Microsoft ending Vista family discount

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Uh huh... I LOVE my Vista... when it works...

I got the "free Vista upgrade" for my Dell XPS 410 I bought in late November... Went through doing the upgrade THEIR WAY about 5 times (using first their upgrade preparation disk, then following the instructions for doing an "upgrade")... as I had been warned, every single time, Vista "kindasorta" worked, MCE worked for a couple of days and quit, and I had to start over from scratch (and I mean I started over by reformatting the hard drive and installing the XP that came with the computer FIRST)!

Finally, I tried the "clean install workaround" promoted on ZDNet by that fella who writes some of these columns (I never can remember his name when I need to, lol), and THAT worked... AT least until a couple weeks ago, when SUDDENLY Windows told me my license needed to be "revalidated" (or something to that effect) due to a "recent hardware change," which there HADN'T been (other than changing TV tuners, which Dell support said wouldn't/shouldn't have had that effect... The initial message popped up when I was in a hurry and I clicked out of it, and it didn't pop up again until 3 days later, when it told me my license was no longer valid, and it wouldn't accept my registration code any more...

Went to Microsoft's support site and through rigamarole of having them download some Active-X file to check my computer, at which point their website said they couldn't help me, but which credit card should they bill me $59.95? YEAH, RIGHT!

So I went to Dell Support (was BARELY able to get online in that limited Vista state), got into Dell Support, and he asked me to do a "properties" on "My Computer." My Computer wouldn't SHOW properties... Control Panel showed as EMPTY (no virus, either... checked for THAT). He finally had to get on the phone with me, have me boot to some special configuration and did a phone reactivation -- but since that's normally done by calling Mircosoft (you have to enter in 9 series of 6-digit numbers!), I had to run this code that he gave me and then my computer generated those 54 numbers, when then he had to call them into Microsoft and THEY then gave HIM a DIFFERENT set of 54 numbers which I had to re-enter in order to re-validate my Vista!

Now, if I have a reason I need to re-install Vista again, I guess I'm SOL, huh?

Well, frankly, my dual-tuner TV card worked PERFECTLY as far as recording TWO programs at a time goes under XP MEDIA CENTER but works only VERY occasionally as a DUAL TUNER under Vista... I've done LOTS of trouble-shooting here on the computer, did lots online with the Dell Technician AND had them ship me a replacement card, and there's no doubt, it's VISTA that's keeping it from working right -- or you could just say it just doesn't work right with Vista.

Some things in Vista are REALLY NICE, but frankly, if I DO have to reinstall again, and I can't get Vista without PAYING FOR IT, I have a fully licensed version of XP Media Center that came with this computer and I'll go back to it in a HEARTBEAT before I'll give Microsoft ONE RED CENT they haven't EARNED!
Jeff

Posted by: Jeff Hayes   Posted on: 07/02/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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