Windows 7 forum: About Windows 7 Home Premium?

No I did not get the disc at the time of purchase.In fact I requested Dell people to send me the Disc as they forgot to give me at the time of purchase.

I don't know why they have sent me Home Premium disc.

Why couldn't I install Windows 7 Home Premium despite the fact that my Laptop has Home Basic installed on it?

if you have Home Basic and that's what came with the laptop, your disk should be the same version. I presume you called Dell to get that CD. If so...and unfortunately...you should call them to let them know of the mistake. It's possible, however, that the Home Premium was offered on that model at a slightly higher price. In that case, it might just work in the event you needed to do a complete disaster recovery. It's not going to perform an in place upgrade, however. At this point, I guess it's your choice. If I was in your shoes, I'd be giving Dell a call to let them know what you were expecting but what you got instead. Let them handle it. Good luck.

Dell company has officially dispatched the CD.

Probably a restore partition on the harddrive.

Both could be considered as genuine but could be designed for different purposes. Ones that come with systems with Windows pre-installed (or that you can make yourself with provided software), are for that machine make and model only. They are produced by the PC manufacturer and contain components additional to the Windows OS such as drivers specific for the machine they are installed on. The also have a product ID code that's different from other issues of Windows. These are one OEM type of DVD if we're talking about Windows 7. There is another type of OEM DVD and these are the ones that system builders can get from Microsoft which are basically the same as what you might buy from a retail store. These don't contain special driver sets, however. They also come with a different range of product ID codes. The other type available to the public is the full retail versions. These will come in at least two flavors. One is the "upgrade" type. This means you use it to upgrade and existing installation of Windows. Again, a different range of product ID codes will be needed with these. The other type will be the full retail copy which is for a user to install on his/her own system from scratch. Another range of product ID codes again.

I'm emphasizing and restating that each type will use product ID codes specific for that release type and one is very limited in how these can be shuffled around. OEM types that come pre-installed are the most restrictive. They are designed for a single use one one machine and are valid only as long as the machine is alive. Retail versions can be reused as long as they are only in use on one machine at a time. Hope that helps.

click start
right click computer click properties and the version of win in your machine is at the top.. i.e. premium, basic ultimate or whatever..