DavidOverton.com
This site is my way to share my views and general business and IT information with you about Microsoft, IT solutions for ISVs, technologists and businesses, large and small.  
David Overton's Blog » Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate

Sometimes some people end up with a copy of Windows Vista Home on a machine that they want to use in a business environment.  The Windows Anytime Upgrade provides for people moving to Ultimate, but if you just want to move to Business, then this is what you need to know.

  1. Windows Vista Home SKUs qualify to use VUP FPP media
  2. As the home SKUs have some features that are not present in the business SKU, you have to do a clean install, the same as for Action Pack Upgrades (see How to do a clean install using upgrade media).  You can however do an in-place upgrade to Ultimate.
  3. The only media you can use to perform the home to business upgrade is retail upgrade media
  4. To preserve the settings that apply and documents etc, you can export your files and settings and then re-import them on the new system using the Easy Transfer Wizard, although things such as parental controls etc would not be there, so no longer work

thanks

David

 

Technorati tags: , ,
Posted Tue, Feb 13 2007 8:38 PM by David Overton
Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

David Overton's Blog wrote Windows Vista, Windows XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007 Action Pack Update - my FAQ
on Tue, Feb 13 2007 9:21 PM

[last updated 13th Feb 2007 - 21:20 am GMT] Inside Microsoft we have been toiling very hard to provide

David Overton's Blog wrote Windows Vista, Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2007 and Office 2007 Action Pack Update - my FAQ
on Wed, Mar 7 2007 10:55 PM

[last updated 7th Mar 2007 - 22:51pm GMT] Inside Microsoft we have been toiling very hard to provide

Paul Curran wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Wed, Mar 14 2007 11:05 AM

A weird upgrade really, I have to get a Vista home Premium then Wipe it, go to XP then install Business. :D

David Overton wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Wed, Mar 14 2007 5:15 PM

Paul,

I hope I have not confused things - this is for people who have accidently bought a Windows Vista home sku, but need business functionality.  

This means that they already have an OS on the system, so no need to load XP first and they already have a Home edition on their system, so simply upgrading will work.

ttfn

David

BradBohlmann wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Mon, Jun 11 2007 9:29 PM
How could I "DownGrade"?? I have a client laptop at the collge where I work. I need to install home premium on her machine - I have the Business CD's?? When I try and enter her license number it says it can't do that. How would I force it to ask ahead of time so that I can install the right one?
David Overton wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Mon, Jun 11 2007 9:38 PM

Brad,

Vista Home Premium is not a downgrade of Vista business - in both home products there are features that are not in the Vista business product.

If you could tell me how many machines you have, what licenses you have and what you want to finally achieve I hope I can help.  You can mail me through the site if you would rather discuss via e-mail.

thanks

David

Heather wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Wed, Nov 28 2007 5:53 PM

I want to upgrade to Vista Business, but microsoft online doesn't want me to!   On their site, when I move thru their upgrade dialogue, once I enter "home premium" as my current OS, Ultimate is my only option.  For $200 I could go back to XP!  And have a nice dinner....

Suggestions?

Heather

gilberto valle wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Mon, May 26 2008 3:18 PM

i wanna know how to do the upgrade im using windows vista home premiun but i wanna upgrade this Op to windows vista business..but i have a couples of questions before doing so. what is gonna happen with the serial of the windows vista home premiun after installing windows vista business...in the case think in this way....in the future if i would had a problem with windows and the only way to fix it would be installing again the windows what do i do...i have everything with me but I already have installes the upgrade at that time..do i have to install the windows vista home premium and then againg the upgrade ?? does the serial of the windows vista would work if i have already intalles the upgrade on it?

Noor wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Wed, May 28 2008 5:35 PM

What are the features in home vista addition which are not in business? Can you specify please

Obi wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Tue, Jun 3 2008 10:53 AM

My machine run with  Vista Home. I just discovered it have limited funtionanity in IIS, infact it can not run ASP files, I have tried everything I can read from the web, but no solution. Now I have resolved to upgrade to Vista Business. The Vista Home came with the machine when I bought it. I have already installed many programs in the machine and I have many important files saved. Do I have to have a back-up for all these files before upgrading to Vista Business? What i mean, will I loose my files/programs if I upgrade to vista. I intend buying the CD and upgrade with it.

Best regards.

David Overton wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Tue, Jun 3 2008 5:44 PM

Obi,

I'm glad to say you are wrong.  Have a look at the thread www.microsoft.com/.../default.aspx for more details.

Thanks

David

Mohammad wrote re: Upgrading from Windows Vista Home to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate
on Sun, May 9 2010 7:07 PM

Hi,

Im trying to upgrade from Vista Home to Vista Business. I have already bought the retail version. but it won't let me upgrade. It says i have to do a clean install. i have too many programs that i don't want to lose. it took a lot of time to find and install all of them.

Add a Comment

(required)
(optional)
(required)
Remember Me?

(c)David Overton 2006-23