Academic XP Professional eligible for Retail "Upgrade"?

[timothyjr0]

My question involves upgrading a home desktop to Windows 7 Ultimate. I have a copy of Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Ultimate which are Academic versions I purchased at a discount from my university. (I already purchased the Student Windows 7 edition for my laptop).

**Are the academic versions of Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows XP Professional eligible for the Windows 7 Ultimate Retail Box Upgrade?**

I do not want to purchase the Upgrade retail box version to then learn the Academic version of XP and Vista are not eligible for the Upgrade version of Windows 7 Ultimate. Or will I need to purchase the Full Retail Box version to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate?

 

[mdmogren]

You are "Eligible" to upgrade from any version of xp or vista - but you can only perform in-place upgrades from certain versions, the fact that they are academic should not matter. But see Windows 7 Upgrade Paths for details about which versions can be upgraded in place.

 

[bobkn]

My question involves upgrading a home desktop to Windows 7 Ultimate. I have a copy of Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Ultimate which are Academic versions I purchased at a discount from my university. (I already purchased the Student Windows 7 edition for my laptop).

**Are the academic versions of Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows XP Professional eligible for the Windows 7 Ultimate Retail Box Upgrade?**

I do not want to purchase the Upgrade retail box version to then learn the Academic version of XP and Vista are not eligible for the Upgrade version of Windows 7 Ultimate. Or will I need to purchase the Full Retail Box version to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate?

I'm pretty sure that you're fine with the upgrade version. I never had an academic version of XP, but the academic version of Vista seemed to differ from retail only in its packaging.

Even if there was a problem with that (highly unlikely), an upgrade version can be installed on a blank hard drive with a little additional effort.

upgrading vs. full version

As an upgrade-in-place is not permitted from any version of XP to Win7, you'd have to do a custom (clean) install anyway.