Purchasing Vista question?

[dispair]

Well currently I'm running two full legit copies of Windows, XP Pro on my desktop and MCE on my wife's laptop. I'm looking at doing Home premium for both of them and wanted to know if I need to buy 2 "upgrade" copies? or can I get away with purchasing just one? be it the full or the upgrade versions? Is it worth the headache of moving to Vista in the first place? haha, like that hasn't been asked a million times.

 

[wirednuts]

if its for your wife, presumably not computer inclided (im not sayin she is im just sayin) then i would wait at least till summertime before going vista. there will be early software incompatibilities. it shouldnt take long to get most of the clean though, the os is very well written as of right now. eventually, vista is a no brainer. just use it for awhile and notice how much easier everything is. pc's are finally starting to make sense...

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: dispair
Well currently I'm running two full legit copies of Windows, XP Pro on my desktop and MCE on my wife's laptop. I'm looking at doing Home premium for both of them and wanted to know if I need to buy 2 "upgrade" copies? or can I get away with purchasing just one? be it the full or the upgrade versions? Is it worth the headache of moving to Vista in the first place? haha, like that hasn't been asked a million times.

You would need two copies one for each computer.

pcgeek11

 

[blurredvision]

Like pcgeek11 said, you need 2 seperate copies. Otherwise, you'll have major issues with activation. With that said, here's some math for you. You can buy two reatail Home Premium upgrades for $259 apiece ($518 total), or you can go OEM for the current Newegg price of $120 ($240 total). If you don't like the idea of buying OEM, I'd suggest buying a copy of the retail Ultimate upgrade for yourself for $259, then take advantage of the Windows Family Discount Plan for the other computer by buying an upgrade key for Home Premium for an extra $50. Total then would be $309 for retail keys, and you shouldn't have to worry about any activation woes with OEM, plus you'll have the Ultimate version for yourself to mess around with .

 

[trainmaster5]

I've got a similar question. I'm running a retail XP Pro on my main rig, AMD x2. I built a c2Duo rig last fall which I'll eventually make my #1. That box has an OEM XP Pro in it. Should I go for two Vista home Premiums (full), an upgrade and a full Home Premium, or the same combination of of Ultimate? If I remember correctly Premium is not part of the upgrade path for XP Pro. There's also the question of the oem underpinning my C2 Duo rig. Any thoughts on this dilemma?

 

[Shawn]

If you are a student, or you or your wife is a teacher, or you have kids in school, you can get Vista Home Premium Upgrade for $70.

 

[MrUniq]

I own two Vista Keys b/c I had retail and upgrade home premium. Since the media is the two disks are the same I used the retail DVD in combination with my upgrade key (which I already had activated earlier...apart from my retail key..) My drive crashed so I did a reinstall..but the 2nd time it would not activate so I phone MS to do it. In Theory..MS will activate whatever copy you have as many times as you want. Just get one retail copy and put it on both PC's. Just call in the second PC's installation ID. I wasted my money buying a second DVD since my upgrade key was effectively "used" prior to the crash. I could've just used my lone retail copy to achieve the same results.

 

[mechBgon]

MrUniq, that would be piracy you're suggesting. It doesn't go over well with the Mods here, so you might want to just delete that suggestion.

 

[MrUniq]

I'm stating a reason why..not simply suggesting it. I had two real copies...and it turned out to be useless b/c MS installation keys can't be refreshed..atleast for upgrade copies according to MS tech support.

 

[mechBgon]

Just get one retail copy and put it on both PC's.

This is not OK here.

 

[InlineFive]

OP, it might be cheaper for you to consider Ultimate + $50 Home Premium bonus licenses.