Questions about upgrading from Home Basic to Home Premium on Vostro 1500

I just recently bought a refurbished Vostro 1500 from the Dell Outlet, and it has all the features I want at a good price (imo), except for Vista Home Premium. Instead, it has Home Basic. I would like to upgrade it to home premium asap, but I'm still not sure what would be the best way to this.

I would like the ability to do a clean install of home premium on my new laptop if ever the need arises to. With that in mind, what is the cheapest way to this? Using a WAU disc? Would my Dell Vostro come shipped with a WAU disc?

If the answer is no, then my concern is what I read on these forums, which is that people have had to wait weeks to receive their WAU discs from Microsoft or Compusa, and so I do not want to wait three weeks for a WAU disc to arrive.

Price is also a concern for me, given that an upgrade version of home premium on Best Buy costs $160, with the full version costing $260. So please advise me on the best course of action. Thanks all.

 

You need to purchase a Home Premium license. The WAU disc only contains install files.

 

Workaround for performing a clean install with an upgrade disk.

 

I understand that the WAU disc requires you buying a license in order for it to work. Given that I've heard horror stories of people waiting weeks to get an WAU disc, I'm wondering if I'm better off just buying an upgrade version off, say ebay.

 

Get a Home Prenium OEM from newegg.com for $110

You will then have 2 full copies of Vista

 

That link does not take me to OEM Vista Home Premium, it takes me to a different newegg item each time I click it, but that's okay, I can find it myself.

2 Vista copies, you mean the Home Basic that comes installed on my Vostro and the OEM copy you suggest right?

 

Yes, sorry for the link, I just wrote newegg.com here and did not link to anything else lol. Seems like it links to a random Asus notebook

 

MS ships the wau dvd in 2-3 weeks(max). You can also get one from compusa. You already have a vista license. Why do you want to buy another OEM license then? Just buy the upgrade license from MS and then do a clean install after the DVD arrives.

 

"Why do you want to buy another OEM license then? Just buy the upgrade license from MS and then do a clean install after the DVD arrives."

Because then that means that there's no point installing and saving whatever it is I want onto my laptop since they will all be wiped away with a clean install. It essentially means that I shouldn't bother doing anything with my laptop other than internet browsing for next 2-3 weeks.

Also, Flamenko posted a helpful link showing that iTunes will work with a 64-bit version of Vista, and given that newegg sells an oem version for just 111.49, which is about 2 dollars more than its 32-bit version, I'm now strongly considering upgrading to a 64-bit version of Vista Home Premium

 

Okay, I just realized that I could get an Vista home premium upgrade version from j ourneyed.com for $90 because I am a student. Given that OEM versions cost $110 at newegg.com, should I save a bit more money and go for the upgrade version? Or should I still go for the OEM version?

Also, does the upgrade version allow an upgrade install only on laptops with either XP or Windows 2000 OS's? Or would it still allow me to upgrade install with just Vista Home Basic?

 

The upgrade disc license will allow you to install the OS in another system if you decide to sell the Vostro with Home basic in the future. The OEM license is only valid on the system it is first installed on. Basically the OEM license is not transferrable.

Home basic is a valid OS to do the upgrade to Home Premium. I would suggest the upgrade over the OEM version, since it is yours to keep rather than being tied down to the machine. Ofcourse the negative being you would have to have a older installed on any system you want to install it on. There are workarounds available like this one which will allow you to do a clean install using the upgrade media...
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_upgrade_clean.asp

 

Okay thanks Miner. I'll definitely get the Vista Home upgrade in that case.

One last question. When I do get the upgrade version, should I clean install over the Home Basic on my laptop or just do an upgrade install? Will there be any significant benefits to clean installing?

 

Yeah, do a clean install as long as you have backed up your files to an external drive/DVD etc.. Dell should have th necessary drivers to get you up and running with the clean install as well.

 

Run Windows upgrade advisor on your Vostro I did and Windows recomended me Vista home Premium so far I haven't upgraded.