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upgrading to Vista


JH2688

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I just bought a new computer that has vista. It came with a Vista cd. Now can i use that cd to upgrade my laptop. I tried to install it but there was a screen that said that i cannot go from window xp media center  to vista home basic. But there was an advanced option that could click on, but that would clean out my laptop, which i dont want to do.

Will the cd work? I'm willing to clean out my laptop if i have to.

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I just bought a new computer that has vista. It came with a Vista cd. Now can i use that cd to upgrade my laptop. I tried to install it but there was a screen that said that i cannot go from window xp media center  to vista home basic. But there was an advanced option that could click on, but that would clean out my laptop, which i dont want to do.

Will the cd work? I'm willing to clean out my laptop if i have to.

You will not be able to do that. You would need a cd-key and you don't have one that will work on laptop.

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Im almost sure vista does not install like xp. Vista saves all your files and puts them in there own folder. Xp would delete everything. Vista saves it all. I am almost sure about this the file is called windows old. No im not being a smarty pants.

Please make sure you back up everything. Vista is killer on a lap top in my humble oppinion. Just not real great on a desktop as of yet. You may not be happy with it. So go with the side of caution incase you want to revert back to xp. Best of luck.

I am almost sure you have 30 days to play with it. I would suggest play with it for 28 days see if you like it. If not get rid of it and you can install it again on another computer someplace down the road. I would use nortons ghost or something simular and hide it on its own partion.

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Im almost sure vista does not install like xp. Vista saves all your files and puts them in there own folder. Xp would delete everything. Vista saves it all. I am almost sure about this the file is called windows old. No im not being a smarty pants.

No, Vista can install with the same options as XP.  You just have to click advanced options to format the drive and such.  Either way, installing the Vista that came with his new computer on his laptop is a license violation.  So I cannot recommend doing that.  XP media center is good, I would just let it be.  As ninja said, it might not run as well as you'd like, especially if you don't have 2 gigs of RAM.

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I think that there is just to many variables and im pretty sure its illegal to do it. I'll wait a while and see if i like vista on this desktop first. than i might go the legal way and buy a version of vista later on. My laptop only has 512 mb ram so im pretty sure vista would just slow it way down. Im not a kind of guy that likes to wait more than a few seconds for something to load.

I just wanted to know if it would be simple but i dont think it will be. This is my parents new desktop that they bought for $400. its a really nice pc, 120gb. 512mb ram, dvd/cd/lightscride burner, 17inch flat screen. compaq presario. I think its a really good buy.

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No, Vista can install with the same options as XP.  You just have to click advanced options to format the drive and such.  Either way, installing the Vista that came with his new computer on his laptop is a license violation.  So I cannot recommend doing that.  XP media center is good, I would just let it be.  As ninja said, it might not run as well as you'd like, especially if you don't have 2 gigs of RAM.

I stand corrected. Thanks for catching that mistake. I just missed the pre installed part. My bad. Just don't know that much about vista. Just the stuff I read. It really bothers me lots of people are comparing vista to windows me. Its a short lived os that will be updated in a huge way with the next microsoft os release. Give it time. See what happens. But make no mistake. There are people who like and use windows me. Its a matter of taste. To each there own.

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As it has been pointed out..  You can install it, but it would be a license violation.  As far as Vista on a laptop.. I have seen it on an IBM T42 and a few of the newer HPs.  All I can say is that unless you are able to use the SD card or thumbdrive for the ReadyBoost app the computer was noticeably laggy.  Also some of the networking is out right crazy.  One of the HPs could not VPN into our lab and the other could.

As far as calling Vista = ME...  I wouldn't good that far.. Yet.  I don't think that Vista has enough time on the market and not enough current XP users are making the switch.  However, that being said Dell has begun to offer XP on some of its products to satisfy demand.  On the contrary Business Week is saying that Vista is paying off for Microsoft.  I don't know who to believe yet.. I am just going to have to wait until I can get my hands on a copy.

Here is the BW article: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070427_478095.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories

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I have Vista Home Premium installled on my Dell E1505 Laptop and It runs very smoothly.  Applications open almost instantly and the whole operating system itself seems quite quick.  Vista is sooooo many useful features that were lacking in XP and it does look a lot better.  Most of the driver bugs have been hammered out except for some video cards.  Unless your a hardcore gamer you'll probably like vista better than XP.  2GB of memory does help but I have about 1300MB free so it is doable on only 1GB.  The specs of my Vista laptop are

Dell E1505

Vista Home Premium

T7200 2.0GHz

2GB memory

256MB Geforce Go 7300

80GB 7200rpm SATA

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Yea I agree swimmer. There are just so many people saying so many things. Who is right and who is wrong. Who knows. If you have vista and love it and works ok. Stay with it. If your unsure. Buy a copy, I am not sure of the prices around yet. Anyway buy a copy of it. See what you think. See which versions and such you can use it for so many days without activating.

I myself found modding xp into a vista clone is really becoming popular. Its pretty easy to do. I gave my xp a major facelift I do like the looks. Im not useing a vista look. But do have the glass borders and such. So I really think that if your just wanting the looks of vista, turn your xp into a vista clone.

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Ok my old computer I had before I moved  was a amd 3000+ 1 gb ram and an ATI X1800 ( I beleive) with 512 mb of video ram and it ran fine just as well as XP did (startup time of the OS faster startup time of the programs the same gaming went just the same etc) and later I added a 2gb flash drive as windows ready boost and performance way out beat XP (got the drive on sell for 20$ at fry's electronics).

Now my dad bought himself a new PC from emachines (crap I know >.<) with a intel pentium D 3.2 ghz 512 mb of ram onboard video and home basic and it was CRAP. Startup time was slow programs always acted weird  programs took forever to start gaming was impossible.

So I'd say as long as you got 1 gb of ram and the video card to handle aero you'll be happy (2gb of ram or windows ready boost doesn't hurt though).

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it WILL install. But i recommend you put in your computer code in from your new computer with vista already in it. it should be on the right side of your computer at the bottom, it has 25 letters and numbers and 5 in each. it will already detect what version it is and it will install it on it. I installed it on my XP computer, the only problem was once vista is installed, theres no way to get rid of it, unless you want to pay a whole bunch of money for it to be removed professionaly :azn: hope i helped P.S., go to the microsoft website and see the minimal requirmnents for vista, make sure you have those before vista is installed, and the great thing about vista is that every time you plug in a new device(you have to be connected to the internet) it will install it from the internet instead of needing a CD, i love that! :wink2:

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