Hidden Costs of Vista Upgrade Coupon

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Microsoft today announced its Express Upgrade to Windows Vista program. It provides a coupon--if you buy a PC from a participating vendor from October 26, 2006 through March 15, 2007--that will allow a buyer to upgrade a Windows XP PC to Windows Vista when it becomes available next year.

The program seems designed to tame ill will between Microsoft and the vendors that hoped to sell you a Vista PC this holiday shopping season. But what's in it for the consumer? Well, the coupon sounds attractive: Buy a spiffy new XP PC now that transforms into a sleek Vista powerhouse later.

And Microsoft's representations of its program are positively glowing (naturally): "Don't wait to enjoy the benefits of owning a new PC. Buying a Premium Ready Windows Vista Capable PC means you can buy a great Windows XP computer today, with the confidence that it will easily upgrade to the Windows Vista edition of your choice."

But we here at PC World have reservations. As a guy who has upgraded a few operating systems over the years, I'm pretty skeptical about that "easily upgrade" comment.

Bottom Line on Money

First, looking at the various prices of the four different editions of Vista that will be available at retail gives me a headache. (An Enterprise version will be available only under volume license.) PC World did a complete breakdown in September, with a comparison to Windows XP pricing.

How much you'll have to pay for an upgrade ultimately will depend on where you buy your PC. As reported today by The Wall Street Journal Online, major OEM's will offer different pricing structures. For example, Hewlett-Packard will allow you to buy certain models and upgrade for free. Depending on the HP retailer, however, you may have to pay shipping and handling fees.

And the Journal reports that Dell will also allow you to upgrade by paying shipping and handling fees for systems using Windows XP Professional or Media Center editions. However, the Texas-based company plans to charge you $45 for an upgrade from Windows XP Home Edition to Windows Vista Home Basic.

Oddly enough XP Home and Vista Home Basic carry the same approximate prices: $200 new and $100 to upgrade.

More importantly, Harry McCracken, PCW's Editor in Chief, says that Vista Home Basic lacks some of Vista's more attractive features and will not hit the sweet spot for function and features that Windows XP Home does.

What's Your Time Worth?

Second, once you've done the homework on which version you want (and talked to your PC vendor to ensure that an upgrade to the version you want will be available and how much it may cost), there's a further issue that nobody is really talking about. Upgrading an operating system is not a trivial process.

If you use this coupon program, you are committing yourself to personally upgrading your own PC. Are you up to the task? Are you ready to fork over some extra dough if necessary? And are you ready to spend the time the upgrade process will take?

I stopped down at the PC World Test Center this afternoon to talk to Senior Performance Analyst Elliot Kirschling and Manager of Program Development James Motch about upgrade issues. Both Vista experts recommend a clean install of the OS, which will also require you to reinstall all of your applications (assuming that they will all work with Vista) and obtain and install drivers for everything that needs one, including your graphics board, printer, and so forth.

Which gets back to the question I raised earlier about that 'easy' upgrade: The hardware may take the upgrade in stride, but will you?

I enjoy working with PCs, or I wouldn't be here. But even so, I don't feel like dealing with the hassle of an OS upgrade anytime soon. A lot of you were looking forward to buying a new Vista PC. My advice: Be patient, and wait until your Vista operating system comes installed.