UNSOLVED
Vista Ultimate
I'm about ready to buy an XPS 410 or 710 with XP Media Center. Would like to upgrade later to Vista Ultimate (recommended by PC Mag) and am willing to pay the difference. The $10 upgrade is only good for Vista Premium. Is there a way to get Ultimate and still get partial credit for the upgrade?
- My guess is no. But here's a thought: It's Jan 9 today. Vista releases in under 3 weeks (20 days to be exact). Why not wait and order it with a non-upgrade version of the Vista edition of your liking?Personally, I hate upgrade editions. From talking to a MSFT rep a few weeks ago it appears as though you will not be able to do a clean install of Vista using Upgrade media (unlike XP). You'll need an installed and activated XP on the HD before Vista can upgrade.With XP, we were able to simply put the 98 disk in and get the XP Upgrade version to do a clean install. Looks like that won't be possible with Vista. Of course, this isn't confirmed and MSFT can still do a 180 on this if enough people complain (as people did when the vista EULA first appeared).
Morpheus Phreak
297 Posts
391
0
Posted January 10th, 2007 12:00
ATC7 wrote:
I forgot to mention something that may be of interest to you.There is a thing called Vista Anytime Upgrade. With Vista, all editions are on the same DVD (Home Basic, Premium, Business and Ultimate) and you'll be able to purchase a new KEY from MSFT that would change your edition to another.For example; Say you have Home Premium and a year from now you wanted to go to Ultimate. You call up MSFT and give them your credit card number (no one knows the cost structure on this yet) and they issue you a new Key and deactivate your old one.You then re-install Vista using the new Key, and the same DVD as before, only now when it asks you which edition to install you will choose Ultimate instead of Home Premium.
Actually it's even simpler than that.When you do the WAU you put in your DVD and it will install the bits you need.No need to fully reinstall the OS.As for the upgrade DVD scenario, you can do a clean install, but not from a boot.You have to have a licensed copy of XP installed and from there when you put in the Vista DVD you can tell it to do a clean install at which point it will validate that your license is eligible and then when it reboots it will continue with a clean install :)
- Oh that makes more sense. I was just reading last night, after I posted, about how it just unlocks the features corresponding to the new edition for which you purchased the Key but it didn't give details. A complete re-install is kind of a pain although much less of a pain that how XP installed.Are you sure about the clean install from within XP? I've tried the upgrade scenario a few weeks back using Vista rtm and it does what you describe but it wasn't clean. It keeps all your programs and no formatting was involved. I don't recall being given the option for a complete wipe install.Also some on the MSFT Vista newsgroup have insisted that a "true" clean install including a low-level format can only be done with the full version.If you're right then I'm really glad that one can do it from within XP. It makes more sense to me and adds a little value to the Upgrade version.OT; but how do you quote when replying as you did?
- Thanks guys. I was planning to get a new copy of XP and then install Vista later, dual booting. On second thought, I may just wait and let them install Vista solo so I don't have to mess with it. Then I'd keep XP on my old computer for legacy stuff.
- I just spoke with an online Dell XPS rep who said that Dell will only be selling machines with Vista Home Premium and Business editions by the end of the month. He said that they are "not selling ultimate and don't have projections for when Microsoft is putting it out". Can anyone confirm or deny this?
Also, right now I have a copy of XP Pro and would like to only pay the price for upgrading to Vista (Ultimate, if possible). I'd rather not have to pay full price. Is this possible with a new Dell purchase?
Adam7 wrote:
I just spoke with an online Dell XPS rep who said that Dell will only be selling machines with Vista Home Premium and Business editions by the end of the month. He said that they are "not selling ultimate and don't have projections for when Microsoft is putting it out". Can anyone confirm or deny this?
Also, right now I have a copy of XP Pro and would like to only pay the price for upgrading to Vista (Ultimate, if possible). I'd rather not have to pay full price. Is this possible with a new Dell purchase?
If you only want to pay the "upgrade Price" you had better order right now because the free offer deal should be ending most any day now.I can not imagine you not being able to order any flavor of Vista you desire. That is just plain non-sense.
Morpheus Phreak
297 Posts
391
0
Posted January 11th, 2007 12:00
ATC7 wrote:
Oh that makes more sense. I was just reading last night, after I posted, about how it just unlocks the features corresponding to the new edition for which you purchased the Key but it didn't give details. A complete re-install is kind of a pain although much less of a pain that how XP installed.Are you sure about the clean install from within XP? I've tried the upgrade scenario a few weeks back using Vista rtm and it does what you describe but it wasn't clean. It keeps all your programs and no formatting was involved. I don't recall being given the option for a complete wipe install.Also some on the MSFT Vista newsgroup have insisted that a "true" clean install including a low-level format can only be done with the full version.If you're right then I'm really glad that one can do it from within XP. It makes more sense to me and adds a little value to the Upgrade version.OT; but how do you quote when replying as you did?
If you're talking about doing a full clean install on machines that have tons of programs and everything included then you are correct. There is not really a true way to do a full on clean install.However what I meant was having just a bare fresh install of XP and then upgrading to Vista that way. There's not settings or anything to really keep or mess up, so it essentially is just like a clean install.
ATC7
91 Posts
391
0
Posted January 10th, 2007 03:00