[rxkevco]

Hi all,,
Faced with a little bit of a dilema,,, should i get vista home premium or the premium upgrade ? ?

Am running xp pro at the moment and according to microsofts vista advice pages,, i can only do a full install with pro. Does this mean that i can only buy the full version and not the upgrade ?
Noted in the sticky above,, that you can do a double install with premium upgrade,,, ideally i would like to just do a fresh install,, but i can get the upgrade for a very reasonable price , so financially,, upgrade is the way to go ! !

Would appreciate any advice,, kev

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Welcome to GeeksToGo!. I would like to thank you for running the Vista Upgrade advisor. Now that you now what your system is capable of and any software issues you might have we can move onto the question of upgrade or clean install.

Upgrade: Vista renames your windows directory, back ups your profile, and then upgrades. at the end it will bring over your settings and applications.

Upgrade 2: clean install. It doesn't wipe your drive. Your data remains. however, no data is imported into vista. So technially it isn't a "clean install".

Fresh install: can only be done with a "non" upgrade version of vista. Either retail or oem. Goes through the traditional windows install. I normally do a delete of the os partition. Note: that if this is a pre manufactured (dell, hp, toshiba for examples), then it is common for them to have hidden partitions. Don't delete them if you ever want to restore your pc to factory settings/original os.

Then I recreate the partition, format, and then install the os.

I always recommend a fresh install. Your user experience will always be better than if you upgrade.

Hope this answers your questions. If you have more please ask away.

thanks,
Starjax

[starjax]

Welcome to GeeksToGo!. I would like to thank you for running the Vista Upgrade advisor. Now that you now what your system is capable of and any software issues you might have we can move onto the question of upgrade or clean install.

Upgrade: Vista renames your windows directory, back ups your profile, and then upgrades. at the end it will bring over your settings and applications.

Upgrade 2: clean install. It doesn't wipe your drive. Your data remains. however, no data is imported into vista. So technially it isn't a "clean install".

Fresh install: can only be done with a "non" upgrade version of vista. Either retail or oem. Goes through the traditional windows install. I normally do a delete of the os partition. Note: that if this is a pre manufactured (dell, hp, toshiba for examples), then it is common for them to have hidden partitions. Don't delete them if you ever want to restore your pc to factory settings/original os.

Then I recreate the partition, format, and then install the os.

I always recommend a fresh install. Your user experience will always be better than if you upgrade.

Hope this answers your questions. If you have more please ask away.

thanks,
Starjax

[rxkevco]

Hi starjax,,, thanks for the prompt reply.

My pc is running xp pro ( i deleted the previous manufacturers partition when it was running xp home ),, so it will be fine>

What exactly is the difference between the home premium upgrade and the home premium oem , or retail version ? ?
What user expeirences will i be missing out on with just the upgrade version ? ?

[starjax]

when you upgrade there will be leftovers from the previous os. This means that any previous issues may or may not still be present after the upgrade. Certainly some new issues will occur. For example. Some people who did not run the vista upgrade advisor found out that a number of applications no longer worked or functioned with reduces features. Some people have reported that codecs for movies and such no longer worked. Not to mention there is a loss of disk space and often the system will not run as effeciently as it would if it was a fresh install.

What I am trying to say is that each persons upgrade experience will vary. However, those who do a fresh install will not inherit legacy issues.

I never will recomend anyone do an upgrade.

Now as to oem vs retail. OEM can only be installed on a single pc. Retail can be installed on more than one pc. Support for oem is also less than retail. Meaning that retail gets more support from microsoft than oem. Oem versions are normally reserved for system builders.

[rxkevco]

Many thanks once again starjax,,,,
Its all a little clearer now,,, i think ! !

Vista advisor didnt show up not one potential incompatibility with my pc,,, the MB was fine, dual core cpu was fine,, plenty of ram,, soundcard, graphics card, wireless card were all recognised for vista,,, in fact everything got the thumbs up,, scanner, printer,, pda,, external hard drive,,, it actually advised me to opt for the business ultimate version ! ! !

My pc only had a fresh install of xp pro last week cos one of my drives was dying ( pc less than 6 months old ).

So ,,, in effect, specification wise,,,there is visually and technically, no difference between the retail and upgrade versions,, apart from the possibility of conflicts or suchlike if the upgrade is done on a mucky pc ? ?
Therefore, in reality,, if its a fresh install of xp that the vista upgrade is going onto,,, then any technical issues should be reduced to a minimum, and be no different than a completly fresh install of vista ? ?

Am i following you correctly ? ?
Many thanks,, kev

[starjax]

I would have to say Yes.

[rxkevco]

Thanks very much for all your advice starjax,,,
Cheers, kev