14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Vista is an operating system hard to convince to perform an upgrade or to install, in certain situations. Microsoft is delivering resources designed to help Windows Vista users mitigate error messages when they attempt to perform an install or upgrade. "Upgrade has been disabled - To upgrade, start the installation from Windows," "The installed operating system does not support an upgrade to Windows Vista" and "The upgrade cannot be started because the content on your installation disk is written in a different language than the language on your computer" are three of the most common error messages encountered by Vista users.
In mid March, Microsoft has issued a total of three knowledge base articles aimed at providing a resolve these error messages. "The installed operating system does not support an upgrade to Windows Vista" means exactly that. In this case Microsoft advices users to either clean install Windows Vista or to "upgrade the computer to an operating system that meets the upgrade requirements for Windows Vista."
Additionally, when attempting to install Windows Vista via the installation media, users may receive the following error message: "Upgrade has been disabled - To upgrade, start the installation from Windows." Microsoft has associated this issue with running Setup by using the Windows Vista installation media on a system that has no operating system installed or when upgrading the current installation to a 32-bit edition of Windows Vista. In the first case simply follow the instructions delivered by the Custom installation guide. "If you are trying to upgrade your current installation of Windows to a 32-bit version of Windows Vista, exit Setup, restart the computer by using the currently installed version of Windows, and then restart the Windows Vista installation process," Microsoft added.
The third situation refers to scenarios where users attempt to upgrade their current operating system to Windows Vista with a different language version. Users will only be able to upgrade to the same language version of Vista or perform a custom installation.