Vaio VGN-FZ38M - came with vista home premium - can i upgrade to ultimate?

[lowthjo]

hi
i have the vaio vgn-fz38M laptop, that came with vista home premium installed.

i am considering upgrading to ultimate, my questions are:


1. can i just do an upgrade without having to do a full install?
2. will my laptop fully support ultimate?
3. is it better to do a clean install?
4. can i download from vaio support, all the software and applications that came with my
laptop, incase i decide to do a full install of ultimate?

5. will upgrading to ultimate cause any warranty issues with my laptop?

cheers

thanks in advance,

cheers

[Blencogo]

Hi lowthjo,

There have been problems in the past .........

Firstly be sure you need the added features. If you don't need to network to a domain or need Bitlocker for work, I would think very carefully. The promised benefits of Ultimate just aren't really there.

1. Whatever you do DON'T do a fresh install. You will lose all the preinstalled software and have to reinstall all the drivers and utilities again manually. I know Vista is Vista but some of the drivers don't seem to work with Ultimate. Things like the camera, the Fn keys etc are sometimes a problem.

2. It should do.

3. No avoid a clean install at all costs.

4. No the preinstalled software will be lost and cannot be downloaded. Drivers can be downloaded and some Utilities.

5. Not for most things like, for example, a bad hard disc but for anything which may be caused by software or drivers you will have to reinstall the original Sony Vista to prove the problem is not software related. Things like DVD drive won't burn, keyboard not working properly etc will not be covered by warranty until you have reinstalled the original OS to prove it is a harware fault. You will also lose any support from Sony. Because of this, I would leave the Recovery Partition intact on your hard drive and make at least two sets of Recovery Discs.

Upgrading should be possible by paying Microsoft for a new Product Key and just entering this Key should be all you need to do to upgrade without losing any of your existing software and settings. But I would consider if it is worth it.