Further to my last post on Vista and my new Dell M1710 laptop.
As I said before, it came with Home Premium on it. I chose Home Premium because it seemed the logical choice for what I do (see Vista Editions)
What the comparison chart does not tell you is that some useful software won’t run on Premium, for example I came to install Virtual PC 2007, but check out system requirements and low and behold you need Vista Ultimate (despite it being Windows XP Prof compatible)! This is madness. Why should VPC need Ultimate Ed?
Anyway, I needed the software so thought I would “simply upgrade” my Home Premium edition to Ultimate via the much advertised “Vista Windows Anytime Upgrade” facility. So I went online to the Windows Anytime Upgrade site,
It indicated that I needed a windows anytime upgrade compatible Vista install disk, so I checked the Dell Vista DVD and… no official “windows anytime upgrade logo” on it. Daaarn. Would Dell really ship an install DVD that was not “upgrade” compliant?
I went ahead and purchased the Ultimate upgrade online (which automatically downloads/installs a file “product key” ready for upgrading) but played safe and paid the extra £5 for a windows anytime upgrade DVD (posted out) and subsequently closed the windows upgrade. I was assured by a message that I could put the upgrade disc in anytime in the future.
Not being very patient to wait for the DVD to arrive (I still could believe that Dell would not ship an upgrade compliant disk - digging around on the Net confirmed my thinking that all Vista DVDs come with all 6 editions on them), I put in the Dell Vista install disk and got the usual “Windows Vista – Install Now” blue/green screen… no mention of the upgrade though. Was it simply going to install Home Premium again? Aaargh! Did the Ultimate product key register correctly? I reluctantly clicked “install now” (still no mention of the Ultimate upgrade) and went through the install process.
At the end of the install I rebooted and waited with great anticipation to see what had been installed – hooray, Ultimate was now on my machine! It had worked!
So to summarise:
- if you wish to upgrade a Dell M1710 from Home Premium to Ultimate, based on my experience, you do not need to buy a separate Windows Anytime Upgrade DVD (I take no responsibility if your system is different though!)
- Despite the very poor installation wizard user feedback (come on Microsoft how did this get past your usability team?), have faith, your new edition is being installed despite what the user interface implies.
Once upgraded, all worked fine except I had no sound (a common problem with upgrades). Reinstalling the latest sound card drivers from Dell gave no joy either. Uninstalling the drivers and then letting Vista itself install appropriate drivers fixed this though. All is now fine.
Virtual PC 2007 now installs correctly and I can safely take a look at Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5 ;-)
Other Useful link: Windows Anytime Upgrade Installation Overview and FAQ
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12 comments:
Excellent post! I too went through the very same thing (just bought a Dell XPS M1330), and your post saved me from insanity. I just wanted to let you know what a helpful post this was as I've seen more blue screens in the past week than I ever did with 2000 and XP Home/Pro combined! Thanks Dave ... I plan to blog about this as well, with a link to your post, as I'd like more people to know how to resolve when purchasing a Dell and upgrading their Vista.
On the topic of Virtual PC 2007: it actually runs on Vista Home Premium, it just shows you a warning that the operating system is not supported (which means that if you encounter any problems with it, Microsoft will not help you with that). By the way, VPC2007 runs on WinXP HE ust as well :)
re: running on Home Premium.
Thanks for the comment. Yeh I agree that VPC does indeed appear to work on Home premium but the "warning" message put me off! Some of my colleagues have since run VPC on premium too, without any issues to date ;-)
When it gets to computers - laps especially, just about every ghoul in the netherworld has heard of Dell. Some ghosts love them, some zombies hate them, and many of the ghouls fear them. Dell is largely looked upon in the hardware enthusiasts grave, and though they have certainly deserved it at times, it's important not to lose sight of the bigger picture on the tombstone...
Read the rest of the post here:
http://dilin-anand.blogspot.com/2008/03/dells-sexiest-notebook.html
Regards,
TechFromTheDeep
Hi! Pls assist me in how to download the upgrade from home premium to Ultimate. I clicked on your link but am not sure how to proceed. Thanks
Hi Kay
Can you expand on what your problem is?
thanks
Dave
I have a XPS M1330 with Home Premium. I would be happy to upgrade to Ultimate (but I'm afraid to corrupt the machine...)
Reading your article, I was wondering if I could get a Ultimate Product Key for MSDN and entering it in the Start>Computer>System Properties windows and then re-install Vista using a Full Vista Disc (also downloaded from MSDN)
What you think ? Maybe I'll try it one day...
Hello anonymous (posted 17 Sept)
I've not tried upgrading off a Vista MSDN subscription CD. Let me know how you get on.
Cheers
Dave
I have tried to upgrade but I get and warning that the installed vista home premium version is not upgradable to vista ultimate, wants to do a new install deleting everything on the disk.
So let me get this right you are saying that I need too:
If I have a dell laptop running vista home premium and I have the vista ultimate license key. I should be able to change running vista home premium license key to the vista ultimate license key by doing: Start->Program->System Properties. Then after I change the license key on the laptop, I with be able to upgrade to the vista ultimate instead of it only allowing the option to do a new install. I will get both the upgrade and new install options?
Hello anonymous (posted 25 Sept)
As I understand it, you should go to the Windows Anytime Upgrade Site:
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/default.mspx
which will install a product key for you. You can then use your install DVD as per my original post.
Cheers
Dave
somebody want to post a ultimate product key. That would be awesome
I just wanted to let you know what a helpful post this was as I've seen more blue screens in the past week than I ever did with 2000 and XP Home/Pro combined!
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