Will Vista Upgrade these Computers / OEM Versions?

[Albert Giuliano]

Silly question perhaps but the Company wants to know;

Our department has 5 computers

3 Dell machines preinstalled with Winxp Pro
1 PC Clone with Windows 2000 Pro (OEM Full version)
1 PC Clone with Windows XP Pro (OEM Full version SP2)

I looked on MS Website but I can't get a definite answer, I imagine all the
computers are using a OEM Version can/will Vista upgrade be used to clean
install or just upgrade if necessary all these system?

I thought I read some where that OEM version are not "Entitled" to the same
stature as retail versions and so might excluded thus making them
illegitimate.

Can a MS Rep / moderator confirm this please?

(Not that I don't believe non MS people are a valid source and your input
would be greatly appreciated. My company wants it "Straight from the Horses
Mouth")

TIA

 

[Robert Moir]

Silly question perhaps but the Company wants to know;

Our department has 5 computers

3 Dell machines preinstalled with Winxp Pro
1 PC Clone with Windows 2000 Pro (OEM Full version)
1 PC Clone with Windows XP Pro (OEM Full version SP2)

I looked on MS Website but I can't get a definite answer, I imagine
all the computers are using a OEM Version can/will Vista upgrade be
used to clean install or just upgrade if necessary all these system?

I thought I read some where that OEM version are not "Entitled" to
the same stature as retail versions and so might excluded thus making
them illegitimate.

Can a MS Rep / moderator confirm this please?

(Not that I don't believe non MS people are a valid source and your
input would be greatly appreciated. My company wants it "Straight
from the Horses Mouth")

Even the Microsoft people who post here are speaking for themselves rather
than as an officer of their company. The information "from the horse's
mouth" will be on the website (I'd try and point you in the right direction
but the vista website designers seem fare more interesting in big pictures
and nicely shaded fonts than in actual content) or you could trying phoning
Microsoft support, which will probably cost you.

 

[Bill]

I thought I read some where that OEM version are not "Entitled" to
the same
stature as retail versions and so might excluded thus making them
illegitimate.

Can a MS Rep / moderator confirm this please?

(Not that I don't believe non MS people are a valid source and your
input
would be greatly appreciated. My company wants it "Straight from the
Horses
Mouth")

If you want to hear it from Microsoft you must contact Microsoft
directly:

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

1 - Microsoft reps generally don't respond in newsgroups.

2 - Anyone can pretend to be a MS rep.

3 - These newsgroups are not moderated which is partly why #2 can
happen.

Bill Gates
Chairman, Micro$oft Corporation

(See what I mean?)

 

[Albert Giuliano]

Point taken, but I've been there and the info is a little vague, I need to
know if these OEM's are acceptable or not.

 

[Robert Moir]

Point taken, but I've been there and the info is a little vague, I
need to know if these OEM's are acceptable or not.

*grin* well I can tell you that I've "heard" that you can upgrade from XP
but nothing else, and this is the claim made in PC Pro magazine which is a
big name computer magazine here in the UK. Whether your current OS is an OEM
install or not doesn't alter that ability.

But I've never performed an upgrade as I don't think they're a useful use of
my time and I'm not speaking officially for anyone.

 

[Barry Watzman]

It's not clear if you are asking the technical question (will the
upgrade version work) or the legal question (will it be legal).

Whether the version of a [previous] OS installed on a PC is OEM or
retail is irrelevant with respect to upgrading to a subsequent OS. The
version (by that I mean OEM vs. retail) isn't looked at or referred to
by the upgrade process.

An upgrade doesn't actually use ANY "code" from the old [previous
version] OS. In that sense, an upgrade isn't much different from a full
install. But what an upgrade does do is look at the previous version to
see if the upgrade is permitted (contractually, not technically). Also,
an upgrade, while not using any of the actual OS code from the previous
OS, does attempt to use it's installed applications software and some
drivers. This also implies that the registry is looked at and that some
registry entries are copied, as is some configuration data. Thus,
although all of an upgrade's actual Windows code is "new", this is why
an upgrade is nowhere near as "clean" as a "clean install" (and, indeed,
the [non-Microsoft] drivers from the old OS may not even work with the
new OS).

Also, of course, the machines on which Windows 2000 and XP were
previously installed do not automatically meet the minimum hardware
requirements for Vista. They may have inadequte CPU, memory, disk space
or video.

Since the upgrade versions check both the hardware compatability and the
license compatability before installing, if an upgrade installs, you can
use it. However, with respect to hardware compatability, this check is
only for the bare minimum, and you may find that either the performance
is unacceptable, or that while the base functionality works, some
peripheral functions are inoperative (which might be curable with a new
driver, in some cases).

 

[John Barnes]

Microsoft shows the XP X64 version as eligible to use an upgrade version.
That is available almost exclusively as an OEM version.

 

[Jack]

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