Installing Vista Home basic with Home Premium DVD

If I buy a Laptop with Vista Home Basic and then reformat the hard drive (to
get rid of any unwanted utilities), can I then install Vista Home Basic by
using an OEM Home Premium DVD but entering the licence number of the
original Home Basic?

(It will be a bit frustrating if the OEM DVD does not contain a driver for
the laptop network!)

Is there an equivalent of the Linux 'Live CD's for Vista. i.e. a CD that
you can boot from and then complete an installation via an Internet
connection?

--
Michael Chare

Depends, since the OEM Home Basic DVD your system came with might contain
drivers specific to that system.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"Michael Chare" <MunderscoreNEWS@chareDOTorg.uk> wrote in message
news:KOSdnRoRT_DnqMbanZ2dnUVZ8tOmnZ2d@pipex.net...
> If I buy a Laptop with Vista Home Basic and then reformat the hard drive
> (to get rid of any unwanted utilities), can I then install Vista Home
> Basic by using an OEM Home Premium DVD but entering the licence number of
> the original Home Basic?
>
> (It will be a bit frustrating if the OEM DVD does not contain a driver for
> the laptop network!)
>
> Is there an equivalent of the Linux 'Live CD's for Vista. i.e. a CD that
> you can boot from and then complete an installation via an Internet
> connection?
>
> --
> Michael Chare

I don't think the licensing / verification used by Microsoft will allow that.

It seems to me like it would be a whole lot simpler to just remove the
unwanted utilities using the Control Panel. I've done this with two
pre-installed Vista machines (one Home Basic, one Home Premium) with a great
deal of success.

"PhilBiker" <PhilBiker@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0D723164-9233-41D0-A59E-A399AC1B15B4@microsoft.com...
>I don't think the licensing / verification used by Microsoft will allow
>that.
>
> It seems to me like it would be a whole lot simpler to just remove the
> unwanted utilities using the Control Panel. I've done this with two
> pre-installed Vista machines (one Home Basic, one Home Premium) with a
> great
> deal of success.


Thanks, I can always try that. The laptop will likely come with a recovery
DVD and partition, which may or may not these unwanted utilities!

--
Michael Chare