Vista OEM to Enterprise

[JMoore64]

I just recieved a laptop with the Dell image of Vista ultimate. I plan on using it the way it is for now. But later down the road my company is going to start deploying Vista out with the enterprise version. Is there a way to change it to enteprise without reloading the OS?



Thanks

 

[linney]

Windows Vista Enterprise is available only to Volume License customers who have PCs covered by Microsoft Software Assurance.

I don't believe there is any upgrade path to Enterprise from within Ultimate. Things like Easy Transfer might be able to save settings and files, and the Easy Transfer Companion (beta?) might save installed programs?

How to Get Windows Vista for Your Organization

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/enterprise/getit.mspx

 

[smah]

I agree with linney that there's no upgrade path from Ultimate to Enterpise. I don't think this will work because Enterprise has a slightly different feature set than any of the retail versions. However, you can change retail versions, by simply changing the product key, so it's worth a shot if you're going to make the change anyway. Obviously have your backup's, Easy Transfer, etc all completed before trying just in case something goes drastically wrong.

When you're ready to make the change, try going to Control Panel, System & Maintenance, System. Then down near the bottom, try changing the product key & see what happens.

 

[JMoore64]

Ok, So this is what i did, I try the suggestion above and changed the Key to our enterprise key with no issue's. Unfortanatly that doesn't make it Vista Enterprise. So i downloaded Vista Enterprise and created a DVD. When you insert the Vista Enterprise DVD, it'll ask you if you what to upgrade. I clicked on upgrade, checked ok on the disclaimer, It told me that Vista Enterprise was about to install the upgrade and 45 minutes later and a reboot, I went from Vista Business to Vista Enterprise. Everything is still there and i didn't have to install any software that was on it before. Now i just waiting for our Key server to be deployed so i can activate it.. So far so good.. Now i'm just worried about the long term effects. Like the Windows 2k to Xp pro upgrade headache.

Thanks for the Help
James