Vista update?

[Mike]

Bought an HP about a year ago came with xp media center installed with an
free upgrade to vista. the vista upgrade is the express version (overlayed
ontop of xp) i did this upgrade just after purchase (when upgrade came in the
mail) i dont mind it but recently got MS office 2007 and had installed it.
Was having all kinds of prolems and contacted HP for help well now (catch up
to date) i ended up doint a destructive recovery to hd and now back to basic
xp (stock loaded programs) ok so first ? is

1. should keep xp and reload office 02 small biz or upgrade
back to vista and install office 07 enterprise? had office 02 installed then
uninstalled it and installed office 07 enterprise and had nothing but
problems...after install and update everytime i tried to run a program ie
outlook it would start to configure windows like the first time it was
installed except it would happen everytime with all the programs from the
suite. was sure if it was an underlying xp express upgrade to vista or 02
small biz not uninstalling properly or what the case was so now back at step
one and any help would be great!

2. if i go back to vista ... i have not done any of the new updates for xp
(MS website says there are 82 of them) should i update xp before installing
vista upgrade express or install vista updated it and then install office
then update it? not sure which way is best or if there is a rule of thumb
here i should be following.

Please any help and or advise to get this going and done before the work
week begins would be greatly appreciated!!!

Merry Christmas and thanks for any and all advice!

 

[PNutts]

Hi Mike:

I assume your HP has either rescue CD/DVDs or a rescue partition so that you
are restoring an image of the fully configured XP? Do you know if it is
possible to use the Vista media and install Vista without XP already on the
system? That would be my first choice.

To answer your questions, my "expert" personal opinions are:

1. I would not load Office onto XP if the intent is to upgrade to Vista and
Office 2007.

2. I would not update XP if the intent is to immediately upgrade to Vista.

I was in the same boat as you last year when I bought an HP laptop right
before Vista came out. I chickened out and returned it when the same laptop
came out with Vista preinstalled on it. It is still "sensitive", but I hope
that Vista SP1 will be a soothing influence...

 

[Mike]

yes it came with the dvd's and already did the Destructive recovery and now
have the xp os running again and wondering which of the above i should do.
The cd that microsoft/HP sent out with vista on it is an upgrade on cd (i
tried to do a clean install from that cd vista only not install xp first but
would not except the product key.

 

[Mick Murphy]

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/68767-clean-install-upgrade.html

Have a read of Shaun's link.
Clean installs are always better than upgrades.

 

[Brian]

Mike,

I'm trying to be helpful -- not contrary -- but the half dozen HP Express
Upgrades that I worked with included two DVDs and one Product Key.

HP's instructions said to apply the "Upgrade Utility" DVD first, from within
XP, thereby upgrading drivers and certain HP-provided apps in preparation
for the in-place upgrade to Vista using the second DVD, an HP-branded (but
FULL version) of Vista.

I did it "the HP way" the first time. It took forever and I wasn't happy
with the "dirty" results.

So I later booted from the HP Vista DVD and did a clean install.

THEN I used the HP Upgrade Utility DVD to install the few HP-provided,
Vista-ready apps, that I wished, but not all of them, by using the
AppInstall.exe program from within the SWApps folder on the DVD -- not by
auto-starting the DVD.

I had received my HP Express Upgrade kit quite early in the program, so I
was able to advise and/or help friends do their upgrades as clean installs
instead of the nasty in-place upgrade on top of XP. Why HP didn't clearly
mention the clean-install option is a mystery to me.

So, Mike, did your HP Express Upgrade kit consist of 2 DVDs and a Product
Key? If it did, then do a clean install by booting from the Vista DVD. You
might have to allow Windows Activation to fail and present you with the
phone number to call for activation, when you'll "hold" for a real person
and explain that you're simply reinstalling a failed installation, and
they'll give you an activation number over the phone.

Let us know if your scenario is different from what I experienced, and your
results.

Brian

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 8:51 PM
Subject: RE: Vista update?