A question about upgrading from VISTA...

[S.M. Johnson]

I have a 3-4 year old DELL Inspiron E1705 that delivered with VISTA Home Edition SP2, 32 bit.

I need to install some new software, Roxio Creator 2011. It will not load with this software package.

If I understand it correctly, this edition of VISTA is not much better than Win XP Home Edition, SP 3.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?

[Jack Stoner]

You can't compare Vista to XP. It would be like comparing XP to Windows 98/ME. However, Windows 7 is "Vista Improved".

Dell supports Vista 32 and 64 bit OS' on this model so you should be OK for Win 7 as the Vista drivers will work on Win 7.

If you want to install Windows 7 32 bit you can do an "upgrade" over top of the existing Vista. If you want to install Windows 7 64 bit you will have to do a complete new install.

Windows 7 will install most of the device drives however you will need Dell specific sound drivers and may need a couple of other Dell specific device drivers.

Dell downloads for this model are HERE

You may be better to take the Dell hard drive out and use a new hard drive for Windows 7. That way you can fall back if needed. If you install another OS on the Dell OEM hard drive it will automatically corrupt the Dell "PC Restore" function that is there to reinstall back to factory condition.

[Mitch Drumm]

What do you intend to do with Roxio Creator 2011?

There is almost certainly a free equivalent or superior program that will do the same thing as Roxio and will install on Vista.

Are you asking a question about Roxio? Or about Vista? or about your PC's ability to run Windows 7?

[S.M. Johnson]

Having had great luck with a basic version of ROXIO (burned lots of MP-3's), a friend wanted to upgrade with Roxio so she could post to You Tube.
She invested in Roxio Creator Pro 2011 and after weeks of getting absolutely no where, numerous other decoders and installers were examined but they too, would NOT WORK with VISTA Home Edition.
We were discussing the possible VISTA upgrade in order to utilize this Software package.
WHAT do you fellows use to post on YOU TUBE? Just curious. Not after any military secrets.

[Mitch Drumm]

I assume Roxio is not a tool to help upload to Youtube and you just want to make mp3s with Roxio?

I can't help with uploading to Youtube, but I can help with creating mp3s.

What EXACTLY do you want to do with Roxio itself? There are many programs to make mp3s.

Getting an application that will in fact run on Vista may be an easier task than upgrading to Windows 7.

I assume you know whether or not Roxio works with Windows 7?

I have to say, it's rare that a program will work with Windows 7, but NOT with Vista. They don't differ that much.

[Richard Sinkler]

I have had some luck using the "Windows Movie Maker" program that comes free with Windows Xp and Vista. You just create a movie project and publish it as a .wmv file and it should upload and play fine. Although, I have Adobe Media Encoder and change the .wmv files into .flv files, but YouTube now supports other formats and not just .flv files.

From YouTube help:

Here's a list of some well-known formats that YouTube supports:

WebM files - Vp8 video codec and Vorbis Audio codecs
.MPEG4, 3GPP and MOV files - Typically supporting h264, mpeg4 video codecs, and AAC audio codec
.AVI - Many cameras output this format - typically the video codec is MJPEG and audio is PCM
.MPEGPS - Typically supporting MPEG2 video codec and MP2 audio
.WMV
.FLV - Adobe-FLV1 video codec, MP3 audio

You shouldn't need the Roxio software (assuming you have other ways to convert to mp3 files - like the basic version of Roxio that you were already using).

EDIT: From the Roxio site:

Minimum System Requirements:
Internet connection may be required for product activation at installation time
Microsoft® 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate (32- or 64-bit), Microsoft® Windows Vista™ SP2 (32- or 64-bit), Windows® XP SP3 (32-bit), Windows®XP SP2 (64-bit)

I doubt it is a Roxio problem, as it says that it will run on Win 7, Win Vista and Win Xp). But, I don't know what the problem could be without being face to face with the computer and trying things out.