Windows Vista upgrades
If your present computer has the necessary horsepower and you want to upgrade to Vista from XP, here’s some facts about upgrade routes. Microsoft has a rather convoluted set of rules about what version of XP can be upgraded to what version of Vista. Since an upgrade version of Vista costs less than a full version, the rules determine how much you have to spend. Sometimes it seems to be a policy at Microsoft to make upgrading as confusing as possible. One complication is that there are two possible upgrade methods. There is what we are used to calling an upgrade- installing the new operating system on top of the old one and retaining (if we are lucky) most of our old settings and programs. Microsoft distinguishes this “in-place” upgrade from one where you zap your old system entirely and make a fresh Vista installation. A table below shows the upgrade routes that are possible “in-place”.
| Windows Vista Home Basic | Windows Vista Home Premium | Windows Vista Business | Windows Vista Ultimate | |
| Windows XP Professional | X | X | OK | OK |
| Windows XP Home | OK | OK | OK | OK |
| Windows XP Media Center Edition | X | OK | X | OK |
So if you have Windows XP Professional, does that mean that you can’t upgrade to Vista Home Premium? Not in-place, apparently. But you are still eligible to buy the upgrade version of Vista Home Premium and do a fresh install (saying goodbye to all your old settings, etc). In fact, owning any full version of Windows XP entitles you to the upgrade price for any version of Vista but you may be limited to a fresh install. Even owning a full copy of Windows 2000 entitles you to the upgrade price. Windows 98 and Me are not eligible.
Things get murkier if you do not own a full version of XP. A lot of home PC owners have OEM versions of XP and these may or may not be eligible for upgrades to Vista. You’ll have to ask your original vendor (and hope you’ll get an answer). Another possible catch is systems that have already been upgraded once. If you upgraded from Windows 98 to XP, then you probably can’t do it again. However, any hardware on a system that came with 98 probably wouldn’t run Vista anyway.
Added later in the day: By “fresh” install I mean an installation that wipes out the old system, not installation to a blank disk. Some posts on the Internet indicate that there must be a valid Windows 2000 or XP system actually installed on the system to be upgraded. The old system gets wiped out but it has to be there to start with.
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