Trying to Upgrade Vista Home Premium SP1 to Ultimate

About a year ago I bought Vista Ultimate upgrade; unfortunately my Sony VAIO laptop was only compatible with Vista Business, so I couldn't use it. About a month ago I bought a HP desktop loaded with Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1. I learned from Windows Anytime Upgrade that I could upgrade Vista to Ultimate, but when I tried it wouldn't let me upgrade, it only gave me the option to perform a clean install. I really don't want to do this because all of my HP software is on factory image on my hard drive and if I perform a clean install Vista will erase the partition and I'll lose it. I've already burned a backup copy to 2 DVDs but I still don't want to go through all the hassle of performing a clean install and then updating everything -- if I don't have to.

The problem is that my Vista Ultimate upgrade is the original version of Vista whereas the Home Premium is SP1, which is why it gives me the error message that it can't upgrade because my current version of Vista is newer than the version I'm trying to install.

I tried calling Microsoft support but they're closed at this time of night and I tried sending a message to Microsoft but it's giving me an error and to try again later.

Does anyone know if there's a way around this problem?

Ideally I'd like to be able to use my product key from Vista Ultimate upgrade to obtain or download Vista Ultimate SP1, which should resolve the problem.

Try uninstalling SP1 from your current system.

1. Click Start, type Appwiz.cpl in the Start Search box, and then click Appwiz.cpl in the Programs list.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

2. Click View installed updates.
3. Click Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330), and then click Uninstall.
4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to complete the uninstall process.

If you are unable to uninstall it that way for whatever reason, roll back with a system restore.

Once you have Ultimate loaded, load SP1 once again.

Thao said:

Try uninstalling SP1 from your current system.

1. Click Start, type Appwiz.cpl in the Start Search box, and then click Appwiz.cpl in the Programs list.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

2. Click View installed updates.
3. Click Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330), and then click Uninstall.
4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to complete the uninstall process.

If you are unable to uninstall it that way for whatever reason, roll back with a system restore.

Once you have Ultimate loaded, load SP1 once again.

Click to expand...

The Service Park isn't listed because my computer was pre-loaded with Vista SP1, so I don't think I can uninstall it.

I really don't want to perform a clean install just to upgrade to Ultimate. Even though I've backed up my HP software on recovery DVDs I'm reluctant to perform a clean install of Vista Ultimate because I can't use the recovery DVDs to re-install the HP software -- I know it doesn't work like that because they're for restoring the hard drive to factory state, not installing software. I think I can download my HP software from the HP site though.

Regardless, I don't want to perform a clean install of Ultimate; it's too much hassle to download all of the HP software and Windows updates, backup my personal files, re-install my games, and setup my computer all over again.

I wish I could just get a copy of Vista Ultimate SP1, which should solve this problem.

I read in the related topics/threads that Microsoft is offering Vista replacement disks with SP1? I performed a search and found the Microsoft site to order replacement disks but it's only for 32-bit versions of Vista. How do I order a Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit replacement disk?

Ah, I see. Well, reading up on it, the only last solution is the following, not too sure if this would work for you either though. It might be worth posting anyway.

Method 3: Uninstall Windows Vista SP1 from a Command Prompt

Note If you have used the Disk Cleanup Wizard, it may have removed some temporary installation files which are needed to uninstall Windows Vista SP1. If this is the case, this method may not work for you and you should go to method 2.

This section is intended for advanced users. Use this method if you are running the prerelease version of SP1, or if you cannot see the uninstall option for Windows Vista SP1 listed in the Program and Features window. If you cannot see the uninstall option for Windows Vista SP1, you may still be able to uninstall SP1 at a command prompt. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt window. To do this, click Start, type command in the Start Search box, right-click CommandPrompt, and then click Run as administrator.

2. Run the following command. This command assumes that the Windows6.0-KB936330.exe folder is in the C:\Temp folder.
C:\temp\Windows6.0-KB936330-X86.exe /x:C:\temp

3. You have to create a sandbox environment before you can continue to step 4. This helps you safely run an untrusted program. To create a sandbox, type md sandbox.

4. To remove SP1, type, or copy and paste the following command:
start /w pkgmgr.exe /m:c:\temp\Windows6.0-KB936330-X86.cab /up /s:sandbox.

5. After Pkgmgr.exe finishes, you are prompted to restart the computer to complete the uninstall process.