Windows Vista Upgrade?

My Inspiron 6400 came with Vista Home Premium installed...and a Vista upgrade disk. Upgrade to what? 64bit Home Premium instead of 32bit? Vista Ultimate? Both are upgrades I'd consider making. Two things first though:

1. How much would I have to pay?
2. Is it possible to upgrade an OS without affecting the contents of your HD?

 

1) Variable, depending on which version of Windows you get. See this article on the pricing of Vista
2) From a strict interpretation of your #2 question - no - upgrade means a new OS, so things are written and deleted off your hard drive. If you are asking if your personal data may be affected, that shouldn't happen. Of course, always back up your data before an upgrade.
3) I would stick to 32-bit. There really isn't much of a reason to go to 64-bit at this time, even if you are on a core duo proc.

 

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the disk you have is an upgrade disc to go from XP to Vista. There is no need for a disc to upgrade within versions of Vista because Microsoft has all the stuff on one DVD, the only thing that changes is the license. Therefore, if you have a Vista Home Premium license, you use the Vista install disc with that key and get Vista Home Premium. If you have Vista Ultimate license, you can install Vista Ultimate with the same disc. This is due to Microsoft's new "Upgrade Anytime" thing, which you can do over the Internet and you just pay for a new license.

So if I had my guess this is what the disc is, though this is useless without an XP disc. So if I were you, I would call Dell to make sure, and if it is just an XP->Vista upgrade disc, demand they send you a full Vista DVD instead.

 

Well, Vista already came installed. But you're right, I have a Vista Anytime Upgrade DVD in my box. So what you're saying is that Dell basically sent something only an XP user could/should need/use?

 

Assuming my lappy comes today, I'll see what disc I got and let you know.

 

Here's hoping!

 

It came today.

I got a disc named "Operating System" that is a Vista full install and contains no bloatware (I just used it which is how I know).

 

Yes, that's what I'm saying. You should call Dell and ask for the OS disc for Windows Vista.

^^^^That is what you were supposed to get if you ordered it.

 

I think I got the 32 bit re-install CD as well. In fact, I'm also 100% sure. It's late, so I'll have to check tomorrow sometime and let you know, but I'm almost certain I got a navy/black Vista Home Premium re-install disk as well.

 

As a side note, steer clear of the 64-bit version of Vista. It needs different drivers and a lot of your hardware will not be supported if there are no 64-bit drivers for it. I don't think Dell, HP, and so on support the 64-bit version on their mainstream machines anyway. A friend of mine got the 64-bit version of Vista with his new setup and it was the biggest mistake he could have made. Found that out too late unfortunately.