Vista Activation

[Guest]

I first bought a copy of Vista Home Premium and installed it on my laptop -
activation ok. Then I decided to purchase the Ultimate version and installed
this on my laptop - activation ok. ( i did not uninstall the home premium
version first). So in effect I have two versions of Vista installed on my
laptop.

I have now installed the Home Premium edition on my home desktop - but this
will not activate as it thinks it is already installed on my laptop.

On ringing Microsoft I was told to unistall the vista versions on my laptop.
Is this the only way to do this and if so I do I uninstall the vista versions
(and will I need to uninstall on my desktop ?

Thanks

 

[Mark]

Is the Home Premium OEM?
Is the Ultimate the Full Version or Upgrade Version?

OEM is non-transferable once installed. It is licensed to the first machine
you install it on.
If your Ultimate disk is the full version, then unless you created separate
bootable partitions for your two Vista loads, the Ultimate should have
overwritten the Home Premium making your Home Premium available for the
desktop machine. (Unless it was OEM.)

If Ultimate disk is an upgrade, you essentially only have one "full" copy of
Vista and are not allowed to install it on two machines since the upgrade is
dependent upon the Home Premium version being installed.

Assuming you have two Full Versions (non-OEM) and no dual boot setup, call
MS back and tell them Home Premium is uninstalled from the first machine,
Ultimate is installed and the Home Premium is now installed on the second
machine. Then, they should be able to activate the Home Premium over the
phone.