Vista Upgrade?

[MattX]

Hi, I thought to just post this question separately from my other post - does anyone know for sure that the cheaper "Upgrade" version of Vista64 bit will work on a machine currently installed w/XP32 bit?

 

[stash]

You won't be able to upgrade, but you may be able to do a clean install with it. I'm not sure if x64 upgrade will accept an x86 XP disc as validation during setup.

 

[ForumMaster]

i doubt it will upgrade. as stash said, it may do a clean install.

 

[MattX]

so you can do a "clean install" (i'm interpreting this to mean a COMPLETE from scratch install, not an "upgrade") off an upgrade disc (again, this is from XP32 to VISTA 64)? I was under the impression that if I have to essentially completely replace the operating system that that would require a "full install" disc, not an upgrade

 

[imported_kethdredd]

Yes you can upgrade. In fact there are a couple of articles floating around on how (suprisingly) well it went. here is the word from the Vista website:
Installation limitations
There are three installation scenarios for Windows Vista RC1:
You can do a clean installation. This process will overwrite any data that you have on your hard disk or on your installation partition. The overwritten data will be lost and unrecoverable.
You can upgrade an existing installation of Windows XP.
You can upgrade an existing installation of Windows Vista Beta 2.

Apparently you CAN"T upgrade from windows xp 64 bit or Windows 2000 to Vista for some reason.

XP Pro can be upgraded to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate only. (obviously this is for final release only)

 

[Lemon law]

Please someone correct me if I am wrong---but even though I have a 64 bit processor---I would still likely to opt for the 32 bit version of windows unless everything on my computer is new-----I have an older very good all in one printer---and its going to be fairly hard to get a vista version of new driver software for the printer---and really pushing my luck to think
I will get 32 Bit and 64 bit upgrade versions of the upgrade software.

 

[imported_kethdredd]

Originally posted by: MattX
so you can do a "clean install" (i'm interpreting this to mean a COMPLETE from scratch install, not an "upgrade") off an upgrade disc (again, this is from XP32 to VISTA 64)? I was under the impression that if I have to essentially completely replace the operating system that that would require a "full install" disc, not an upgrade

Yes, an upgrade disc and a full version disc are the same thing AFAIK, it just checks for a previous version of windows. If you do an install off of an upgrade disc onto a clean HD it just asks you to put in your previous version of windows disc so it can verfiy you have legit copy.

 

[imported_kethdredd]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Please someone correct me if I am wrong---but even though I have a 64 bit processor---I would still likely to opt for the 32 bit version of windows unless everything on my computer is new-----I have an older very good all in one printer---and its going to be fairly hard to get a vista version of new driver software for the printer---and really pushing my luck to think
I will get 32 Bit and 64 bit upgrade versions of the upgrade software.

Actually both 64 and 32 bit versions are going to be on the same disc, so you'll have a choice.

I imagine driver support will get better on the 64 version.

 

[MattX]

thx, keth - that was the best worded response i've seen yet (although all are appreciated) - So I guess I *can* install vista 64 thru an "upgrade" disc, as long as I do a COMPLETE install, and the vista 64 disc can verify I have a valid XP 32 disc already installed.

 

[imported_kethdredd]

Originally posted by: MattX
thx, keth - that was the best worded response i've seen yet (although all are appreciated) - So I guess I *can* install vista 64 thru an "upgrade" disc, as long as I do a COMPLETE install, and the vista 64 disc can verify I have a valid XP 32 disc already installed.

Actually you can do it either way...

You CAN upgrade your XP installation or do a "clean" install of your XP32 to Vista 64 bit (or 32 bit for that matter). Here is a link which may explain it better than I can.

link

 

[stash]

I don't think an annoucement has been made publicly about whether all versions of both architectures will be on the same disc. All SKUs (Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, etc) will be on one disc, but there may be two separate discs for the two architectures (x86, x64).