All Vista CD Same?

[lambchops511]

Hi

I recently acquired a legal Vista CD Key (Business) from MSDNAA. However my university is stupid and I can only pick up the media at my university and not available for download on our msdnaa site. I wont be anywhere near my university for the next 2 months (co-op term). So can I just use any other Vista CD and use my own cd key and itll be fine?

thanks

 

[Brian48]

Dunno, but I'd say probably. From a manufacturer standpoint, it would certainly make the production easier.

I bought the Ultimate Version and along with it, two additional keys for the Home Premium Edition via the Familiy Discount offer that they had last month. I was able to do the install for all 3 machines using the same CD.

 

[stash]

Not always.

Your key could be a volume license key. There are two versions of the Business SKU, volume and Retail/OEM. If you had a retail/OEM key, any Retail or OEM DVD should work, because they include Home Basic, Home Premium, Business non-VL and Ultimate on the same disc.

Business VL and Enterprise (which is VL only) require different media.

 

[jkresh]

try installing with a regular vista dvd (use your code on the install), if it works great if not you should be able to find a volume license version on the web. Not realy legal but since you have the key I don't think anyone would mind if you obtained a copy of the software from a different source (though still use your key when installing the volume license one). You could also ask someone on campus to pick up a disk, make an image and upload it to you (depending on your campus file transfer policy).

 

[corkyg]

All retail disks are the same (DVD.) The version installed depends on the key used. This was officially presented publicly at a recent MS Technet event here in Tucson.