[richgcook]

Hi,

I have been reading a few topics in this forum about the upgrade for Vista and the OEM version and I'm stuck. So I thought that this may get me a more direct answer.

I currently have XP Professional and have run the Vista Advisor so everything seems a-ok if I decide to go to Vista, however, I am stuck between getting the upgrade or the OEM. If I had a lot of cash right now I would most certainly just buy the retail and do a fresh install as I was planning on formatting my hard-drive. It's not an old old PC but I feel it needs a clean.

So with cash limited, the option is either an upgrade to Vista, which would be fine I guess, or a fresh install with the OEM.

I'd just like some opinions really and what you guys think.

Any help would be much appreciated as I'm a bit buggered with it all.

Thanks,

Rich

[Advertisements]

Okay my girlfriend just came up with a solution, which makes me a bit uneasy... haha, but this is what she said.

Why don't I just fresh install after format with the XP disk then upgrade to Vista?

What do you guys think?

[richgcook]

Okay my girlfriend just came up with a solution, which makes me a bit uneasy... haha, but this is what she said.

Why don't I just fresh install after format with the XP disk then upgrade to Vista?

What do you guys think?

[Neil Jones]

Why make the process twice as long?

The OEM version is installed onto an empty drive, no upgrade available. It will insist on wiping the machine.
The retail version comes in two versions - an upgrade or a full version. The full version is the same as the OEM version only without the licence restriction but you can install it on an empty drive. The upgrade version can be upgraded on top of XP or clean-installed.

This might be of interest on clean-installing with an upgrade copy of Vista:
http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070201

[richgcook]

I'm curious to know what I won' actually be able to do without this 'license' :/