Vista - Dual boot? Other things regarding my WFP 'beta work'

First a general question, applicable I suppose to either a full or
upgrade version of the Ultimate product. Can I install Vista again as
a second (dual boot) OS on my XP Home SP2 machine, much like I did
with the beta and RCs...?

Interestingly, from my friends at WFP announcing my complimentary copy
of Ultimate for participating in their part of the beta test process
(which I think, BTW, is very sporting of them):

"We’re pleased to announce that we will be sending you one licensed
32-bit retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate as a thank you for your
participation in our program. This complimentary copy of Windows Vista
may be installed on a 32-bit or 64-bit capable computer (x86/x64)."

The above is from the first announcement. It seems to imply a full
version, however below, from a more recent follow-up, suggests some
sort of Frankenstein upgrade version...

"...When the DVD package arrives you will have the opportunity to
either upgrade your Release Candidate version to the Released Version
of Windows Vista, or you can do a clean install and start out
fresh..."

I include this here only to point out that I can apparently "upgrade"
the RC version with this guy?! This must be a special version for the
WFP people(?) as I'd understood that betas were not upgradeable with
retail upgrades. Of course perhaps as a long-time Windows
upgrader/user and as such, a bit of a fatalist, this begs the
question, will I be able to upgrade my XP Home PS2 with it as I've
already uninstalled any and all betas and reformatted their
partitions.

"DJ Bjorklund" <bjork57@hickorytech.net> wrote

> First a general question, applicable I suppose to either a full or
> upgrade version of the Ultimate product. Can I install Vista again as
> a second (dual boot) OS on my XP Home SP2 machine, much like I did
> with the beta and RCs...?
>
> Interestingly, from my friends at WFP announcing my complimentary copy
> of Ultimate for participating in their part of the beta test process
> (which I think, BTW, is very sporting of them):
>
> "We're pleased to announce that we will be sending you one licensed
> 32-bit retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate as a thank you for your
> participation in our program. This complimentary copy of Windows Vista
> may be installed on a 32-bit or 64-bit capable computer (x86/x64)."
>
> The above is from the first announcement. It seems to imply a full
> version, however below, from a more recent follow-up, suggests some
> sort of Frankenstein upgrade version...
>
> "...When the DVD package arrives you will have the opportunity to
> either upgrade your Release Candidate version to the Released Version
> of Windows Vista, or you can do a clean install and start out
> fresh..."
>
> I include this here only to point out that I can apparently "upgrade"
> the RC version with this guy?! This must be a special version for the
> WFP people(?) as I'd understood that betas were not upgradeable with
> retail upgrades. Of course perhaps as a long-time Windows
> upgrader/user and as such, a bit of a fatalist, this begs the
> question, will I be able to upgrade my XP Home PS2 with it as I've
> already uninstalled any and all betas and reformatted their
> partitions.

A full version of Ultimate can do either a custom install or an in place
upgrade. To go from RC1 via in place upgrade to Vista you have to use a
full version of Ultimate.

If an upgrade version, RC1 is not a qualifying product. That would have to
come from XP. And with an upgrade it is against the Vista license to run
both the Vista upgrade edition and the underlying XP OS that was part of the
upgrade in a dual boot. It's one or the other.

I can't say what version your getting, but it looks to be the full version.

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]