Upgrading Vista Home Basic?

I've got an original, full edition of Vista Home Premium that's been previously activated on a desktop machine which has since died. Is it possible to transfer this license over to a T400?

However, even if I could - is it worth the trouble to do so? Every time I restore the machine I would get Home Basic, and would have to upgrade using the Home Premium DVD again? (assuming my Vista has not been 'locked' to my dead desktop)

PS: am interested in the following configuration, which came out to just under US$1,200 with 3-year warranty.

 

If you bought Vista with the desktop, it is indeed locked.

 

Sorry - should have clarified - I bought it at a retail store.

Full DVD Vista Home Premium (not the upgrade) and I have the original box as well. Paid dearly for it but that's another story...

Is it still locked to my (dead) desktop PC?

 

You can transfer your license, it's not a problem. The worst scenario is that you might have to call MS, that's all.

 

Stewie's right you can use it on your laptop. To decide if you should just ask yourself a couple questions. First do you need those extra features on your laptop? Is it worth the trouble of going through the upgrade? Chances are you will not be reinstalling Vista with any amount of regularity. I have Ultimate on my desktop and Basic came on my laptop. For my needs it does the job. I actually kind of prefer it to keep it a little lighter since it is no where near the speed of my desktop.

 

Would it be a lengthy process to do the upgrade from Home Basic to Premium? Or can I simply enter my Home Premium's key and it will automatically unlock all of the features?

If it's going to take a lot of time, I may consider a) just sticking with Home Basic, or b) upgrade the laptop to include HP [add $31.24] or Business [add $50.36] thru CPP.

 

You will need to go through the upgrade process in order to become Home Premium, those features were not installed on the Basic version. The upgrade process doesn't take that much time, but I always recommend people to do a complete fresh install instead of upgrade if they have the time to do it.

For the record, since you already have a full retail copy of HP, then I think you should go directly to Business for $50.36 if you decide to go this route. That price is a pretty good deal for getting both Vista and XP licenses, the Business version comes with a XP license too, although you're supposed to use only one of them at a time.

 

If you really want Vista or a fresh copy, see if you know anyone at a University,usually engineering or business students get free keys or great discounts.