upgrading Vista Home Premium to Ultimate

College Life
1

<p>Does anyone have any experience upgrading Vista Home Premium (32-bit) to Vista Ultimate (32-bit)?</p>

<p>We are considering buying an HP laptop that comes with Home Premium, and then my son (incoming freshman) would upgrade it to Vista Ultimate when he arrives on campus. He can get Ultimate for $10 via the CLA (Campus License Agreement). This would save us about $100 (vs getting the laptop with Vista Business 32-bit installed).</p>

<p>So, any input on how easy/hard it is to upgrade? How long does it take to do the upgrade?</p>

<p>On the one hand, I'd like to save the money. On the other hand, I don't want him spending massive amounts of time trying (and failing) to do the upgrade, when he should be participating in the various orientation activities. He has some experience installing programs, but he has never done anything of this magnitude. The campus computing center does have a "help desk", but I suspect they will be swamped at that time.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input!</p>

2

<p>I have not done this exact upgrade, so if someone has and posts here listen to them. But I have done many upgrades and 32-bit to 32-bit should be no more than inserting the windows disks and letting windows verify. It should just add a few programs and change the reg code. Very Easy.</p>

<p>Oh and you may want at least 4 GB of RAM</p>

<p>PS: Perhaps you know that MS is coming out with a new OS in just a few months. Faster boot for laptops and less of a memory hog.</p>

3

<p>It should be easy.</p>

<p>Even installing windows from scratch isn’t much of a hassle. He would basically just pop the disc in, tell it to install then leave it alone. It’s not a very technical process.</p>

4

<p>My husband’s an official Microsoft Beta tester and has been testing Windows 7 on several computers for months. He says the final release candidate is very good and sites like CNet agree. He also had no trouble importing from Vista Home Premium </p>

<p>Since your son will almost certainly want to upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out, you might consider downloading the release candidate. It’s free and will be good for a year. </p>

<p>Windows 7 is supposed to be officially released October 22, but Best Buy (and probably others) are rumored to begin preselling an upgrade version later this month–around June 26. </p>

<p>[Windows</a> 7 Release Candidate Customer Preview Program](<a href=“http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx]Windows”>Experience the Power of AI with Windows 11 OS, Computers, & Apps | Microsoft Windows)</p>

<p>[Windows</a> 7 - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com](<a href=“Windows 7 (Professional) for Windows - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download”>Windows 7 (Professional) for Windows - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download)</p>

5

<p>It will be very easy. He won’t even need to change the boot order or anything like that. Simply: </p>

<p>1) Launch up Vista home premium
2) Pop in the disc
3) Follow the easy installation steps</p>

6

<p>Thanks for all of the great feedback, it is very helpful.</p>

7

<p>One more thing - I like MS but you could not pay me enough to advise a non-techie to Beta test anything for them. </p>

<p>Beta is fun to play with but stay away unless you can afford endless hours of playing with the thing…</p>

<p>But thats just me…</p>

8

<p>Actually the Windows 7 Beta and RC have worked pretty much flawlessly for me since February. ;)</p>

9

<p>same here.</p>