Upgrade from Vista Home to Vista Premium? Possible? Cost?

[Guest]

Long story...a friend has a new Dell laptop with Vista Home. She wants
Vista Premium for the Media Center stuff.

Is it possible to upgrade over the existing installation, so that apps,
etc. do not need to be reinstalled?

What would be the cost? I don't think she wants to pay $120 for a full
copy of Vista Premium.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Use The Windows Any Time Upgrade Feature To Upgrade To Either Premium
Edition Or Ultimate Edition, Just Right Click On Computer, Then Click
Properties, Next Click On Upgrade Now, Finally Be Sure To Click On Yes When
It Asks You If You Want Microsoft To Ship You The Windows Anytime Upgrade
DVD (If You Don't Already Have It), Just FYI.

 

[Guest]

I think you mean she has Vista Basic, not Home. Vista Home Premium is the
version with Media Center. Note that laptops do not run vista home premium
well unless they are new, expensive or upgraded--hard to do with a notebook
computer. If she already has Home Premium and does not have the right
hardware, it reverts to Basic. She would need a tv tuner to take advantage of
all Media Center's features. Home Premium works better on a desktop or a high
end notebook. Have her run the windows upgrade advisor on her vista disk to
see why she might want to reconsider the upgrade.

 

[Bill Yanaire]

You computer keeps capitalizing the first letter of each word. The best
thing you can do is wipe your PC clean and install Ubuntu. Just FYI

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I think you mean she has Vista Basic, not Home.

Actually neither terminology is really correct. The lowest level of
Vista is called "Home Basic." The next step up is called "Home
Premium."

So the only version of Vista that can be upgraded to Home Premium is
Home Basic.