My PC came with the Japanese version of Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed, but now I want to upgrade to the English version of Windows 7. Is that possible?

One cannot perform a direct upgrade from one language version of Windows to another. You would need a "full English license version" of Windows 7 and then perform a "clean install".Carey Frisch

AFAIK, the upgrade license doesn't depend on the language of your previous version. The technical upgradability is another issue: You can't do a cross-language in-place upgrade (keeping your installed applications intact), you must do a clean installation instead (= reinstall all applications from scratch).Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

One cannot perform a direct upgrade from one language version of Windows to another. You would need a "full English license version" of Windows 7 and then perform a "clean install". Carey Frisch Mr. Frisch,I am in no way doubtingwhat you said but could you tell me whereI can find the documentation you used which supports this?

Thanks for the feedback, although I'm not at all surprised that people don't seem to fully agree on the correct answer. I think what I will have to conclude, in order to save me from trouble and many hours of work (not to mention cost), that I may be best off sticking to the Japanese version and doing a conventional upgrade.But here's another question then. I've just come across the following:"Language Packs, which were also known as Multilingual User Interface (MUI) packs in Vista, lets you change the language Windows 7 uses to display text in menus, wizards, dialog boxes, programs, etc. Basically the entire operating system and any programs (if supported in that language) will display in the preferred language. In the final release of Windows 7, these packs will be available through Windows Update, depending on whether Microsoft includes them in your version of Windows 7."Does anyone know anything about those language packs? And even more importantly: If they allow a user of English Windows 7 to display all menus etc in the operating system in a different language (e.g. Japanese), will these packs also be available vice versa, for a user of Japanese Windows 7 to have everything displayed in English?That would be a very interesting concept and would actually solve my problem - if it indeed works.

You should be able to apply all 32-35 language packs (MUI) on all localized versions of Windows. Keep in mind that these MUI's are only available for Windows 7 Ultimate (or Enterprise), not for the other editions.Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)