which Vista to choose?

[Vic]

Looked at Microsoft's comparison sheet of Vista versions. Decided the
Home Premium is the one to buy. Question is, which one, OEM, Upgrade,
Retail?

The system here is a multi-boot (95,98,XP) with MS as boot manager.
Which version of Home Premium will install and still provide the MS boot
menu?

Thanks

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Will be upgrading your XP installation or a clean install? If you are
upgrading, purchase the Vista Home Premium (retail Upgrade). If you will
still be using that existing installation of XP, you will have purchase the
Vista Home Premium (FPP Full Packaged Product license)

 

[Vic]

XP will stay, Vista would be a separate 'clean' installation. Thanks.
___

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Yeah, so Windows Vista Home Premium FPP would be it then just comply with
license agreement.

 

[ray]

Looked at Microsoft's comparison sheet of Vista versions. Decided the
Home Premium is the one to buy. Question is, which one, OEM, Upgrade,
Retail?

The system here is a multi-boot (95,98,XP) with MS as boot manager.
Which version of Home Premium will install and still provide the MS boot
menu?

Thanks

Probably not the retail. It has been reported several times that the
upgrade package will, indeed, do a full install.

 

[***** charles]

With Retail if the computer goes belly up you can install it on another
computer (one at a time). With OEM if the computer/motherboard
dies the licence reverts back to Micro$oft and can't legally be installed
on another motherboard. That's why OEM's are cheaper.

later.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Yes, but it goes back to the license compliance, Vista's licensing agreement
for the Upgrade package means you have an existing installation of Windows
XP to upgrade from. The work around for the Upgrade disk is just a sneaking
under the fence.

 

[Richard Eagle]

Vic, this PC is an AMD XP2100+ w/2gb ddr400 & a 256mb ATI 8x agp.
It's certainly not a fast PC by today's standards but it runs XP Pro w/SP2
extremely well and fast enough. Some months ago I bought the full retail
version of Vista Home Premium and installed it on a 2nd hard drive in a dual
boot configuration on this PC. One thing I can say is that while Vista HP
runs on this PC, it's performance is very sluggish compared to XP Pro on the
exact same hardware. I bought the full retail version of Vista HP because I
figured this would be the case and I wanted the option to move Vista to a
new, much faster PC (hardware only, no OS) maybe in a year or 2. If you want
to be able to legally move Vista to a new PC in the future, get the full
retail version. It costs more but you cannot legally do that with an OEM
version or with an upgrade version either.

Richard


Looked at Microsoft's comparison sheet of Vista versions. Decided the
Home Premium is the one to buy. Question is, which one, OEM, Upgrade,
Retail?

The system here is a multi-boot (95,98,XP) with MS as boot manager.
Which version of Home Premium will install and still provide the MS boot
menu?

Thanks

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Not the only reason, just one of many reasons why OEM is cheaper than
retail.
There is nothing in the license that refers to the motherboard.
A fried motherboard replaced is an upgrade/replacement and you can do
that with OEM.

 

[Tie Various]

The best version of windows is called XP

if you want to have problems.. then by all means install vista.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Many do not have problems with Windows Vista so your assumption the OP
will have problems is baseless.
Assume all you want and take the consequences of those assumptions.

Windows Vista works well for me on two older computers as well as for
countless others.
Mostly because the users made sure their computers were ready for
Windows Vista.
Similar as is required with any operating system upgrade from any
manufacturer.

 

[***** charles]

In the eyes of M$, the motherboard is the computer and if you change it
you are dealing with a different computer. Let's say you have a two year
old Dell and the motherboard goes south. If you can't find an exact
replacement for a reasonable amount of money then a good option is to
upgrade with a "shortblock" (mb,cpu,fan and ram) to newer technology.
If you use an exact replacement the OS on the hard drive will not know
the difference, since the software is not tied to either a motherboard ID
or a CPU ID, at least not yet but I fear it is coming. Anyway, putting in
a different mb will trigger at least a recovery install which requires
putting
in the KEY ID number again. Since this process may work either auto
matically or by calling M$ for activation, it it NOT the legal way to do it.
I know people who have dug out junk computers with stickers on them
and used an OEM cd to do a clean install and a clean activation. The
cdroms that have Windows on them are all generic, it is the key id that
makes the install unique.

I have noticed that the phone call to M$ for activation has changed over
time. Now they ask you more questions.

later.....

 

[Adam Albright]

Many do not have problems with Windows Vista so your assumption the OP
will have problems is baseless.
Assume all you want and take the consequences of those assumptions.

You always live up to your namesake. Lots of hot gas.

Windows Vista works well for me on two older computers as well as for
countless others.

Oh, so your vast experience with TWO machines means all the untold
thousands filling countless blogs, newsgroups, forums and web pages
reporting problems must just be them imagining things. Of course the
proof that they actually have real problems is Microsoft is beta
testing Service Pack 1 right now to address the very issues the fanboy
gang deny. That's OK, I think people can separate fact from fiction.

 

[Guest]

Hear, Hear...

I have a PC that was purchased in April of '02, it has an old Intel 3.06GHz
HT processor, 2 GB of ram (that's all it will hold) and the original 160 GB
HDD that came with the system. Before I placed Vista on the machine, I had
to upgrade the graphics card and nothing else. The computer operates
noticeably faster with Vista Ultimate. I do a large amout of video editing,
photo manipulation and CADD work and it performs perfectly. I installed
Vista in February and haven't crashed since it's installation. There are a
ton of people out there with great Vista experiences.

Just my personal opinion. Oh wait, I forgot the only opions that matter are
the negative ones.

Benny

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

You are referring to a major OEM, Dell in this case.
The major OEMs add their own technology preventing the use of a
motherboard from a different manufacturer.
That is not the same.

"cdroms that have Windows on them are all generic"
False, not all, major OEMs often add the technology preventing use on
a different brand of computer.

Using generic OEM media, a motherboard is easily replaced/upgraded.
A phone call may be needed for activation but if it was just a
motherboard replacement/upgrade, Windows will be activated.
Depending on other variables, internet activation may succeed and
phone activation may not be required.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org

 

[Chris Game]

With OEM if the computer/motherboard dies the licence reverts back
to Micro$oft and can't legally be installed on another
motherboard.

I don't think this is true. A change of motherboard may be
necessary, and Windows will then require re-activation which may
need a phone call to MSFT.