tks Chris. Appreciate your answer. Still, as a new O/S that all I really need
it for is Internet, MS Office and CD/DVD playing/burning, Vista Home Premium
seems to be an ideal "downgrade' for me, but one I cant get!! I gotta go the
Ultimate....

Or maybe I am just reading things wrong.....IF I BUY the UPGRADE VISTA HOME
PREMIUM I CAN, FROM within WINDOWS XP, run a CLEAN INSTALL - right? IF so,
that seems OK...I just dont want to have to reformatt myself manually from
DOS as a start....not that competent!!

Rod

"Chris" wrote:
[color=blue]
> Rod wrote:[color=green]
> > Ah, but now I read in March 2007 Australian PC USer Magazine that a "Clean"
> > install is done from WITHIN the Windows XP Desktop, in an INSTALL WINDOWS
> > SETUP OPTIONS box that includes Upgrade as an Option. So I dont actually have
> > to reformat my HDD at the beginning (dos) and boot into the DVDrive. It's
> > done from a setup window when I am already in Windows XP....???
> >
> > ..but it goes on to say "Note that if you're performing a true clean
> > install, having booted from the DVD, at this point you should click the Drive
> > Options link and then click to Format..." IF YOU'RE PERFORMING A TRUE
> > CLEAN INSTALL ????? You can fudge that????
> >
> > And what is Microsofts rationalle in having Media Player/DVD Burning in
> > Vista Premium and NOT being able to get that as an upgrade from XP Pro??
> >
> > Rgds n tks
> >
> > "Frankster" wrote:
> >[color=darkred]
> >> You are 100 percent right on every count. You're gonna have to deal with it.
> >>
> >> -Frank
> >>
> >> "Rod" <Rod@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:B054F30A-A24C-46D7-8CB8-35E15CCC5EE7@microsoft.com...
> >>> I have a PC that I have had for several years. It runs a copy of XP Pro SP2
> >>> and is "Vista" ready in terms of HDD, RAM, Processor and Graphics card.
> >>>
> >>> I was ready to go out and get a copy of Home Premium Upgrade, as it has
> >>> the
> >>> features I want, and just read I would have to do a clean install. This
> >>> is
> >>> essentially a reformat of HDD and start from scratch, right? That's wacky.
> >>> I
> >>> want to UPGRADE.
> >>>
> >>> I don't want the extra expense of getting Vista Ultimate as it has bells
> >>> and
> >>> whistles I dont want, but that seems to be the only way I can UPGRADE and
> >>> get
> >>> Media Player/DVD Burning functionality built-in....
> >>>
> >>> ...AM I reading this right? An UPGRADE from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium
> >>> is
> >>> really a rebuid of my PC??????
> >>>
> >>> Rgds
> >>>
> >>[/color][/color]
>
> Home Premium is a downgrade from XP Professional. You have to run setup
> from within XP, and you will have to do a clean install. Vista will
> create a Windows.old folder that will (probably) have all of your data
> files. But you still need to do a backup.
>[/color]