Express Upgrade to Win Vista question!!!

So, i use to have a gateway laptop but i got rid of it like 2 months
ago.

Today in the mail i received a copy of "Express upgrade to windows
vista home basic"

So, what i want to knwo is if i can install this windows vista home
basic on my desktop. Its not a gateway, but does that matter?

Or can i install my friends vista home version and use this serial
number

thanks for any help

I have know experience with Gateway "upgrade" versions. What you received
could be generic or it could also be somehow keyed to a Gateway BIOS. You won't
know until you try. But why would you want to mess up a perfectly good
computer?

.... Ben Myers

On Sat, 9 Jun 2007 22:56:25 -0500, drksage01 <>
wrote:

>
>So, i use to have a gateway laptop but i got rid of it like 2 months
>ago.
>
>Today in the mail i received a copy of "Express upgrade to windows
>vista home basic"
>
>So, what i want to knwo is if i can install this windows vista home
>basic on my desktop. Its not a gateway, but does that matter?
>
>Or can i install my friends vista home version and use this serial
>number
>
>thanks for any help
>

On Jun 9, 11:56 pm, drksage01 <drksage01.2ry...@no.email.invalid>
wrote:
> Or can i install my friends vista home version and use this serial
> number

You definately cannot do that. Microsoft will detect that serial
number is already registered when your friend (or his vendor)
activated the product. You won't be able to activate Windows on your
PC with his serialized copy after a short period of time, but it won't
let you because it was already activated before. You then won't be
able to do any function at all in Windows except the activation
program but you will be blocked since its already registered from your
friends computer.

oh no, it hasnt been activated at all. I have it sitting right here. I
havnt gotten a response yet from gateway, but it says express upgrade to
home basic on it. So i just wanna know if i can use it on any computer.
Theres a sept cd with drivers from gateway/emachines, lol

Id love to upgrade to vista

drksage01 has brought this to us :

> Id love to upgrade to vista

* * *
drksage01,

Why ruin a computer?

JR the postman

I guess you are still happy with DOS on your Apple II+?
Tom


"Postman Delivers" <> wrote in message
news:...
> drksage01 has brought this to us :
>
>> Id love to upgrade to vista
>
> * * *
> drksage01,
>
> Why ruin a computer?
>
> JR the postman
>
>

Really, though, why ruin a good computer? Especially upgrading to Vista over
whatever is currently installed. Despite Micro$oft hype about the WOW! of
Vista, there are plenty of pitfalls in an upgrade. No matter what, I would
proceed carefully... Ben Myers

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:54:38 GMT, "Tom from WI"
<> wrote:

>I guess you are still happy with DOS on your Apple II+?
>Tom
>
>
>"Postman Delivers" <> wrote in message
>news:...
>> drksage01 has brought this to us :
>>
>>> Id love to upgrade to vista
>>
>> * * *
>> drksage01,
>>
>> Why ruin a computer?
>>
>> JR the postman
>>
>>
>

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:54:38 +0000, Tom from WI wrote:

> I guess you are still happy with DOS on your Apple II+? Tom
>
>
> "Postman Delivers" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> drksage01 has brought this to us :
>>
>>> Id love to upgrade to vista
>>
>> * * *
>> drksage01,
>>
>> Why ruin a computer?
>>
>> JR the postman
>>
* * *

Tom I guess you have not read what Vista does with premium content, or
what the HDMI and Blue Ray standards will do to the average user.

Vista's content protection mechanism only allows protected content to be
sent over interfaces that also have content-protection facilities built
in. Currently the most common high-end audio output interface is S-PDIF
(Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format). Most newer audio cards, for
example, feature TOSlink digital optical output for high-quality sound
reproduction, and even the latest crop of motherboards with integrated
audio provide at least coax (and often optical) digital output.

Since S-PDIF doesn't provide any content protection, Vista requires that
it be disabled when playing protected content. In other words if you have
sunk a pile of money into a high-end audio setup fed from an S-PDIF
digital output, you will not be able to use it with protected content.
Instead of hearing premium high-definition audio, you get treated to
premium high-definition silence.

Say you've purchased Pink Floyd's (The Dark Side of the Moon),
released as a Super Audio CD (SACD) in its 30th anniversary edition in
2003, and you want to play it under Vista (I'm just using SACD as a
representative example of protected audio content because it's a
well-known technology, in practice Sony has refused to license it for
playback on PCs). Since the S-PDIF link to your amplifier-speakers is
regarded as insecure for playing the SA content, Vista would disable it,
and you'd end up hearing a performance by Marcel Marceau instead of Pink
Floyd.

My XP set-up and several Linux instalations are performing well, without
Vista. However I do have a vista install that i use most every week. Tis
a new computer, that came with Vista basic. Was less than $250 including
the states 7.5 sales tax in my local brick and mortar computer store.

On the brighter side of things my Gateway Pentium 11 is working better
than when it was delivered with win98 installed. Tom, it is not running an
apple system inside of the Linux distro as you might think, remember this
is a pent 11, and does not quite have that type of performance. But linux
has given this solid computer a new lease on life, not in the fast lane
but tis a solid performer used every day...

JR the postman

Quite a response! You clearly have a more complicated system than I have
(and you clearly know more acronyms).

I suspect that the original poster (drksage01) and I are far away from the
needs you have. I have read some about the problems with Vista for high end
users, but for most of us, I believe Vista is working just fine. There are
some annoyances even for us "plain" users, but I suspect we have forgotten
the annoyances we had upgrading to Win95, then WIn98, then (for some) WinME,
then WinXP, then WinXP SP2. Every change has caused problems, but we all got
over them. I don't believe that upgrading to Vista, for most of us, is
"ruining" the computer.
Tom

"Postman Delivers" <> wrote in message
news...
> On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:54:38 +0000, Tom from WI wrote:
>
>> I guess you are still happy with DOS on your Apple II+? Tom
>>
>>
>> "Postman Delivers" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> drksage01 has brought this to us :
>>>
>>>> Id love to upgrade to vista
>>>
>>> * * *
>>> drksage01,
>>>
>>> Why ruin a computer?
>>>
>>> JR the postman
>>>
> * * *
>
> Tom I guess you have not read what Vista does with premium content, or
> what the HDMI and Blue Ray standards will do to the average user.
>
> Vista's content protection mechanism only allows protected content to be
> sent over interfaces that also have content-protection facilities built
> in. Currently the most common high-end audio output interface is S-PDIF
> (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format). Most newer audio cards, for
> example, feature TOSlink digital optical output for high-quality sound
> reproduction, and even the latest crop of motherboards with integrated
> audio provide at least coax (and often optical) digital output.
>
> Since S-PDIF doesn't provide any content protection, Vista requires that
> it be disabled when playing protected content. In other words if you have
> sunk a pile of money into a high-end audio setup fed from an S-PDIF
> digital output, you will not be able to use it with protected content.
> Instead of hearing premium high-definition audio, you get treated to
> premium high-definition silence.
>
> Say you've purchased Pink Floyd's (The Dark Side of the Moon),
> released as a Super Audio CD (SACD) in its 30th anniversary edition in
> 2003, and you want to play it under Vista (I'm just using SACD as a
> representative example of protected audio content because it's a
> well-known technology, in practice Sony has refused to license it for
> playback on PCs). Since the S-PDIF link to your amplifier-speakers is
> regarded as insecure for playing the SA content, Vista would disable it,
> and you'd end up hearing a performance by Marcel Marceau instead of Pink
> Floyd.
>
> My XP set-up and several Linux instalations are performing well, without
> Vista. However I do have a vista install that i use most every week. Tis
> a new computer, that came with Vista basic. Was less than $250 including
> the states 7.5 sales tax in my local brick and mortar computer store.
>
> On the brighter side of things my Gateway Pentium 11 is working better
> than when it was delivered with win98 installed. Tom, it is not running an
> apple system inside of the Linux distro as you might think, remember this
> is a pent 11, and does not quite have that type of performance. But linux
> has given this solid computer a new lease on life, not in the fast lane
> but tis a solid performer used every day...
>
> JR the postman

somehow i think we lost sight of the original question that no ones
answered, lol.

I wanted to know if i can use the express upgrade on any desktop
computer or is it specf for gateway/emachines. Thers nothing on it that
says it is, just says express upgrade to home basic. So can i install
this ONCE on any of my computers or does it have to be a
gateway/emachine.
It has not been activated and all the gateway/emachine drivers come on
a sept disc

thanks