Hey unclebob123, glad to see that you are moving to Windows Vista. It is truly a great Operating System. In case you are unsure on which edition to purchase,
Here is a great graph that compares all of the editions of Windows Vista with one another. The two you are most likely looking at are Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. I have used both Vista Home Premium and Ultimate and in my opinion Ultimate is not worth the extra £50 over Home Premium, providing you are looking at the OEM versions.
Now, if you are also wondering weather to buy Retail, OEM or an Upgrade license, hopefully the following will help you out:
Retail:
Retail versions are normally your average boxed copies that you see on store shelves. The Retail version includes the box
p), 32 and 64-bit edition DVDs (Note - This only applies if your going to be purchasing Windows Vista Ultimate. Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium and Business Retail only include the 32-bit edition disc, so if you would like the 64-bit edition disc and have purchased or are thinking about purchasing one of the above you will have to order it from the Microsoft website. More information about this can be obtained
here) Manuals and any other goodies that Microsoft has so kindly thrown in.
With the Retail version you will be able to install it on as many systems as you like so long as you are only using one license at a time i.e. Windows Vista is only installed on no more than one machine at a time.
OEM:
OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer and these versions usually come with pre-built systems or can be ordered from most online retailers. They are much cheaper than their Retail cousins since they are limited in some respects. The operating system itself is exactly the same as the retail version but the difference being is the licensing terms. Once Vista is installed, it is then linked to that particular system so if you install it on any other system you will be violating the EULA. You can upgrade any system component apart from your motherboard and your license will still be intact. If you change the motherboard in your system I am afraid you will have to purchase a new copy of Windows Vista.
The only exception to this rule is if your motherboard becomes faulty, if this happens and you can not get the exact same motherboard replacement due to various reasons you are still legal to install and activate your current copy of Windows Vista when your new motherboard arrives due to this being no fault of your own. If and when this happens, you will have to ring up Microsoft for them to re-activate your copy of Windows Vista (They will have no problem re-activating your copy of Windows for you due to the circumstances) for you since online activation will fail.
Upgrade:
The Upgrade versions are just that, you upgrade your current operating system to Windows Vista. Upgrade only versions will require you to have an older operating system already installed on your machine providing it is within the upgrade path. Information about this can be found
here.
You can also check out the
***The Official Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit Tips, Tricks And Tweaking Thread***, which may be of some use to you.
