[Anne Troy]

I want to upgrade my PC from XP to Vista, which I've never used.

Is there anything I should know about versions or anything? Are there different editions, and which should I get? Money is not an issue for this purchase.

[alwrmc]

"Administrator with 11,439 posts"
"Experience: Microsoft Word MVP"
I'm a little confused at this post (smile) but I'll give it a try.
1. Yes there are different versions/editions available.
2. Which you should get would depend on what you ultimately require of the OS.
The most common edition is Home Premium, and that works very well for most users. The Ultimate edition covers all the bases and if money is not an issue, then you might want to get that edition. There are also "Starter" and "Business" editions. As for 32bit or 64 bit versions that choice depends on your requirements/computer, it's devices, and the software you will be running. I'll hazard a guess that 32bit would be a good choice as it has less problems with missing drivers for devices. A little more info about your computer/devices/software and how you will be using it would aid in the recommendations.
P.S. On a trip to Parish, NY last month we had lunch at Allentown. Nice place. Have a super weekend.

[Anne Troy]

Where did you eat? Do you remember?

LOL...knowing Word does NOT an OS expert make. Windows XP is pretty old, no? Anyway, I've got a crappy little celeron 2.4GHz, 512MB Ram, and about 20GB free hard drive space (about half). I only care about doing what I've been doing with my Windows XP Pro SP2. I've been running Office 97, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007. I could easily give up 97 if I have to. Also, what's your feelings on the OneCare thing?

Thanks very much! I appreciate your help.

[Pookie]

My recommendation is not to upgrade. If you only have 20g of space you will run out very fast. I have a 140g hard drive and its half full and I don't have a lot of stuff extra on it. Vista will use a lot of hard drive space. XP is old and very stable at this point. If money is no object go and you must have Vista, buy a computer that already has better components and vista loaded on it. I have 3 xp machines, 1 vista machine, and 1 linux machine and don't plan on making any os changes on any of my machines.

for reference my vista machine didn't run very well on 1 gig of ram either. When I went to 2.5 gig of ram it started to run more like it should.

to sum up if you feel you must have Vista and money is no object buy a new computer spec'd out to run it.

Min 2Ghz dual core
2 gig ram
120 gig hard drive

this is just my personal recommendation based on my experience and will vary from what others will say.

One care is not needed.

[Noyb]

Curiosity got the best of me, and I fell victim to all the M$ hype, so I got the Vista upgrade.
Really sorry I did that, but it taught me a lesson.
Got a new computer last month and donated to the BG poverty fund again, when I upgraded it back to XP.

Saw that BG retired last week, took his 58 billion, including my donations, and cried all the way to the bank.

Just my $0.02 worth.

[TechB]

Don't upgrade to Vista with that computer. Like XP when it was first released you need current hardware to run Vista properly. Vista is an excellent OS on hardware designed for it. It is a terrible OS on minimal hardware. Think of how XP would perform on a PIII with 64 MB of RAM. That's about how Vista would run on your current hardware.

Onecare is not my first choice for security software. With Vista I recommend NOD32 AV (not the security suite) and the built in firewall and Defender.

[DaveA]

I agree with the others above, do NOT upgrade, go buy yourself a GOOD Vista built machine.

[TechB]

Originally Posted by Anne Troy

with my Windows XP Pro SP2

One thing you should upgrade is XP Pro SP2 to XP Pro SP3

[Anne Troy]

Great, thanks! I will not upgrade, then. It will be some time, though, before I buy a new PC. I don't recall why I didn't do XP's SP3, but I'll check that out again.

Thanks again, all!