The inexpensive laptops offered recently by the folks at both Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores drew lots of attention and customers. But owners of these super-cheap computers will get a nasty surprise when they attempt to upgrade from the Vista version installed on most of them.

Most of these laptops came loaded with Windows Vista Home Basic operating system, which doesn’t include a free upgrade to Windows 7.

The folks who shelled out about $300 for these machines will have to cough up an additional $120 to buy Windows 7 and get rid of the much-maligned Vista.

Microsoft has also published its “upgrade” paths for installing Windows 7.  The software company WILL NOT support upgrade from Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista RTM, and various other versions of Windows. These customers will need to purchase a full copy of Windows 7.

To download the full “Windows 7 Upgrade Path” document from Microsoft, click here.

Source: BusinessBrief.com