Is there anyway to upgrade the installed Vista Home premium to Business without doing fresh installation?

Hi,

I recently bought HP notebook with Vista home premium (free upgrade from basic) and it is still in the production process. I have a license copy of vista business with the installation DVD given from my research department at my university. I would like to know if it is possible to just upgrade the version of vista to business without a fresh installation? I need the remote desktop feature that is only available in business and ultimate version.

I know it is easy to install everything from the scratch but it would be better if I can save time by just upgrading, and also I don't want to go search for drivers and everything again.

Thank you.

 

Nope. Microsoft (unlike Apple, or Linux) doesn't enable installations over operating systems without data destruction. That would be too easy!

 

Nope, not in this case. Works if you upgrade to Ultimate though. However, inplace upgrades are not the best ideas as this could lead to problems in the future (even going from Home premium to Ultimate). My brother did this with XP home to XP pro and it messed up his computer. Not directly, but as time went by, weird stuff happened and it slowed down (not from other stuff, i checked).

You can do inplace upgrades, just not from business to home premium or vice versa. The two different versions have to remove stuff as well as add, and vista's not modular.

 

Thanks Overclocker and fabarati for the info, so I guess I will just format it then freshly install the vista business.

 

You're welcome. Installing Vista is pretty painless. Took me about 20-25 minutes to format and install vista ultimate.

 

What about Upgrading Vista business from Vista Home basic? Will that work without a clean installation?

 

you can definitely upgrade from basic to business without a problem. You can use the anytime upgrade dvd will (should) be included with your laptop and enter in the product key....you might also just flat out use the dvd that your university provided you with.

Academic versions sometimes do not allow for upgrades, which is why i suggested the anytime upgrade dvd.

 

Where is the anytime upgrade dvd? I've never heard of this before.

 

the anytime upgrade dvd is generally included with the purchase of a new computer for free. If you do not have one, you can obtain one from compusa, or microsoft directly for 5 bucks.

 

I don't think I received one. I just currently bought a new dell and I only got the reinstallation disk for vista home basic. I have the vista business dvd. So can I just pop that in and do an upgrade without any hassle? Would I need to activate by phone/internet if I upgrade?