Appendix F: Windows Anytime Upgrade
WAU is designed to allow owners of basic Windows Vista editions to upgrade easily to more advanced editions. Intended primarily for home users, it is available in Windows Vista Business to enable users to upgrade systems to Vista Ultimate, which is also business-compatible.
WAU can be disabled by administrators to prevent users from upgrading systems without proper change control processes.
To block WAU
On a reference system, open the Windows Registry Editor and create the following (DWORD) key:
Note Some parts of the following code snippet have been displayed in multiple lines only for better readability. These should be entered in a single line.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\WAU
Set the value of the key created in the previous step to 1.
WAU will still appear on system menus, but users will receive a message that the feature has been disabled when they attempt to use it.
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