I got a laptop in July and it has Windows XP Pro. It also has a vista ready sticker. and i bought a copy of XP Pro from my school in september. is there any chance if i contact microsoft that they will qualify me for free updates to vista?
No idea. Just try going to their site and contacting their customer support. If they say no you can threaten that you were mislead into believing that Vista wasn't coming out for 5 more years and that XP Pro was the only option...