Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Vista Upgrade Matrix

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-linux-is-fragmented dept.

Tyler Too writes "With six different versions of Vista due once it ships, figuring out an upgrade path can be confusing. Microsoft has tried to clear things up with a 4x6 matrix laying out your options. 'In short, users of XP Home can do an upgrade install to any of the four Vista versions. However, XP Pro users can only perform upgrade installs to Business or Ultimate.' And if you're not running a 32-bit version Windows XP, there's no upgrade path for you at all."

7 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Some slight FUD in the summary... by metasecure · · Score: 5, Informative

    Some slight FUD in the summary, specifically the line that reads "And if you're not running a 32-bit version Windows XP, there's no upgrade path for you at all."

    From TFA: "Note that the requirement for clean installs does not mean that the user is required to purchase a full version of the operating system. XP Pro, XP Pro x64 and Windows 2000 users will still be able to purchase the "upgrade edition" of any version of Vista. They just won't be able to upgrade with their existing files and settings in place."

    Of course, personally I would reccomend doing a clean install no matter what version of Windows you currently have, so for me this is a moot point.

    P.S. I thought timothy was assigned to Backslash articles! Why is he posting new news (twice today and we've had no backslashes!)? Hopefully he'll be able to summarize the interesting commentary that will no doubt ensue in an upcoming Backslash.

    1. Re:Some slight FUD in the summary... by VertigoAce · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you do a clean install of Vista, all of your old programs and documents will be in c:\windows.old (or c:\windows.old.000, etc, if you do another clean install of Vista on top of itself). That directory will have your old Documents and Settings, Program Files, and Windows directories.

      If your programs don't require anything outside of their program directory, they'll run just fine from windows.old. So even if you choose to do something strange like Pro -> Home, you could always copy things back and run setup.exe for each program again (choosing repair and let the installer fix registry settings, etc).

  2. Re:More Money for us! by Keith+Russell · · Score: 4, Informative

    RTFA after the chart. You can still pay the upgrade price for a "downgraded" version of Vista. You just won't get the option to upgrade in-place, and will be forced to make a clean install.

    No great loss, if you ask me. (Which you didn't, but this is Slashdot.) In my experience, clean installs just work better, and the time you spend post-install is a sunk cost. You're either re-installing and transferring things to the clean install, or fixing what got broke by the in-place upgrade. Just choose the option that's better for your blood pressure.

    --
    This sig intentionally left blank.
  3. Re:Okay ... but what's the difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This isn't quite a chart of the different versions, but it's got the information:
    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/edi tions/default.mspx

  4. Re:Okay ... but what's the difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You didn't look very hard. A quick search on Paul Thurrott's website gave me this, published in March.
    http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_edit ions_final.asp

  5. Re:What??? by eosp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Mods, it's insightful, not funny.

  6. not a technical reason by will_die · · Score: 3, Informative

    Looking at the chart seems to indicate that it is not a technical reason for some of the in-place upgades.
    XP MC is XP Pro, with some features such as domain join turned off, and with a a pre-loader for the large screen and some visual changes, and then the MSC sofware added on. If you go and install MSE the first that that is installed is a regular version of XP Pro. If you have software that installs on pro but not home it will install on MCE, if the turned off features are not needed.
    So for all purposes MCE is XP pro with marketing for the home.
    However in the table MCE is in-place upgradable to home premium and ultimate and XP Pro is upgradeable to business and ultimate.
    So based on all above there is no reason XP Pro could not be in-place upgraded in Home Premium and MCE to business, the only reason would be that users would loose capabilties that thier previous versions had if they went that route.