Upgrade from XP (Home Premium)

[Howard Hillman]

I have an HP desktop with Vista and an 18 month old HP Notebook (Vista ready) with XP SP2 . HP provided me with a Vista upgrade when it became available last year. After reading many tales of woe on this and other forums I have been in no hurry to ugrade to Vista. My desktop Vista has been relatively trouble-free but I have yet to install SP1. However, it's time to wipe the notebook and reinstall Windows. With MS support for XP ending next April (?) I'm considering going directly to Vista. Any suggestions?
I have a checklist of apps and drivers that may need upgrading, and backups of my data.
HH

[JoeP517]

You ought to lok at Get Windows Vista: Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. It will analyze your PC and help you determine if your PC is ready to upgrade. If HP provided an upgrade disk it probably has the drivers your notebook needs. You need to be aware that most notebooks have some specialized drivers that only the OEM can supply.

Joe

[Pilgrim]

In addition to what Joe suggested (good advice to be sure), you should also know the specs of your laptop, particularly:

- CPU type: single/dual core, processor speed. Obviously dual-core is better and 1.6 Ghz would be minimum, IMHO.
- RAM: you will NEED at least 1 gig of RAM, even with Vista Basic. 2 gigs is preferred
- Video: Vista is very graphic demanding and a "qualified" video component is essential.

Laptops, by their very nature limit what components you can upgrade if necessary; e.g., HDD and RAM.

Personally, I much prefer Vista vs. XP and this is not to denigrate XP. It is a great OS but it is becoming quickly dated with all the new software, audio/visual advancements, etc. If it were me and the HP laptop was borderline, I would sell it and buy a new one. There are some great deals out there right now, especially on eBay for new Toshiba laptops that have lots of RAM 2-3 gigs, large capacity HDDs 160-250, and TRUE Vista-compatible video..... I've seen several brand new Toshibas with Vista Home Premium installed with the "good" components for around $600. <IMG SRC=http://www.the-highway.com/Smileys/Ponder.gif>

[DaveA]

I would also check with HP and see what updates they have for this "Step up" to Vista on their Vista ready machine.
There is a lawsuit going on, based on these "Vista Ready" machines.
Before up grading make sure that you have a "Image" of the current system using the likes of TrueImage, Shadow Protect or other brand.

[Howard Hillman]

Thanks for all the responses.
I bought this notebook in Dec. 07, about a month before Vista was released. It has dual core processors @1.66 GHz, 2 GB RAM, two 100 GB hard drives (not partitions), NVidia Geoforce Go 7600 and Windows Media Center Edition. Two months later HP came out with pretty much the same Notebook with Vista installed. So, I'm pretty sure this guy is Vista Ready, but I'll check the MS and HP sites. Anyway, I'm not about to ditch it just yet. I might add more RAM if there is room.
DaveA, can you give me a little more info about the lawsuit? Are the plaintiffs claiming that some machines are not Vista Ready?
HH

[Pilgrim]

Vista should run fine on that laptop according to the specs you shared. <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

[bigaldoc]

May I carefully add one more thing? If the Vista provided to you is truly an upgrade copy, you might want to read this old Windows Secrets newsletter for the instructions about how to do a CLEAN install with an upgrade Vista. Most conventional wisdom I think would say that a clean install is the way to go and evidently MS thinks so as well, according to more than one widely distributed article.

WindowsSecrets.com | Get Vista upgrade, never pay full price

[DaveA]

Do a Google search as shown in the attachment.

[Howard Hillman]

Thanks for the warning. I beleve this a full install, but I will check with HP. There are two DVDs. The first, by HP, is the Upgrade Utility for Windows Vista, and recommends backing up your data and creating recovery disks. It also says that Vista is a new installation, and any personal files and programs will be overwritten.
The second is an MS DVD, Windows Vista Home Premium Express Upgrade.
HH

[Howard Hillman]

Thanks for the link. Fortunately, my notebook has no issues.
HH

[peterg]

There are two different labels, 'Vista Capable' and 'Vista Compatible', and the class-action lawsuit only applies to the first of these. See, for example, NEWS and numerous other hits if you search on the correct term(s) (e.g. include 'class-action' or 'lawsuit').

I happen to have one of the rare qualifying machines, and am writing the present post with it. It came with 512 MB of RAM and XP, which pretty well says it all. (I added one GB of RAM, which keeps it limping along in Vista.) That was four months before Vista was released, and all of Microsoft's system requirements for Vista were wildly understated and probably underestimated.

I agree with others that if you can find a buyer, then sell it if you can and buy a new computer that really does have enough power for Vista. XP commands a premium for many users, and many brand-new computers are being offered for sale with the option of a retrofit to XP. If you end up with Vista and not enough resources for more than a glorified typewriter, at least turn off Aero, which consumes vast resources and does no computing, and possibly the Sidebar, which also consumes resources but is convenient if you have a wide screen.

You should certainly install SP-1 on your desktop. The benefit of confining yourself to one system or the other is that you minimize the risk of installing incompatible programs. If you already have the Vista-compatible programs and utilities on your desktop, you will be able (licence allowing) to install them on the laptop as well.

[Howard Hillman]

Thanks for the lawsuit link. That's all I need to know about that issue. I appreciate your other comments. As for trading up to a new Vista machine, I'm not eager to go that route. I feel no compelling need to go to Vista. XP works fine on my notebook. I am planning to do a clean reinstall of XP to remove 18 months of accumulated crud. I only considered Vista because I am going to do a reinstall. My concern is about XP's vulnerability to security issues after MS ends its support of XP next April. What are other XP users planning to do then?
HH

[JoeP517]

Since you have the HP upgrade media and are planning to do a reinstall you ought to go ahead with Vista. Your machine specs indicate that it should be just fine for most day-to-day activities. You will have performance issues if you get into any gaming, heavy duty graphics, or lots of audio/video streaming.

Joe

[peterg]

I agree with Joe. Your computer came with a promise of Vista, HP delivered the upgrade as part of the deal, I gather, and even began selling the same machine with Vista pre-installed once it was out. You have learned Vista on your desktop and it should be your O/S of choice.

I just hope you have a good connection and are ready for a lot of updatng.

[Howard Hillman]

I am a typical day-to-day user. No gaming, streaming or heavy-duty graphics. Interesting fact. My desktop has an NVIDIA Geoforce 6150SE, which shares main memory. It runs Vista, with Aero graphics, just fine. My notebook has its own dedicated video memory (128 GB, I think).
HH