Vista home basic upgrade on a dell pc?

gk172

Im looking for some advice please, my pc which i bought from dell in january this years runs vista basic and im looking at upgrading maybe to the premium vista as there seems to be more options on the premium. But how do i go about doing it? I called dell who wont help me but suggested i go to microsoft but im not sure im ready to purchase yet till i know more info and would it be worth it? Dell have confirmed that my pc can run the premium version but ive to source it elsewhere. Also in the confusion is the windows disc is for dell pc so how would that go about re an upgrade would i be ok to upgrade from microsoft and what does oem version mean

Thanks in advance;)

deanos

type in "windows anytime upgrade" in the start / search box and follow the instructions, all you need is a key to unlock the new bit as far as im aware

Reggie_Rebel

Also in the confusion is the windows disc is for dell pc so how would that go about re an upgrade would i be ok to upgrade from microsoft and what does oem version mean

The Windows Disc would be used for restoring your PXC to it's original state should you need to, the disc won't be affected by an upgrade. It just means that should you upgrade then you'll need a somesort of recovery disc or partition for the upgrade to Vista Premium

OEM means Orginal Equipment Manufacturer or what was on/in the PC when you first had it

gk172

Thank you:beer:

So would that mean if i ever reformatted and reinstalled i would then have to do it in 2 parts? as the disc i have from dell is only home basic and i do have a recovery partition which is something i have never used before

Still a bit confused about oem ie amazon -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Vista-Home-Premium/dp/B000MFDJ1A/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1204907975&sr=8-1 or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Vista-Home-Premium/dp/B000KCIA3W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1204907975&sr=8-2 quite a price differance or even bought from - http://www.snutuk.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=9_22&products_id=58&osCsid=7d69fb3b21d983be994f68cbb4881b07

What do you think? as the last one seems to be a full installation against the first one from amazon being an upgrade.

Reggie_Rebel

I don't work with Dell so don't take this as Gospel but it is possible that if you did upgrade, Vista Premium would park itself in the recovery partyition meaning you only need to reformat once.

As I said don't take this as 100%, others with Dell experience will probably give a definitive answer

deanos

From what i understand all Vista disks contain all the versions and you need different product keys to unlock them, thats why when you do the anytime upgrade all it does is give you a new key to unlock the higher versions

gk172

Ive had a look at whats in my dell box and the disc that came with it doesnt look like a windows disc, it states that it is a operating system then reinstallation dvd windows vista home basic 32 bit and also this operating system is tied to dell pcs. What do you think?

opportunity_cost

gk172 wrote: »

Ive had a look at whats in my dell box and the disc that came with it doesnt look like a windows disc, it states that it is a operating system then reinstallation dvd windows vista home basic 32 bit and also this operating system is tied to dell pcs. What do you think?

One of these?

gk172

Yes one of those But i have been informed that it i upgrade vista it may affect my warrenty with dell so if thats the case i will stick with basic at least till my year is up.

chuckles1066

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

I don't work with Dell so don't take this as Gospel but it is possible that if you did upgrade, Vista Premium would park itself in the recovery partyition meaning you only need to reformat once.

As I said don't take this as 100%, others with Dell experience will probably give a definitive answer

No, the Recovery Partition is factory-created; installing different OS's won't affect the partition or what's on it.

Conor_3

And the recovery partition contains an image which has all versions of Vista on it.