vista upgrade question

[doomey!]

If I was to upgrade to vista from a standard xp pc, to premiuml, would I need anything else to make it work?
I ask this because I am trying (unsucesfuly) to upgrade from xp to vista premium.

Do I need to have an exsisting media centre pc to upgrade to premium?
If so the upgrade advisor does not pic up on this when you ask if you cna run other versions.
My advisor does indeed advise basic, but then offers premium if you compare.

Sadly having paid for premium, I need to work out a way to make it work, or take a hit and lose out by selling it at a considerable loss no doubt :(

ANy help with my question would be most apreciated.

[HWKE]

If you had xp home installed, you can upgrade to premium. If you had xp professional installed you can't upgrade to premium.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/wind owsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradepaths.mspx
However, there is a way to use an upgrade version to do a clean install of Vista.
Here's a simplified overview of the steps that are required to clean-install the upgrade version of Vista:

Step 1. Boot the PC from the Vista DVD.

Step 2. Select "Install Now," but do not enter the Product Key from the Vista packaging. Leave the input box blank. Also, turn off the option Automatically activate Windows when I'm online. In the next dialog box that appears, confirm that you really do want to install Vista without entering a Product Key.

Step 3. Correctly indicate the version of Vista that you're installing: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate.

Step 4. Select the "Custom (Advanced)" install, not the "Upgrade" install.

Step 5. Vista copies files at length and reboots itself one or more times. Wait for the install to complete. At this point, you might think that you could "activate" Vista, but you can't. That's because you haven't installed the Vista upgrade yet. To do that, run the DVD's setup.exe program again, but this time from the Vista desktop. The easiest way to start setup again is to eject and then reinsert the DVD.

Step 6. Click "Install Now." Select Do not get the latest updates for installation. (You can check for these updates later.)

Rest on next post

[HWKE]

Step 7. This time, do enter the Product Key from the Vista packaging. Once again, turn off the option Automatically activate Windows when I'm online.

Step 8. On this second install, make sure to select "Upgrade," not "Custom (Advanced)." You're not doing a clean install now, you're upgrading to Vista.

Step 9. Wait while Vista copies files and reboots itself. No user interaction is required. Do not boot from the DVD when asked if you'd like to do so. Instead, wait a few seconds and the setup process will continue on its way. Some DOS-like, character-mode menus will appear, but don't interact with them. After a few seconds, the correct choice will run for you automatically.

Step 10. After you click a button labeled Start in the Thank You dialog box, Vista's login screen will eventually appear. Enter the username and password that you selected during the first install. You've finished upgrading to Vista.

[vehelpfulguy]

Upgrading from XP to Vista has proved to give many people problems and generaly is not advised.

Search Answerbank for Vista and see the tales of woe.

Vista was released by Microsoft before it was ready and it will probably take them six months or more to sort out the problems.

If your upgrade advisor is saying you need Vista basic then I guess you have a very low level graphics card which means you would not be able to take advantage of the Vista "Aero" user interface anyway.

Vista does require a fairly good graphics card for it to work well.

More on Vista Basic here

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/acer_s lams_vista_home_basic/

One users story of trying to upgrade to Vista

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6407419.st m

[peanut]

Look at hundreds of posts here on the answerbank and you will discover that Vista is NOT an upgrade from XP. Wait a year or so for the bugs to be worked out of it and for the software companies to come up with Vista compatable software. Then maybe it can be considered an upgrade.

[HWKE]

I agree with vehelpfulguy that Vista is like all the other offerings from Microsoft and will be better when it matures. I have only had one problem with Vista, which was my graphics card, which crashed a couple of times (now replaced with a better one). Other than that, I like it.
Please make sure you locate vista drivers for your network adaptor before installing, because once you install Vista you will have no internet access without one.