Upgrading to vista

[datman]

I made a few post last week. I wanted to set up a HTPC. I have been running W2000 for years and for the most part has worked great. Well I have found some limitation with W2000. It will not support 5.1 digital audio. At first I was resistant to upgrading to XP because I was told I would have to buy the full program at $200. I could see $100 or so but not 200. All my efforts to make 2000 work were in vain.

On one of these forums I someone mentioned windows MCE so I looked into that. I could pick it up for 109 but there is a confusing list of requirements, receipts for hardware purchases and a lot more.

I went ahead and ordered vista premium home edition from newegg for 119. They said it a full oem product no upgrade required. So this seems to be the smart way to go. Is there any reason to go with wmce over vista?

Also being that I have plenty and I mean plenty of HD space I was thinking I would install vista on its own drive and reinstall all my software when and if I want. To me this seams like a no brainer too. Is there a snag I may not see with this idea?

 

[PC eye]

XP Pro version oem full install disks are as low as $80 at some online vendors. But if you are making a jump to upgrade to a newer OS then Vista would be the consideration since XP has been out since 2001. The problem you may have to deal with of course is the lack of Vista softwares currently seen at this early stage with the initial release.

If you are planning to split a drive into two partitions for dual booting or have a second hard drive available the option is there. You would have to decide on staying with an older version of Windows or go with the first release of Vista with possible service packs to come later for bugs that come up. The gamers as well as others are planning to wait for a period of time to avoid the XP 1st release, XP with SP1, and then XP with SP2 releases to follow type situation.