Windows Vista beta testers face software expiration and pricey upgrade
By Ruben Francia
Millions of people testing beta and release candidate (RC) versions of Windows Vista need to decide if they want to move to Windows Vista or back to Windows XP before their trial runs end on June 1. The road to upgrade or to downgrade from Vista beta testing installation may not be a smooth as details on how to proceed best are very limited.
“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 Microsoft Customer Preview Program (CPP) site reads.
“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,” Computerworld said.
However, some hints can be found on Microsoft’s Vista support forums.
Beta and release candidate (RC) versions of Windows Vista can only be upgraded using the full Ultimate edition. This is exactly the same as saying that you can’t use an upgrade edition to move from Beta/RC to final, it has to be the full version of Windows Vista. As a consequence, Beta/RC users can’t take advantage of the lower-priced upgrade Vista stock-keeping units (SKU). The price of Vista upgrade edition is $259 and the full Ultimate version is $399.
To take advantage of lower-priced upgrade edition of Vista or less-featured version like Home Premium, tester must reinstall an earlier operating system and from their upgrade to the Vista final. This extra hassle of reinstalling didn’t sit well to some beta testers. They feel Microsoft has not been too supportive to Vista beta testers.
If Microsoft cannot offer some kind of discount to Vista testers, the company should have at least give full details of the above scenario when they first offer the beta/RC versions for download. Remember, only in a full disclosure that we can decide better for our lives.
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June 9th, 2007
I was a tester, and I was given a free Ultimate upgrade copy. Many of not all of us official testers were given either an Ultimate or Business version depending on what our system supported.
If you were a late adopter who tried the O/S in the few months when it was opened up to anyone for “evaluation” then I son’t think you should be entitled to a free copy, you did nothing to help the process and so why should you profit from it. I will not claim Microsoft is perfect but they have taken care of beta tsters in the past, and did so in this case as well.
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