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    Upgrading a Vista Home laptop to Business

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by indigo_dave, Jan 10, 2008.

  1. indigo_dave

    indigo_dave Newbie

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    I'm looking at buying a laptop from Office Depot, Circuit City or Best Buy. They're all Vista Home (of course). One thing I especially need to be able to do with it is join a domain. This is for practice in learning about networking.

    So, as a student at my local community college I can get a licensed copy of Vista Business for free. My question is: can I upgrade a Vista Home laptop with this full Vista Business copy (I think it's 5 cd's)? I've read Vista Anytime Upgrade mentioned, but would prefer to avoid paying one or two hundred bucks extra.
     
    indigo_dave, Jan 10, 2008
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  2. KernalPanic

    KernalPanic White Knight

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    There is no upgrade path from Home Premium to Business.
    Vista Business is missing some of the multimedia and entertainment portions of Vista Home Premium, (like moviemaker) but has the Domain networking components.
    This isn't a huge loss as "free" is a great price, but you should know what would be missing.

    You have a few options:

    Option #1
    Reinstall entirely using the Business package.
    You will have to blank the hard disk, install Vista Business, then install the driver sets. Note that in most cases, reinstalling is actually a good thing as it dumps the bloatware most laptop retailers throw on them and you don't have any saved files yet anyway.

    Honestly just doing the blank and reinstall isn't a bad idea provided you are reasonably proficient (or want to be proficient) as a computer tech.
    The worst that happens is you have issues and use the laptop's restore disks.

    Option #2
    Upgrade to Ultimate via Vista Anytime Upgrade is $150 or so from Home premium for the standard user, but since you are a student (and can prove it) you might want to look into student pricing. Your college bookstore or computer store might have some better deals. Since you can get business for free, even at student prices Ultimate probably won't be worth it.
    Ultimate does include some neato features (video as background, clip tool, etc) but the the price difference between "free" and anything is significant.


    Honestly, if I were you, I'd take the free version of Vista Business and blank whatever laptop I got.
     
    KernalPanic, Jan 10, 2008
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