeed." The reinstallation of XP, of course, deletes all data on the boot hard drive and so requires testers to backup data files and reinstall applications on the Vista-powered PC after the upgrade is completed.

Those hassles did not sit well with some dedicated beta testers. "Do you mean to say that because I installed Vista RC2 over XP, I screwed myself out of upgrade pricing? If so, seems like Microsoft is punishing beta testers," said a user labelled as "tom."

Others, however, brooked no whining. "You should've known better than to install a beta over your primary operating system/primary computer. Microsoft warned users not to do that," responded another poster identified as Michael.

The migration issue is not trivial, if only because of the numbers involved. At one point in 2006, Microsoft boasted that 1.5 million users had downloaded Vista RC1 and said it expected an additional 1.5 million to download RC2.

Others, however, brooked no whining. "You should've known better than to install a beta over your primary operating system/primary computer. Microsoft warned users not to do that," responded another poster identified as Michael.

Netko wrote:Would it have been nice for Microsoft to make it possible to upgrade to any retail Vista version or even downgrade to XP? Of course - it would have saved me a day setting things up personally.

Darth Wong wrote:Having said that, this doesn't make it any less of a dick move. You'd expect some kind of reward for being an unpaid quality control tester, even if it's just a discount on the upgrade to the full version.

Glocksman wrote:Hell, I didn't install the final release of Vista until I'd ghosted my XP install.
Damn good thing I did too, because of the lack of full featured stable video drivers, no printer drivers for 2 of my printers, and UI quirks, I went back to XP.

tim31 wrote:I heard that Microsoft had kept the aftermarket suppliers out of the loop as they'd rather push Direct X. True?

phongn wrote:

tim31 wrote:I heard that Microsoft had kept the aftermarket suppliers out of the loop as they'd rather push Direct X. True?

Not true. DX10 and the Vista display driver model is significantly different from its predecessors and it'll take time for the various GPU companies to master it.

Darth Wong wrote:Having said that, this doesn't make it any less of a dick move. You'd expect some kind of reward for being an unpaid quality control tester, even if it's just a discount on the upgrade to the full version.

Durandal wrote:I don't buy it, personally. I'm no Microsoft fan, but the "reward" for the Vista beta testers was being able to play with the new OS a year before it was to be released, for free. They knew their copies would expire eventually. And if you filed a bug, you got a free copy of Vista Ultimate, which seems pretty generous to me. Why should people who just downloaded and installed it get any kind of discount?

phong wrote:DX10 and the Vista display driver model is significantly different from its predecessors and it'll take time for the various GPU companies to master it.

Arrow wrote:Nvidia's drivers are getting better. The latest version, 101.70, has better performance and capability that the previous versions, though the driver will crash occasionally (forcing you to ctrl-alt-del and kill the app your in, if you can't get it to exit). It definitely has the best image quality to date (HDR+AA in Oblivion is back!).

It's got much, much better analog sound, so I don't miss OpenAL at all. Hopefully official 64-bit drivers for the X-M will be out this week - I can't wait to see how this card behaves with native drivers.