Order your free Vista copy then worry about it.

Mikie has the right idea. However you might look into what will be needed down the road if you wipe the drive. With upgrades it requires a valid lesser program to be used to verify authenticity. What will you have to do to protect yourself on that score Jerry? Not meaning to ruin your plans but I have not seen this mentioned anywhere and it could mean big bucks in the future if not addressed from the beginning.

After posting the upgrading question above I decided to find an answer. You can read what is required by Microsoft from the link below. So it seems you cannot do a clean install but must install your XP then Vista if at some point you decide to wipe your drive.

Note, this is only in reference to upgrade versions

Here is a link that might be useful: Upgrading details

Even with a free upgrade, I wouldnt be in a big rush to install Vista for a while yet. One would have to make sure that all programs, applications on the computer are Vista ready. If I had my Vista copy ready, I would sit back in the weeds and get what the general reaction is first

owbist,

I am recalling all the problems that went "around" with the upgrade to XP SP2. I had a new computer shortly after SP2's release so I was installing SP2 on a "clean" XP system. It went just fine.

Now for the Vista upgrade, I've gone to some effort to mover that new in December PC up to a fully operational machine and that, plus the new environment causes me to have some reservations. Heck, I had W95 on the machine the new XP replaced.

I'm not sure, but will check, if my "free" upgrade time limit applies to the time I have to order/receive it or the time I have to activate it. If it is only an order issue, yes I'll order and sit on it for a while before I upgrade, that'll give me some time to see what others learn. Never be first is a good "rule" with software.

I was early installer of XP and well recall all the hassles in the early going of that OS. Now it works wonderfully well. I assume Vista will, too....eventually. I'm with Mac, now, so I don't care but if I was still with XP I would wait quite a few months for Vista to shake out using the aggravation of others before I signed up.

Perhaps this review from c-net might shed some light on the latest Windows upgrade:

"Windows Vista Home Premium is essentially warmed-over Windows XP Home Edition. If you're currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we see no compelling reason to upgrade. On the other hand, if you need a new computer right now, Windows Vista Home Premium is stable enough for everyday use."

Reviewed by: Robert Vamosi
Reviewed on 1/24/07 Release date: 1/30/07

Compare editions
For a side-by-side comparison chart of Windows Vista editions, click below.

Windows Vista is Microsoft's first new operating system in more than five years and the successor to Windows XP. However, it is not worth rushing out to purchase. If you desperately need to buy a new PC (if your old one died or you've been waiting and waiting for Vista to be released), then by all means do so; there's nothing wrong with Windows Vista. But there's no one compelling feature within Windows Vista that cries out to switch over, neither the enhanced graphic capabilities (Aero) nor the improved system performance features (truthfully, our Windows XP doesn't crash). As for security, Microsoft's biggest improvements in Windows Vista are within the Enterprise or 64-bit editions, editions most home users will not be running. Windows Vista is not the Apple Mac OS X 10.4 killer one hoped for (or feared). Nor are there specific big-name software packages written exclusively for Windows Vista--most software available today is compatible with both Windows XP and Windows Vista. But the extensive tie-ins to Microsoft.com and Live.com, and the many, many interdependences upon Internet Explorer 7 left us desperately wanting more (and often best-of-breed) alternatives. Hard core Microsofties who live and breathe within the MSN, Live.com, and Microsoft desktop software ecosystem will rejoice with the release of Windows Vista, but for the rest of us who are product agnostic, who use Firefox, Google Desktop, ZoneAlarm, GMail, and Corel WordPerfect, Windows XP SP2 will suffice nicely until some killer program necessitates that we all upgrade to Windows Vista.

There are six major editions of Windows Vista; we're reviewing four. We chose not to review Windows Vista Enterprise (available only to volume license customers) and Windows Vista Starter (available only outside the United States). Windows Vista Ultimate includes everything, and this is the edition getting the most promotion from Microsoft. It is not the edition most people will find packaged on their shiny new PCs or will end up with after an upgrade of existing hardware. See our feature comparison chart to know which edition is right for your specific needs, and check the following individual reviews for more details:

Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Home Basic

Setup and installation
The Windows Vista DVD disc includes a Windows Imaging (WIM) format of the code, so whether you buy the Home Basic edition or the Ultimate edition, the code remains the same; only the product key unlocks your specific set of features. This means users who opt for the lesser editions can always upgrade (assuming they have the proper hardware) by downloading some additional code and securing a new product key online. However, all features--even if you paid for them--are dependent on specific hardware configurations being present; if you don't have the proper graphics hardware, for example, you'll simply never see the Aero graphic effects on that old Dell computer in your basement.

Hardware requirements for Windows Vista should not be taken lightly. In a controversial move to garner positive reviews, Microsoft sent hundreds of bloggers (not including CNET) free copies of Windows Vista Ultimate; Microsoft did not send boxed copies, rather the software giant sent top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops with the operating system preinstalled. So even Microsoft seems to admit that the best performance is only available on top-of-the-line machines manufactured within the last year or so.

That said, many people will still want to upgrade their current Windows XP SP2. This will keep all your current data and applications, importing them directly into the new operating system. To see which edition(s) of Windows Vista your current computer can handle, visit the CNET Vista Readiness Advisor to find specific hardware recommendations so you don't buy the wrong edition. Most people will find either Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium to be their best choice. While Windows Vista does make a backup of your previous operating system before installing, it is always recommended that you backup your current Windows XP system yourself, just in case.

Rather than upgrade, we recommend you perform a clean installation. With a clean installation, you keep all your current on the Windows XP drive and install only the data and applications you want to run on Windows Vista. A clean install can be accomplished by buying a new PC with Windows Vista already installed, partitioning an existing Windows XP machine to dual-boot into Windows Vista, or adding a new hard drive to an existing Windows XP machine.

Our clean installations took anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the hardware in the system. It's pretty much an automated process, with the installer first copying the WIM image onto the new hard drive or partition then expanding that image. Once again, we experienced an uncomfortably long plateau at "Expanding: 27 percent"; as with previous builds, we waited between two and five minutes before the expansion continued. About halfway through, the installer reboots and continues the installation in Windows Vista.

During the installation, Windows Vista will load the drivers included within the installation image, but it will also download additional drivers from a much larger database at Microsoft. This assumes, however, that one has an always-on Internet connection; dial-up users may find that upon completion of the installation process some drivers are missing.

Once fully installed, Windows Vista first asks for your country or region, then time and currency, and, finally, the desired keyboard layout. Next, you'll choose a username, a user icon, and a password. Then select your desktop wallpaper and security settings: Automatic, Install Important Updates Only, or Ask Me Later. After reviewing the computer's time and date settings, there's one more message: "Please wait while Windows checks your computer's performance." Here, Microsoft grades your computer on a five-point scale, with the overall rating based on your system's lowest score (in our case, that was for the video card).

Windows Vista includes new musical tones written by veteran musician Robert Fripp. Compared to the familiar start-up tones of Windows XP, Windows Vista's are lighter, almost spritely. The sounds for User Account Control and Log Off are also perkier than those found in similar security warnings within Windows XP.

New on the Windows Vista desktop is a Welcome Center which contains links to frequently asked questions such as, "How do you configure your printer?" and "How do you connect to your Internet service?" There is also room for some sales opportunities, either with manufacturer specials or online offers from Microsoft, such as the Windows Live OneCare service. Frankly, we think it is better for you to look beyond the Windows ecosystem for e-mail, Internet browsers, and security applications.

After closing the Welcome Center, you'll notice to the far right there is a shaded sidebar populated with three example Gadgets ("widgets" to everyone else), tiny desktop applets that display content, such as RSS feeds. In one Gadget, a slide show of images from the sample photo library display; in the next, the current time; finally, there's a Gadget for subscribed RSS feeds. We downloaded and installed Firefox 2, made Firefox our default browser, and quickly set up a few RSS feed subscriptions. Guess what? The Windows Vista Gadget was unresponsive to our efforts, displaying only the default MSN feeds from Microsoft. Microsoft says the default RSS Gadget feeds off a common store of RSS feeds within Windows Vista, and Firefox hasn't yet adopted the API for that store. You have to use Internet Explorer 7 or choose a Firefox-friendly Gadget instead. By clicking the + symbol atop the sidebar, you'll see a panel of available Gadgets, with a link out to the Web to find even more. The Gadgets are not fixed to the sidebar; they can be dragged across the desktop. And even the sidebar itself can be disabled to allow for a full desktop view. An icon located within the taskbar will restore the sidebar at any time.

The familiar Start menu features some cosmetic changes for Windows Vista. Aside from the distinctive rounded icon, the Start menu now includes a built-in Search function. We would have preferred to have access to Search directly from the desktop rather than digging down a level or two. The All Programs list now displays as an expandable/collapsible directory tree, something Windows should have offered years ago. The new Start menu is divided in half, with access to documents, pictures, music, games, recent items, My Computer, network, Control Panel, default programs, and Help along the right-hand side.

Also new within Start is an Instant Off button. This button caches all your open files and processes, allowing you to turn off your laptop or desktop quickly without all the "cleaning up files" messages you see in previous versions. We like the feature, but on our Acer Travelmate 8200, Instant Off and closing the lid to hibernate sometimes produced limbo states where the laptop simply wouldn't wake up again, forcing us to reboot.

In Windows Vista, files become unmoored from the traditional directory tree structure--kind of. The more ambitious plan of including a whole new file system was scrapped early on; instead, Windows Vista relies on metatags, which are keywords linked to files to make them searchable. With metatags, you can create virtual file folders based on a variety of search terms. Say you're doing a report on mountains, any file that is keyword-enabled to include "mountains" will be grouped into a virtual folder without physically dragging that file to a new location. The downside is that older files (say you upgraded your system from Windows XP or imported data from an earlier version of Windows) will have to be retroactively metataged in order to be searched. Also different is the file path displayed within Windows Explorer. Gone are the backslashes, replaced with arrows that offer drop-down menus of alternative folders. We liked this efficient feature.

Finally, there's a compatibility wizard buried deep within Windows Vista. Most Windows XP applications we loaded performed just fine. Operating under the hood, Windows Vista convinces native Windows XP applications that they're running on Windows XP. Should you need to run an older application, say from Windows 95, the compatibility wizard allows you to tweak the display resolution and emulate Windows 95 for that program. For example, we were able to run a Windows 95-optimized game demo on our Windows Vista test system.

Features
Our gut feeling is that most of the significant bells and whistles are designed for the Enterprise-level customers, not the home user. Having a large number of features should not be confused with actually providing significant value to all users across the board. We would have preferred fewer features executed extremely well rather than an uneven mix of this and that, a one-size-fits-all operating system. And we disagree with Microsoft's seemingly arbitrary division of features within individual editions.

Common to all editions of Windows Vista are ad hoc backup and recovery, instant Search, Internet Explorer 7 browser, Windows Media Player 11, Windows Mail e-mail client, Windows Calendar, Windows Photo Gallery, performance tuning and self-diagnostics, Internet protocol IPv6 and IPv4 support, Windows ReadyDrive, a maximum of 4GB RAM support on 32-bit editions (up to 128GB RAM on some 64-bit editions), Windows Sync Center for mobile devices, Windows Mobility Center for presentations on the road, User Account Control (UAC) security protection, Windows Security Center, Windows Defender antispyware, Windows Firewall, Windows Meeting Space for ad hoc wireless meetings, Remote Desktop for working from home, XPS document support for PDF-like files, improved peer-to-peer networking, improved VPN support, and improved power management.

Home Premium users have built-in Parental Controls that allow you to filter Web sites visited as well as limit a user's Internet access by specific hours; there are also online gaming recommendations, with an easy-to-understand industry rating system. Also, Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions both give you Windows Media Center, which has been redesigned to better take advantage of online television subscription services and home theater systems. There's also built-in DVD-burning software, but because most DVD players come with their own software, we don't find this to be a significant plus.

We disagree with the exclusion of Windows Fax and Scan from Windows Vista Home Premium; you'll now need to buy third-party fax software to send that occasional facsimile. And Home Premium users will have limited use of the built-in Tablet PC features; this feature seems better suited for the Business and Ultimate editions.

Performance
Upon installation, Windows Vista rates each system's overall hardware performance, with the final score reflecting your system's lowest individual score. This is handy. For example, if you suspect that everything's running a little slow, you might find that your hard drive is returning the lowest score. Windows Vista will then recommend a faster hard drive or a drive with larger compatibility. Mostly, though, the video card will be the sore spot for most users. There's also an event log viewer to show, for example, after a specific software install your system performance started to degrade, and that uninstalling the software may restore your overall performance.

Under the hood, Microsoft has moved device drivers for DVD burners and printers out of the system kernel; Microsoft says that a majority of system crashes can be traced to improperly installed third-party device drivers. Thus Windows Vista hopes to vanquish the dreaded Blue Screen of Death common to earlier releases of Windows. Indeed, after testing several early builds, we found Windows Vista to be remarkably stable and robust.

Support
Along with the diagnostic and performance monitors, Microsoft has improved the Help section considerably. There is a static FAQ, but it also links to Microsoft online and allows outreach to other users for help, either via a forum or direct PC-to-PC help. Of these, we really like a feature available on some, not all, FAQs that allows you to automate the solution by executing a script. This method doesn't teach you how to do it in the future, but it will accomplish the task at hand. For example, if you choose to update a device driver, Windows Vista will darken the desktop; highlight and open the Start menu, the Control Panel, and the Device Manager; then pause to ask you what device you want to update. It's like having a technician at your desktop, walking you though the process. There's an increasing reliance on user-generated support forums, which leads us to believe that Microsoft is shying away from its own live technical support. At press time, Microsoft's final support policy was unavailable.

Conclusion
Perhaps we're spoiled, but after more than five years of development, there's a definite "Is that all?" feeling about Windows Vista. Like cramming an info-dump into a book report the night before it's due, there certainly are a lot of individual features within the operating system, but the real value lies in their execution--how the user experiences (or doesn't experience) these--and like the info-dump, we came away shaking our heads, disappointed. Compared with Mac OS X 10.4, Windows Vista feels clunky and not very intuitive, almost as though it's still based on DOS (or at least the internal logic that made up DOS). Despite the addition of a system-wide, built-in Search, and various efforts to break away from staidly old directory trees, you still need to drill down one level to even access Search. And there are far too many dependencies on Microsoft products; this is not a very objective operating system, as preference is always given to Microsoft products (of which there are many), from MSN search to RSS feeds only from Internet Explorer. But is Windows Vista a bad operating system? No. It's just a disappointment for PC users who hoped that Microsoft would deliver something truly exciting to finally leapfrog ahead of Apple. They failed. But stick around; this is just Windows Vista 1.0. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is due out sometime before the end of the year. Windows Vista SP1 promises to fix what's known to be wrong within Windows Vista and should offer a few concrete reasons to switch

Sold!! I figured this forum would help me decide, I do admit the advice is along the intuitive and experience with MS. I do read, but not study, PC Magazine, and they had the same drift as express by the c-net article. Hope we don't have a copyright violation by putting it on the forum, credits were given, an important point.

I'll try to get "my free" upgrade, but will let it sit in the desk until later...

Thanks,

By now you are probably weary of what writers have written about Vista but a writer over at Slate has some interesting comments on Vista which one might have missed becaused it is tucked away within an article on Office 2007.

I have to buy a bigger hard drive for it if I want it on my laptop.. it only has a 14Gb drive, with 9Gb free.

Oh well, maybe some part of microsoft will send me a free Vista then I'll buy a bigger/faster drive to partially justify the effort. I can probably buy a whole new laptop for the price of Vista Ultimate and a nice drive.

Hi jerry_nj ,
Like previous posters have said get your copy Of Vista and sit on for as long as you can until Vista gets patched and security concerns get shook out.Install Vista early and you will be a beta tester for Microsoft.Hold off for as long as you can before installing.
Hope this helps ya.

Jerry - and anyone else remotely interested in Vista upgrades - you might find the article liked below of tremendous value to you. I thought it was a very good article

Here is a link that might be useful: A very interesting read

Robert Vamosi ... is, well...not my favorite editor. He compared OS offerings a couple years back, he got everything wrong. The sound and the fury was huge. There were a few other products that recieved glaringly biased reviews...we all are biased at heart, its part of the human condition, but he has been downright unfair.

I won't read anything he writes anymore. The opposite extreme is Tom's Hardware, which offers and goes into so much detail on every product they review, a short one, by their standards is 40 pages long.

Ross went to a lot of effort to post the article...but be very leary of anything that Robert Vamosi writes about in either direction, he's over their in his ivory tower, living in a fantasy world.

I was a CNET fan and supporter since 2000, with my WEBTV PLUS, I felt like a proud parent when they joined forces with the New York Times. Unfortunately, the quality of their reviews has since declined. I place much more confidence with the user reviews at CNET than editors...particularly Robert Vamosi.

If I am intent on finding information about a tech product, I do my best to wade through the muck at Tom's. Because its an UK site, they might have a slightly more objective edge. I won't be interested in Vista for a long time...money being one of the constraints.

Tom's on Vista:


http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/31/windows-vista-superfetch-and-readyboostanalyzed/



http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/


My 2. I didn't read Robert's review above, I probably should have, I don't even know if these two articles at Tom's shed light on the question.

I do know that Microsoft's problems with faulty software have been exponentially increasing. I wouldn't jump in without looking where I was going first.

marf

My problems upgrading to XP were many, I think they were due to upgrading with my particular computer instead of buying a computer with XP install on it by the factory. I love my XP pro and will not upgrade at all.

"Ross went to a lot of effort to post the article...but..."

no effort in cut and pasting... article was much, much longer than I realized... thanks for the advice about Tom's Gardware...
--J