Can you upgrade a Vista oem license to a retail license?

Hey guys... when I bought my dell it came with vista basic oem but I never bothered with it since I already have a retail version of ultimate.

Can you upgrade a basic oem license to a retail ultimate license? Really what I want is just once disc, I don't want to install vista basic and then upgrade to ultimate every time I install since I reformat a lot.

I searched everywhere but all I can find is a $199 upgrade and you get an upgrade disc, which seems to me I would have to do a basic to ultimate procedure every time i reformat.

Thanks..

 

What about a disk image copy?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but this seems like the most optimal solution?

 

In my opinion I think that you can't. I think that you have to buy an OEM license at the same price (or somewhere near) as the upgrade version.

 

You already what?

If you have a retail ultimate already then what's the issue?

 

Ultimate also has complete pc backup, which you can use to take an image of the drive after you have installed it. Do a fresh install, then take the image. Then you don't have to install again.

 

Sorry I meant to say that I had already purchased Vista Ultimate before buying my laptop that came with Basic OEM.

What I want to know is if I can trade in my basic OEM for an ultimate retail copy by paying some sort of premium but not the full price. My basic oem disc has never been used and I don't care to use it. It's just that I have another system lying around and I wouldn't mind putting Vista on it, but not basic.

 

You'd have to move your current retail license to the other computer, and use the Basic OEM license on your laptop, and upgrade that one to ultimate.

You might be able to change the key on the laptop to the one on the sticker, then do the anytime upgrade and get the new license. You can use the retail disc you have as the DVD media to do the upgrade. Then you would just have to install and activate the retail copy on the other system. You will probably have to call Microsoft and explain what you are doing to activate it.

 

I just called Microsoft , these guys are idiots. I mean, why can't get I take this Windows Vista Home Basic OEM disc, and pay money to upgrade to a full retail version of Windows Vista Ultimate Retail?

MS explained to me that I'd have to buy the upgrade disc for $199, and everytime I wanted to install Vista I'd have to install Basic and then insert the Ultimate upgrade disc and install that. Seems like a giant hassle - especially since I reformat often. It's times like these I wish MS didn't dominate the OS market.

 

just buy Ultimate OEM for $199. Ultimate upgrade is $299 in Canada form what i remember



But if you do not really need ultimate, I'd suggest to only go for $120 home prenium OEM

 

The OEM version that came with your laptop is tied to the laptop.. it cannot be transferred to another computer. Those are the license terms and don't expect them to change them.

The retail version can be used on any computer you want.. those are the terms of the license for a retail version.

So you have 1 license you can move to any computer, and 1 you can't. The problem is you have installed the 1 you can move around on the computer that is tied to the one you can't move around.

What you need to do is change the license on your laptop back to it's original, and then upgrade it. Before you do anything, make sure you have your Vista disc. Then go into the system control panel and change the key on your laptop to the key that's on the sticker on the bottom of it. You will probably have to reboot and it might complain about the downgrade, but this is just temporary. Then go through the anytime upgrade process, and after you pay the upgrade fee you will have a new key for ultimate that you can use on the laptop. If it asks for the Anytime Upgrade Disc, use the retail disc you have. Once that is done, you can use the retail license on your other computer.

 

Thanks Orev.

So let me get this straight with a slight modification:
1. Downgrade my retail license back to the OEM license.
2. With my system now registered as Vista Basic OEM, I can go ahead and do the anytime upgrade process to Vista Ultimate.

My question is, when I do the anytime upgrade process, I want to order the actual disc from Microsoft. Will this disc I receive from them allow me to do a clean install? Or will I always have to revert back to my one original Vista Retail copy for clean installs?

 

Yes.

You can order a disk from them, but you said you already have the retail disc. Those two discs are IDENTICAL. Because they are identical, you can use either one to do a clean install. Let me say again, you already have the "upgrade" disc, because you have a retail disc. They are the same.

What matters is the LICENSE. If you have a FULL retail license, you can do a clean install using that license. If you have an UPGRADE license, you will first need to install the original version of Vista, or the 30 day evaluation, and then upgrade using the upgrade license.

To do a clean install on your laptop, your retail license would not come into play, as far as i know. The anytime upgrade is upgrading your oem basic to ultimate.

 

Thanks Orev! Much appreciated information.