Re: Vista Catch 22

Barnacle wrote:


Passing through a department store in Geneva I saw an Acer Aspire L100
small desktop PC discounted to circa 50% normal price. Because I needed
another PC on impulse I bought it.

At home in Berne I started it and, of course, the OEM Vista Home
Premium OS was in French - okay, I thought, I could live with that
although my French was pretty terrible. Then I saw that included in the
CDs was an Acer disk labelled "Windows Anytime Upgrade" with a number of
languages listed, one of which being English.

I loaded it and proceeded to install a new version of Vista, and joy,
in English - everything worked.

Then on the next boot it all turned sour. Vista asked for the product
key (it had done that on the original install) then said it was
incompatible and led me to register for upgrading on-line. But there was
no Internet link on the PC so I opted for the alternative phone call
procedure. I was then presented with a list of countries and chose
"Switzerland", two numbers were shown and both met with "invalid number"
when dialled.

The Microsoft support costs an arm and a leg (Sfr 98) per query I found
when I went to send an e-mail to ask how to get my copy registered and
paid for. Short of buying a new copy of Vista (or XP) at full price -
totally negating the discount price of the PC. And even then can I be
sure an installation OS CD would make a clean install without finding
some incompatible product id?

You bought the wrong thing. The upgrade needs to be in the same language as
the original; i.e., French. You will need to return the upgrade for credit.
If you want an English version of Vista, you will need to purchase a full
one and do a clean install OR upgrade to Vista French Ultimate and then you
can switch languages with MUI.

Otherwise, restore the computer to factory condition and eBay it. Presumably
it isn't convenient for you to return the machine to the store where you
bought it.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

.

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