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oh, i am so confused about the term"upgrade" .

vista upgrade: i was told that if i buy this DVD, my current xp will be upgrade to vista directly. and i have no chance to downgrade it again and my previous XP will not exist any longer.

if so, what does xp upgrade mean?

like this one: Microsoft Windows XP Home Upgrade with SP2

does that mean i need a windows 98 installed and then upgrade to xp or with this dvd,or i can upgrade my current xp to vista?

The Vista upgrade goes from XP to Vista, as you mention.  I'm not sure if you can go back to XP -- I would do it by imaging the hard drive before upgrading to Vista and then restoring the XP image if you need to.  There is also a way to clean install Vista with the upgrade DVD if you don't want to do an upgrade install, see http://windowssecrets.com/2008/04/03/01-Its-official-upgrade-hack-included-in-Vista-SP1  As they mention, this method was deliberately included by Vista's developers.  It was possible with original Vista DVD and still works with Vista SP1 DVD.

The Microsoft Windows XP Home Upgrade with SP2 will install XP SP2 on your PC.  You can upgrade a PC with Win98 installed or you can do a clean install.  It was a long time ago but for the clean install I believe you just have to put the Win98 CD in the CD/DVD player to verify previous OS at some time during the install process.

As you said above, the Vista Upgrade from XP means that your XP will be replaced by latest edition Vista. And you can't go back to your XP.

The XP Upgrade means only update your windows XP to the latest edition. If you want to update to vista, you can choose the Vista Upgrade. If you want to stay at XP, you just need get the XP upgrade.

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