Is there any way to do this? Bought some new Dells at work that come with an (OEM) Ultimate key yet our standard image is business. When I install it and try to use the key it complains that the key doesn't match the image.
Just thought I'd ask before I go and make a new install specially for ultimate.
You cannot use an OEM key for any other install on that computer except for the OEM image. The only downgrade rights that you have with an OEM version of Vista Ultimate or Business is to Windows XP Pro and NOT to other versions of Vista.
See Royalty OEM Reference Sheet (pdf) and Downgrade Rights Chart (.doc)
For anyone interested I was able to solve this issue by installing business without a CD key (so it's in trial mode or whatever), popping the Ultimate DVD in and upgrading through windows.
As a result of doing that an interesting thing I noticed was that once the upgrade was installed Windows was activated even though I hadn't entered a key in the whole process? I changed the key to the proper OEM one anyway and reactivated but maybe its possible bug or something?