Vista - Upgrading a Sony Laptop to Vista Ultimate

I recently bought a new Sony VAIO laptop (VGN-FZ145E) with Vista Home
Premium pre-installed. Unfortunately, I need to be able to access a
domain, and from what I have read, I can only do this with Vista
Business or Ultimate.

First, how can I upgrade my Sony to either of these versions? Can I
use Microsoft's Anytime Upgrade, or do I just need an upgrade disk?

Second, I contacted Sony's tech. support to try and help me out, and I
was told (multiple times in an effort to mask Sony's accountability)
that drivers were not available for anything other than Home Basic or
Premium. Can someone verify this for me? If this is true, does that
mean I risk damaging my new computer by upgrading regardless? Also, if
true, at what point is Sony expected to release drivers for these
essential versions of Vista?

I'm kind of at a loss right at now - my lack of domain access means
that I can't access my work. Any help would be appreciated.
- bgetson

The main question is will sony cut your warranty if you upgrade to ultimate?

You cannot go from home premium to business as an upgrade path I believe.

The only route is to go to ultimate.

As for the drivers... I really don't think you will have a problem....

but that is only speculation.. vista is highly unpredictable.


<bgetson@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1180408142.913016.206180@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
>I recently bought a new Sony VAIO laptop (VGN-FZ145E) with Vista Home
> Premium pre-installed. Unfortunately, I need to be able to access a
> domain, and from what I have read, I can only do this with Vista
> Business or Ultimate.
>
> First, how can I upgrade my Sony to either of these versions? Can I
> use Microsoft's Anytime Upgrade, or do I just need an upgrade disk?
>
> Second, I contacted Sony's tech. support to try and help me out, and I
> was told (multiple times in an effort to mask Sony's accountability)
> that drivers were not available for anything other than Home Basic or
> Premium. Can someone verify this for me? If this is true, does that
> mean I risk damaging my new computer by upgrading regardless? Also, if
> true, at what point is Sony expected to release drivers for these
> essential versions of Vista?
>
> I'm kind of at a loss right at now - my lack of domain access means
> that I can't access my work. Any help would be appreciated.
> - bgetson
>

Unless Sony knows something about its drivers that I don't, there's no
difference between the various versions that would require special drivers
for Vista Basic, versus Vista Ultimate, versus Vista Business, and so on.
Drivers that work on one should work for all. However, if you're looking at
32-bit versus 64-bit then yeah, you need the drivers for the proper type
there. But in any case if you have questions about what Sony intends to do
about drivers you should probably ask them.

You can use the Windows Anytime upgrade to upgrade your version of Windows.
A Vista DVD won't do you any good unless it also comes with a key to
activate Windows.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


<bgetson@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1180408142.913016.206180@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
>I recently bought a new Sony VAIO laptop (VGN-FZ145E) with Vista Home
> Premium pre-installed. Unfortunately, I need to be able to access a
> domain, and from what I have read, I can only do this with Vista
> Business or Ultimate.
>
> First, how can I upgrade my Sony to either of these versions? Can I
> use Microsoft's Anytime Upgrade, or do I just need an upgrade disk?
>
> Second, I contacted Sony's tech. support to try and help me out, and I
> was told (multiple times in an effort to mask Sony's accountability)
> that drivers were not available for anything other than Home Basic or
> Premium. Can someone verify this for me? If this is true, does that
> mean I risk damaging my new computer by upgrading regardless? Also, if
> true, at what point is Sony expected to release drivers for these
> essential versions of Vista?
>
> I'm kind of at a loss right at now - my lack of domain access means
> that I can't access my work. Any help would be appreciated.
> - bgetson
>

First of, you should backup your computer before upgrading anyway. I believe
you will need an Upgrade disk. Also, maybe I don't know enough about Vista,
but it seems really weird to me that drivers work *only* with Home Basic or
Home Premium. The system is the same system, the core is the same core - in
Ultimate you just get advanced features.

Thanks everyone.

I didn't think that there should've been a problem by upgrading, but I
didn't want to run the risk. I'll try and see if I can access some
shared files as an alternative, and upgrade to Ultimate as a last
resort.

In any case, if you have any friend with an external hard drive, I'd advice
you to ask him for it and backup your entire PC before trying an upgrade.

Good luck.

On May 28, 8:09 pm, bget...@gmail.com wrote:
> I recently bought a new Sony VAIO laptop (VGN-FZ145E) withVistaHome
> Premium pre-installed. Unfortunately, I need to be able to access a
> domain, and from what I have read, I can only do this withVista
> Business or Ultimate.
>
> First, how can I upgrade my Sony to either of these versions? Can I
> use Microsoft's Anytime Upgrade, or do I just need an upgrade disk?
>
> Second, I contacted Sony's tech. support to try and help me out, and I
> was told (multiple times in an effort to mask Sony's accountability)
> that drivers were not available for anything other than Home Basic or
> Premium. Can someone verify this for me? If this is true, does that
> mean I risk damaging my new computer by upgrading regardless? Also, if
> true, at what point is Sony expected to release drivers for these
> essential versions ofVista?
>
> I'm kind of at a loss right at now - my lack of domain access means
> that I can't access my work. Any help would be appreciated.
> - bgetson

Here is the solution what you are looking.
First try to make sure that you are not going to use this laptop at
office or some other business environment because if thats so, you
cannot connect any of such VPN client over VISTA plateform. There are
some otherway around for this but thats another story.
well dude, I have been to the same what you are suffering from now.
First tip: Dont you be worried about voiding your warranty by whiping
the whole system and preinstalled software packs. Just do it because
sony corporation has well managed such incidents by providing a
special backup disk partition which you cannot access in your system,
though if you try doing so you are goin to end up losing your recovery
data, so keep yourself intact from that.
Secondly: Well, sony drivers and their so called world wide support
service really suck in every part of the world but in the end courtesy
goes to the land of Royal Kingdom , hehe, only the UK drivers are not
locked to particular models and hence it means that you can install
any of the driver providing that you are having the hardware names and
brand of same kind. Otherwise, if you try downloading the driver back
from US website the drivers are quite freaky, you may end up in
desperate situation installing third party drivers on your system.
So do in this way.
Whipe up ur system
install Windows Ultimate edition no other but ultimate otherwise you
would be making a purchase again even after upgrading to business/
basic for few bucks. you gotta spend now.
now log on your system, if you have another one, otherwise i am hoping
at this time that much of the internet and network devices are
functioning . go to this website
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/VistaUpgrade
now find something that sounds near to your model number, look for
some generic catogory of your model, sony categorized their models
into Series like i bought VGN-C21CH so I downloaded C series driver
for my laptop. You gotta use mind at this time.
Once the drivers are download unzip install and enjoy.
There you go with your system
now you must be facing a problem of Fn Keys, yea you are right,
Function keys are not working , well its not that there is some
specific driver missing in your driver queue list but sony vaio needs
you to install driver in some proper order, i followed the order
written on their website, even then it didnt work for me, so l am not
recommending you some particular sequence for the drivers. its at your
descretion besides, a word of advice, play around with shared library,
utilities and sony vaio update setup files, keep traversing one of the
way will definitly allow you to have your Keys back to life.
On the other hand if you are not into an enthusiasm to have the same
factory fresh look of your laptop and you can comprise on the FN Keys
than dude there you go, you can still play around with brightness and
other power options through mobility options given in the Vista
control panel.
If you have got some question, do let me know, since I have been
through all these frustrations and I can imagine how it feels sitting
at the edge of chair and desperatly hoping for one of the drivers to
be compatible from sony vaio's official website. hehe.
Enjoy and Cheer Up.
In the end word of advice : Look if everything happens right and you
end up having a clean n complete installation at your click of a mouse
button then life is too simple to live , hehehe there should be some
challenges to make yourself proud of being an acheiver, once again!
ehehhe
In the end sorry for the spelling mistakes , I was in a little hurry,
Since my boss is quite near to me.
Bye Bye.

One won't find model numbers in the driver folders in link you provided.

Drivers in that location are based on hardware specific manufacturer's items
not model numbers.

If you are referring to bios files one should be exact as opposed to generic
when looking for a driver. It is unlikely a bios update is needed for a new
system.

The only other folder is for Applications which are unique to the hardware
and Sony proprietary or add-on software applications included on the machine
as-shipped but once again not model category specific.


Your advice may have merit for someone but as written it should not be
followed.

...winston

<mr.zeeshanali@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1181030679.728264.59390@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> On May 28, 8:09 pm, bget...@gmail.com wrote:
> Here is the solution what you are looking.

> now log on your system, if you have another one, otherwise i am hoping
> at this time that much of the internet and network devices are
> functioning . go to this website
> ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/VistaUpgrade
> now find something that sounds near to your model number, look for
> some generic catogory of your model, sony categorized their models
> into Series like i bought VGN-C21CH so I downloaded C series driver
> for my laptop. You gotta use mind at this time.
> Once the drivers are download unzip install and enjoy.