How to Prevent Future Upgrade Fiascos

1. Microsoft should stop assuming that vendors listen to its advice. The advice given by KB888372 - that vendors should not create XP images on Intel hardware and expect them to work on AMD hardware - was ignored by HP - and possibly by other vendors. When Microsoft re-releases Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update, it should improve its hardware-detection features and override the 'time bomb' lurking in some OEM images.

2. Vendors should start paying attention to Microsoft. KB888372 is now in version 4.1, so it's obvious that Microsoft's been telling vendors for quite a while to be more careful about how they create Windows XP images. So, if you're a hardware vendor that builds Windows XP images on both AMD and Intel-based platforms, get your imaging act together if you've been cutting corners. And, to those of you who are already building different images for Intel and AMD platforms - thank you, thank you very much.

3. Users should build their own images instead of relying on a possibly-fouled up OEM image. If you don't want to (or can't) install a fresh Windows XP installation on your AMD-based laptop of any brand, follow the advice in KB888372 to remove the Intelppm registry key if it exists on your system - then use a program like Ghost or Acronis True Image to create an image of your OS and installed applications before installing an upgrade.

So let it be written - so let it be done.

(article updated 5-28-2008)