After about a month of endless google searches and troubleshooting guides I have managed to install the new Windows Vista Ultimate Operating System. I had been having problems with installing Windows Vista on my primary desktop machine, as the installer would lock up in a certain amount of time and crash, rendering my PC unusable. At first the possibility of having a bad disc could of been causing this problem, but thanks to a good friend of mine Chris, (I.T/Computer Engineer) he was able to give me a machine to test out my disc. And in a good way we found it wasn't the disc that was the problem, as Windows Vista installed with no problems on the Toshiba Laptop that I was borrowing from him.

It didn't look great for my PC, because the problem that occured when I tried to install Vista on my Desktop was obviously now proven to be hardware related, but at the same time the installer just crashes on the spot and gives no idenication as to whats failed inside the machine. So the options were this given to me by Chris:

1. We open up the Desktop PC and start a testing certain parts of hardware.

2. The Laptop I was borrowing off him, I could buy it off him, seems it was running Windows Vista perfectly.

I don't know about you guys out there, but the options are pretty 50/50, however I chose option two, but thinking about option one could of been very costly due to the fact of the time it will take and the parts that would need changing. With option two I knew how much it was going to cost, £75 to buy the laptop off him. So I did exactly that and now have a Laptop on my as well as a Desktop PC! Image below:

(Yeah the Laptop wasn't turned on, but as you can see from my PC Monitor the brightness is quite high so im not sure if the picture would of been that great if both machines were on)

So although the big Vista mystery still lies between my Desktop and Vista and I'll probably never find out which piece of hardware was causing the problems (Even though Microsoft say every piece of hardware is fine to run Vista) but in the end I think getting a Laptop with Vista Ultimate working fine as well keep my Desktop running Windows XP wasn't too bad! And I think the saying why fix something when it's not broken comes into mind here.

Also while im posting this I've got to share this great deal on Windows Vista Ultimate with you. You'd be thinking I paid £250 for the Ultimate version, well you'd be wrong, in actually fact I only paid £61 for the ultimate version because Im a student in the UK. A website called Software4Students offers Microsoft products are student prices, such products as Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Encarta sold on that website for prices such as £50 compared to RRP prices such as £150 +, and even better still you'd think that a site offering products at these low prices would mean illegal/pirated version. Well you'd be wrong there as well. Infact Software4Students is a certified Microsoft Reseller, so it has the rights to sell products of Microsoft at any price they want. However you have to:

• Be a UK/Ireland Resident
• Have to be in Primary/Secondary/Further Education
• You can only purchase one copy of your purchase

I think those needed pointing out incase I got your hopes up and then found all of that out later on. But if you qualify with all of the 3 points above you should check out this link here to get your copy of Windows Vista Ultimate or of course check out the other great deals I'll link you below:

Windows Vista Ultimate:
http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Windows_Vista_Ultimate_Upgrade-details.aspx

Software4Students (Main Page):
http://www.software4students.co.uk