about upgrading/buying vista

[Guest]

i have vista RC1 ultimate (build 5600) and have a (more than) couple of
questions

1: if i buy the full version of vista home basic or home premium, will it be
an UPGRADE or a CLEAN INSTALL?

2:if i say "down with vista" (temporarily of course) and decide to reinstall
xp home, will it be an UPGRADE or a CLEAN INSTALL?

3:and lastly, can i make xp a dual install now, and when vista expires, use
xp as my primary os?

these questions are driving me crazy so please post ASAP

 

[Paul Smith]

i have vista RC1 ultimate (build 5600) and have a (more than) couple of
questions

1: if i buy the full version of vista home basic or home premium, will it
be
an UPGRADE or a CLEAN INSTALL?

The full version of both can upgrade and clean install from Windows XP Home
(Pro rules out Basic). But upgrading from RC1 is doubtful, and even if it
is possible I would strongly recommend against it, who knows what potential
issues could crop up down along the line.

2:if i say "down with vista" (temporarily of course) and decide to
reinstall
xp home, will it be an UPGRADE or a CLEAN INSTALL?

As above.

3:and lastly, can i make xp a dual install now, and when vista expires,
use
xp as my primary os?

Yes.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Bill Frisbee]

Slim,


1.) It will need to be a clean install to the best of my knowledge. You
typically cannot downgrade from a higher "version" beta to a "lowever"
release version.

2.) Moving from XP Home from Vista Ultimate would need to be a clean
install.


Bill F.

 

[Rock]

i have vista RC1 ultimate (build 5600) and have a (more than) couple of
questions

1: if i buy the full version of vista home basic or home premium, will it
be
an UPGRADE or a CLEAN INSTALL?

2:if i say "down with vista" (temporarily of course) and decide to
reinstall
xp home, will it be an UPGRADE or a CLEAN INSTALL?

3:and lastly, can i make xp a dual install now, and when vista expires,
use
xp as my primary os?

these questions are driving me crazy so please post ASAP

1. MS hasn't said for sure if RC1 can be upgraded to RTM. Complicating
this is your wanting to go from Ultimate to a Home version. In XP you
cannot downgrade from Pro to Home - a clean install is required. So I would
say the odds are the answer to your question is No.

2. To go from RC1 Ultimate to XP Home, if you're not in a dual boot
situation, will require a clean install of XP Home.

3. Certainly. The Vista install can be removed. Make sure you have some
means of recovering the system to XP Home in case the attempt at installing
Vista as a dual boot doesn't work. It should work - I have a multi-boot
setup with two XP and two Vista, but we have seen situations in here where
the install went haywire.

I've found it's easiest to let things that are driving you crazy take you
all the way to crazy. Once there you no longer have to deal with the ups
and downs of the "driving you" part.

 

[Guest]

thanks to eveyone for answering so quickly.
to be a little more specific as to my third question, after vista expires i
can switch to xp with no data loss?

 

[Rock]

thanks to eveyone for answering so quickly.
to be a little more specific as to my third question, after vista expires
i
can switch to xp with no data loss?

In a dual boot system, yes.