» Microsoft Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade Pack with SP1 [Home Premium to Ultimate]

Microsoft Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade Pack with SP1 [Home Premium to Ultimate] Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Do not order this product if you have 64 bit Vista
Comment: When I received this it had only the 32 bit Vista Ultimate upgrade. I followed a web link in the box to order 64 bit but could not order it there. Then I spent over an hour being transferred between departments at Microsoft and explaining the problem several times before I got to the right place. I had to fax in my invoice from Amazon.com (not a toll free fax number either). "Joe", the person who was supposed to fix the problem was then supposed to call me back to complete the transaction. After waiting for another 30 minutes for the return call, I called Microsoft again and was told that "Joe" had gone home for the day. Another clerk was able to find the fax and complete the order after another 20 minutes, but shipping will take up to another 10 business days. I suggest you wait until Microsoft has discovered that vendors are actually shipping 64 bit Vista, and then maybe they will put both 32 bit and 64 bit upgrades in the "Anytime Upgrade" box.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Beware of Upgrade Instructions!
Comment: I purchased this upgrade for my new office desktop computer and had to wait about a month for it's delivery. In the mean time, I went ahead and set up my computer for use with the factory installed home premium operating system. I installed all the software I was currently using on my old computer and transferred all my files and settings as well as downloaded all the internet based software that I use. About twenty hours worth of work. Well the "Anytime Upgrade Pack with SP1 Home Premium to Ultimate" arrived, I backed up my files, opened the software and followed the instructions to begin the upgrade. First, the instructions are a joke. Basically it says to insert disk and follow instructions on the screen. That's it. I did this, followed all instructions, about an hour and a half later it says "completing installation" after it went through about four or five previous steps. It then gives me a screen that says installation failed, rolling operating system back. This worries me greatly! Then I get a "rollback.exe" application failure, press cancel to exit program. At this point, my computer is BRICKED!!!!!!! At no point can I get any further ahead or back! No matter what I do, I keep getting the rolling operating system back and then the application error. I used another computer to investigate this on the net, and I found out this is a common problem with varying degrees of success in fixing the problem. I try everything I find to fix it with no success. I call Dell, waste about thirty minutes with their customer no-service and they direct me to Microsoft. I call them and spend another two hours with them trying to get out of the repeating loop and get back to the original operating system. Can't do it. I had to re-install the original home premium operating system, immediately installed the ultimate upgrade with success. The one star is for the lack of upfront instructions to shut down quite a few things in order to get a good upgrade. What really gets me is during the unsuccessful upgrade that wiped out everything on my computer - about twenty hours of work to get it where I wanted it - the install software never gave me an error, shut something down, stop until this conflict is resolved, etc. It went through with no glitches, hitches or errors up until my computer became a brick. My advice is to either use this as a clean install or call Microsoft prior to upgrading so they can tell you what the instructions don't!!!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Works For Me
Comment: I always hear so much negativity for Vista and in my experience I have had very few hiccups with the product. I have had the Home Premium versions on some 5 computers I have owned in the past couple of years.

I guess for the basic ways I use the operationg system I have NOT had anything serious happen on Gateway laptops, HP Laptops, Sony Laptops, Dell Desktop and my latest HP Pavilion desktop. The products came pre-loaded on the HP desktop, the Sony Vaio and HP laptops. However, the Dell had the XP pro on it and I upgraded to Home premium no problem.

I found this "anytime" upgrade from Home Premium to Ultimate about $50-$75 cheaper than the fatter black plastic cased Ultimate Upgrade at many retailers at a $199, $219 price range. In any case I don't know what the difference is except for the big thick case and black fancy cover and name plate. However, I haven't researched it, just saw this on Amazon and had wanted to try Ultimate and I am happy I did.

I think the computer runs smoother, faster and less hiccups. I didn't but only once or twice get blue screened with Home Premium and the system came right back and so far with Ultimate I have not had that issue on any of my machines.

What this basically does is that it provides more for business centic individuals or consultants in that it has the ability to network and do contacts/business manager all the things you don't get in the other versions. It touts that you will run smoother, which it appears in my case to do so. I looked at having this on my computers as when I sell them they are worth more having the most loaded operating system installed. See below the differences in the Home Premium and Ultimate. versions on most newer personal computers. Not a huge difference mainly business and entertainment focused. Home Premium is still great for most but being I do work from home and on the road this will be useful for me.

Only other issue is that it takes 3-5 hours for the DVD to do the complete upgrade.

Ultimate will provide the following that Home Premium does NOT:

- Protect against hardware failure with Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore
- Scan, fax, and receive documents and images with Windows Fax and Scan
- Remotely access your business resources and applications with Remote Desktop Connection
- Better protect your data against loss with Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Beware
Comment: After reading extensively, using every upgrade validation wizard available and reviewing the compatibility notes this still did not work. Now I have a very expensive disk that will not load due to some vague error that apparently has something to do with a driver miss match to this version of windows.

Stuck and sorry

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not essential for home users
Comment: I purchased this upgrade because of some mis-understanding on my part. You see, what I really wanted was a Remote Desktop client so I can connect to my PC at work remotely from home. I was led to believe that this is possible only with Vista Ultimate. This is not true; Vista Home Premium also comes with a RDP client (although it is embedded deep inside the Accessories) but you cannot connect to a Vista Home Premium PC remotely. Vista Ultimate allows you to connect both ways (to and from) using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

Installation was a trifle confusing (hence 1 star less on the rating). I backed up my PC and did a fresh install of Vista Home Premium. Then I went to the Microsoft website and did all the upgrades on Home Premium, thinking that would put Vista Home Premium SP1 on it. Apparently not.

When I plugged in the Vista Ultimate DVD, it didn't recognise this as an upgrade and instead backed up my recent home premium installation (into windows.old directory thus consuming more than 4GB for that) and then did a fresh install of Vista Ultimate. (I've deleted windows.old and it has no bearing on Vista Ultimate.)

Other than this, I'm actually quite satisfied with this upgrade. With SP1. the performance has improved noticeably. Quality is still an issue although not a big issue; I've run into occasional problems with wifi connectivity, especially while doing large data transfers (e.g. backing up my music collection to a remote pc using wifi).

So, most home users can do without Vista Ultimate but it is probably worth having one PC with Vista Ultimate on it.

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