Licensing / Dual Boot Question

[Mike]

Hi,

I'm researching new PCs to buy. I'd like the features in Ultimate, but the
price tag is high and comes with few laptops I'm looking at. Most of the
ones I like have Home Premium installed and I'm licensed for Vista Business
Upgrade under the MS Partner program. If I purchase Home Premium on a
laptop can I install my Vista Business Upgrade version as a dual boot option
thereby giving me all the features depending on which OS I boot into?

TIA!

 

[Mike Brannigan]

Hi,

I'm researching new PCs to buy. I'd like the features in Ultimate, but
the price tag is high and comes with few laptops I'm looking at. Most of
the ones I like have Home Premium installed and I'm licensed for Vista
Business Upgrade under the MS Partner program. If I purchase Home Premium
on a laptop can I install my Vista Business Upgrade version as a dual boot
option thereby giving me all the features depending on which OS I boot
into?

TIA!

Within the strict adherence to eh End User License Agreement.
Your upgrade software is designed to upgrade (replace) the previous product.
The license to use the previous product becomes part of the new upgraded
product license. So in effect you no longer have a license to use the Home
product only new license to use the Business Edition.
Think of it like trading in a car. You get a newer better car to use at
lower cost as you part exchange your older one. You don't get the older one
to drive on the weekends and still have have new one or during the week.

 

[Mike]

Thanks for the info. I think you analogy applies to a Vista Ultimate
upgrade, but in this case Business and Home Premium offer 2 very different
feature sets. I'd just buy a laptop with Business (or Ultimate), but laptop
vendors aren't giving this as an option on most laptops (and certainly the
laptops with the features I want). It's too bad MS couldn't have figured
out a better way to offer it's OS (like you choose Home Premium or Business
when you activate and then download the features that make it that flavor).