What are the "upgrade" rules? I don't need Windows 7 Professional but sometimes upgrades don't work if you are moving to a package lower on the feature tree. Please let me know if you have a definitive answer or give me a pointer to the correct place to ask.
That's unfortunate. I'm actually running Win XP Pro and have the Dell upgrade to Vista Business that I never installed. My idea was to upgrade to Vista then to 7 so I would not have to reinstall all my programs. Is that a reasonable approach if I buy the Windows 7 Professional upgrade?
Alternately...
Can I use Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade to do a clean install on my computer that has Win XP Pro installed? That is certainly an "upgrade"
If you wanted to not lose anything on your computer, then you would need to upgrade your XP to the Vista Business then to Windows 7 Professional. I would recommend that you backup anything that you do not want to lose to be safe though.
If you do not mind doing a clean install instead, then you can do a clean install with the Windows 7 upgrade version using the same method as with a upgrade Vista below.