Question on how vista upgrade works.

Stay with me on this one guys. lol.

I bought a Vostro 1000 around Christmas time. It came with Vista home basic. When I got the computer I upgraded it to Vista Home Premium via the upgrade option on the Microsoft site. After a few months I decided I didn't like vista much and installed XP.

I am in the process of selling my notebook (I want to upgrade to something better) and a few of the buyers have said that they would rather have vista premium over xp.

Now the question. If I install Vista back on my machine will it only install the vista home basic that is on the dell disk or will it somehow recognize that I had upgraded to premium via the upgrade site?

Thanks and sorry for the long and slightly confusing question.

 

If you still have the product key you got when you upgraded, you can enter your key here and order an "upgrade disk".

 

Just use the key they gave you for your upgrade and the disc will install Home Premium.

 

yep, you need the key you were provided when you upgraded

that is specific to the vista version.....

 

i don't recall them giving me a different key. isn't it the same key that is on the sticker on the bottom my the notebook?

 

no that key is for vista basic, unless they changed the key to correspond to a home premium license.... you should have checked your key while you still had vista

 

hmm, well i dont have that key anywhere. i guess there is nothing i can do to get that back?

 

Can you go to the Microsoft site and check your order history? Did you get any e-mails for confirmation? They may have just updated your key in the system for it to correspond to Home Premium.

 

just ring them up and tell them your problem. i rang them up and they were super help full- can u believe the microsoft operator gave me 2 free keys by accident instead of 1. i got a 2nd license for free lol.

 

will do now. i will give you guys an update. thanks

 

PM Lithus , he knows of a program to check what CD KEY you`re using right now.
Google cd key retriever or something.

 

Either Magic Jelly Bean or Belarc Advisor would do the job, but Vostro Guy doesn't have Vista on the machine any longer.

 

yep, XP is on the machine now.

 

did you ring ms?

 

WOW guys, i just spent an hour getting bounced from department to department and finally got someone who knew what was going on.

basically, the company that handled all the anytime upgrades online before February (Digital Locker) is no longer handling them. they gave Microsoft no sales transactions or any other info.

the guy said he would send me a new vista premium disk but i have to contact my bank and show Microsoft the transaction! lol. he even said and I quote, "the way microsoft and digitallocker have handled this has been a nightmare."

i told him thanks for his honesty and I will just stick to XP.

 

Interesting information. I would have thought Microsoft could have handled them transactions themselves. It seems it would have saved them a lot of problems.

 

they are now. i guess you need a disk now to upgrade. when i did it in December i did not need a disk, i just went to the upgrade site and downloaded my upgrade. one guy basically called me a liar. he said, "sir you could not have upgraded without an anytime upgrade disk."

 

Apparently they do not know their own product. The DVDs contain all versions of Vista, the key is how it knows what to install. From what I understood the anytime upgrade program to be was that they just gave you a new key and you used your DVD to install the new features.

 

its just amazing to talk to all these different departments and every single one of them is contradicting the the other. you don't know how many times i was transferred to a number that does not exist anymore.

 

Good joke. They should be total dumb to do that.