vista coupons clarification

[Guest]

hey everyone. ivee been doing some research about upgrading to vista and i
have a few questions. Ive been lookin for the answers for a little while now
and i just need some clarification on some things. Here goes:

1)To get the coupon to upgrade to vista for a nominal fee, do you HAVE to
buy a pc capable of running it, or just buy the xp software. Ive seen online
stores just selling the software with the coupon. Can i just buy that and
upgrade? or do i have to buy a system with it?

2) Im planning on a building a system. I want to load it with vista home
premium. I want it to be a fresh clean install rather than an upgrade. Is
this possible if i buy media center xp and upgrade to vista using a coupon?
I have read that the upgrade goes from windows media center xp -> vista
premium. Would it be possible for me to buy windows media center xp, load
that on my current computer, and when i get my upgrade to vista home premium,
load that on my fresh newly built computer that has no os on it?

Thanks for the help guys and sorry if im bit redundant!

 

[Barry Watzman]

You can just buy a copy of XP now and get the upgrade when Vista ships.
You don't have to buy an entire new computer. Newegg has a prominent
display of the upgrades that they are offering with purchase of an OEM
copy of XP (Home, MCE or Pro). Other vendors will have similar
offerings. Note that the fees (upgrade fee and/or shipping) are set by
the vendor, not by Microsoft.

Presumably you can do a clean install of an upgrade version of Vista
(any flavor) on a bare hard drive if you have an XP CD to validate the
upgrade. Legally, however, a copy of Vista Upgrade and the copy of XP
that the Vista was an upgrade from (that validated it, whether installed
or not) are not two separate licenses and can't both be used on two
separate systems. Up to this point, however, this last requirement has
operated on the "honor" system and has not been enforced by Product
Activation.

 

[Chad Harris]

Upgrades with PC purchases are going to VARY VARY VARY which means each
company is going to have their own charges and enticements. Your milage
may, as with many things in life VARY.

Do not/ Do not pay good money to an OEM for a computer without receiving a
Vista DVD in your hand or you will have problems you can't solve down the
road.

MSFT is posting some upgrade information specific to the individual 3rd
party OEM named partners on their sites. But the answer to your upgrade
question comes from whomever makes the PC you're buying.

Upgrade paths/not deals to Vista though are here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeinfo.mspx

The offer differs by manufacturer and region, but the typical upgrade path
is as follows:

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 --> Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows XP Professional --> Windows Vista Business
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition --> Windows Vista Business
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition --> Windows Vista Business 64-bit
Windows XP Home Edition --> Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows XP Home Edition --> Windows Vista Home Premium
Microsoft Office 2003 --> Microsoft Office 2007

Dell, Gateway and HP have already put up details of the Express Upgrade
program on their websites. Generally, upgrades from Windows XP Media Center
and Windows XP Professional is free and will only incur shipping and
handling fees.

http://www.vistaultimate.com/windows-vista-express-upgrade-coupons.htm

CH

 

[Barry Watzman]

As I noted in another thread, Dell added an interesting twist in their
Vista upgrad program: If you buy a Dell computer that has XP Media
Center, you get a choice of a Vista upgrade to either Home Premium or
Business, both at the same price ($Free). Most OEMs, however, are
upgrading MCE to Home Premium (only) and Pro to Business (only).

 

[Guest]

oh ok i gotcha. im probably going to buy the oem media center xp from newegg
when they get back in stock.. hold it until i build my computer (probably
going to wait for pci 2.0 express mobos, i know im crazy) install media
center on the new comp, partition it, and install vista premium on it as
well.


i hope that newegg's "nominal" arent too bad. if not it seems like you can
get a full version of xp media center and vista premium for less than150$. i
feel like thats a pretty good deal considering vista home premium will
probably cost around 150.

 

[John Barnes]

on another note, to install the vista i get with my upgrade. all i will
need
is the orginial xp media center disc that new egg will send me? thanks.

That is how it has worked in the past. Am not aware of any testing of
upgrade versions yet.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Re: "on another note, to install the vista i get with my upgrade. all i
will need is the orginial xp media center disc that new egg will send me?"

Presumably; Vista's not out yet, of course, but that's the way it's
always worked in the past.

 

[Guest]

HP has the same upgrade thing going on, but you had to buy your computer
after the 26th of this month. Kinda leaves me out, because I bought this
omputer 2 weeks ago.. Oh well, damn the luck