Vista Upgrade certificate - Is this stupid or what???

[Doomer]

So I go to the Vista upgrade site that's listed on the upgrade cert. that came with the Win XP Pro I just bought.

I'm looking at the "WINDOWS VISTA UPGRADE" page and it's asking me for a MS Office COA key. The spaces provided will not hold a Win XP key. MS Office has nothing to do with what I'm trying to do here. I've gone thru this 3 times being careful not to click anything that refers to MS Office and still, I get this same stupid page.

Does anyone know what's going on here?

Thanks

 

[rmrf]

bait and switch

 

[Doomer]

Ain't gonna work. I don't need MS Office.

 

[irishScott]

what

 

[Doomer]

OK, just got a email from them. They say there was a problem with the COA key entry but it was resolved. But it's not. Try it and you'll see what I'm talking about. When you get to the page where you enter the upgrade # and COA #, it asks for the MS Office # instead of the Win XP #.

 

[Ernie99]

Are you typing in the COA or the product key?

 

[Doomer]

Originally posted by: Ernie99
Are you typing in the COA or the product key?

COA = Certificate of Authenticity. It's a sticker that contains the License key so no, I'm not trying to type in a sticker. Win XP has a 5 section key made up of 5 alphanumeric digits in each section. Apparently the Office key contains 4 sections with 5 digits in the first section and 3 in the others.

 

[Ernie99]

The COA "key" is different from the product key. The XP COA is also a 5 digit numeric - 3 digit - 3 digit - 3 digit

You are typing in the wrong key

I have done Vista upgrades from Dell already on a few machines we have purchased. Do NOT type in the 5 section alphanumeric product key. There is another key directly below that which is the COA "key". Enter that number.

 

[Doomer]

Jeebus, There are a bunch of numbers on the COA. I just noticed that one of them seems to match the format that the web page is asking for but it at the top of the sticker on the part that remains behind when you peel it off the cellophane . But still, why is it asking for a MS Office key when the upgrade to Vista from Win XP has nothing to do with Office?

Thanks

 

[Ernie99]

Some web designer coded the site incorrectly. Did your upgrade go through?

 

[Doomer]

Yep, I used the number at the top of the COA and it went thru without a hitch.

Thanks all for the help, especially Ernie99. You da man.

 

[Ernie99]

No problem. Glad I could be of service.