Microsoft screws over Vista beta testers

[bilateralrope]

Link

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.

So those people who helped Microsoft test Vista have to chose between buying the ultimate version of Vista, or wiping the harddrive to be able to install any of the lesser versions. Seems a great way of thanking the testers.

[Glocksman]

I agree with this guy:

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.

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.

Also, they still have until the end of May to migrate all of their data off of their systems in order to prepare for a clean XP install.
I don't see how MS is screwing them over, other than perhaps the Ultimate-Ultimate deal.

[Netko]

This has hit me personally - I was running RC1 and got a full Business version from my faculty which is not supported (has to be Ultimate - the in place upgrade is 200€ so no go there), so I had to do a clean install. While a disappointment, there was plenty of warning that Microsoft will not necessarily make the migration very user friendly - that is simply an expected downside to using beta software.

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. It was however quite clear that there is no expectation of that - those that assumed it would be there have no basis for their bitching. Next time don't use beta software and expect retail software support.

EDIT: And its not like they're going to be losing any data, except application settings, at least if they did the sensible thing and partitioned their drives in the standard system/data recommendation - which, considering they were using beta software and so hopefully they should have been more computer savvy, they have nobody but themselves to blame if they didn't.

[Vendetta]

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.

It would also have been bad practise.

Upgrades are never clean processes, and allowing non-final code to upgrade just opens the door for support headaches down the road where issues that were ironed out in beta don't get fully squashed by the upgrade because only some files have changed.

Anyone who has been bitten by this shouldn't have been playing with beta software, because they clearly don't know what it's for..

[Netko]

Agreed, which is why I wasn't too terribly upset when it wasn't possible - there are far more important things to spend resources on in OS programming then making sure an upgrade migration between a beta version and full version works.

[Xisiqomelir]

This isn't really that much of a screwjob. Not by objective standards, and certainly not by the (very) low bar set by the corporation in question.

[Darth Wong]

Anyone who expected Microsoft to give generous terms for anything is an idiot. Beta testers who expected to be rewarded for helping Microsoft do quality control testing on its software are the definition of naivete.

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.

[phongn]

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.

Beta testers who sent in a bug report actually got a free copy of Vista Ultimate, IIRC.

[tim31]

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.

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

[phongn]

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.

[Glocksman]

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.

Indeed.
Since I don't game very much on my laptop, the instability didn't bother me much as it only acted up during Chessmaster sessions.
What bugged the shit out of me was the fact that the official Dell/Nvidia drivers for the Quadro 120 didn't have any color adjustment controls.

On a desktop, this isn't so bad as your monitor has them.
On a laptop whose display has a noticeable bluish tint until it's adjusted out using the color controls in the display driver, it's more serious.

[Durandal]

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.

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?

[jegs2]

If I could have got my new HP without Vista, I would have. Came with it though, and my wife seems happy enough with it. I still prefer XP though. Tried an Apple for a while, but didn't like it, so it's on eBay.

[Arrow]

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?

Yes, its extremely generous. Most "beta testers" get betas just to use play with something that's no public. I did that with BF2142 and now with GRAW2. I certainly haven't filled out any bug reports, so I definitely don't deserve to be rewarded, and I don't think I'd be entitled to any type of reward even if I did.

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.

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!).

Creative, on the other, seems completely disinterested. Their drivers were causing "Process has locked pages" BSODs, mostly when I was exiting or crashing out of BF2142. They've done only one release since Vista shipped, which was only to certify their December beta drivers. And 4GB of RAM causes sound crackles. Right now I've got a X-Meridian (CMedia 8788), forcing 32-bit drivers in 64-bit Vista, and it sounds better than the X-Fi (never thought I'd say that about anything from CMedia) and doesn't give me any shit. 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.

[phongn]

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!).

Eh, I'll wait until the next official release - 100.65 on Vista64 isn't too bad right now.

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.

Creative hasn't had its act together in awhile - I've heard nothing but disasters regarding their Vista drivers, and they've been continuously whining about how PCIe is no good for audio