Installing Vista Home basic with Home Premium DVD

[Michael Chare]

If I buy a Laptop with Vista Home Basic and then reformat the hard drive (to
get rid of any unwanted utilities), can I then install Vista Home Basic by
using an OEM Home Premium DVD but entering the licence number of the
original Home Basic?

(It will be a bit frustrating if the OEM DVD does not contain a driver for
the laptop network!)

Is there an equivalent of the Linux 'Live CD's for Vista. i.e. a CD that
you can boot from and then complete an installation via an Internet
connection?

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Depends, since the OEM Home Basic DVD your system came with might contain
drivers specific to that system.

 

[PhilBiker]

I don't think the licensing / verification used by Microsoft will allow that.

It seems to me like it would be a whole lot simpler to just remove the
unwanted utilities using the Control Panel. I've done this with two
pre-installed Vista machines (one Home Basic, one Home Premium) with a great
deal of success.

 

[Michael Chare]

I don't think the licensing / verification used by Microsoft will allow
that.

It seems to me like it would be a whole lot simpler to just remove the
unwanted utilities using the Control Panel. I've done this with two
pre-installed Vista machines (one Home Basic, one Home Premium) with a
great
deal of success.

Thanks, I can always try that. The laptop will likely come with a recovery
DVD and partition, which may or may not these unwanted utilities!