Qualifying Products for the WinXP Home Edition?

[Bill in Co.]

I have a Dell here, which comes with a "Dell Reinstallation WinXP CD".
But I was thinking of buying a Microsoft WinXP Upgrade CD from MS just to
cover my bases with the real complete thing (and not be limited to the Dell
CD version of WinXP).

My question is, could I ever install this Win XP Upgrade CD, if I only have
a Win98SE Upgrade CD, and a Win95 Full CD (assuming I had reformatted the
HD)? Or would I have to buy the full Win XP Home Edition CD (at twice the
price)? I'm guessing I'd have to buy the full version. ???

 

[Plato]

I have a Dell here, which comes with a "Dell Reinstallation WinXP CD".
But I was thinking of buying a Microsoft WinXP Upgrade CD from MS just to
cover my bases with the real complete thing (and not be limited to the Dell
CD version of WinXP).

My question is, could I ever install this Win XP Upgrade CD, if I only have
a Win98SE Upgrade CD, and a Win95 Full CD (assuming I had reformatted the
HD)? Or would I have to buy the full Win XP Home Edition CD (at twice the
price)? I'm guessing I'd have to buy the full version. ???

I've been using the XP2 "upgrade" cd for years. And use an old win98 or
win98SE cd for the qualifying product.

I have no idea if the XP "upgrade" cd looks for an 98 upgrade cd as a
qualifying product.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

As long as you have a Windows cd (not a restore cd) you can use a Win95,
Win98, Win98SE, WinME, WinNT, or Win2000 cd during the verification step
when installing an XP upgrade edition from scratch. It does not matter if
the legacy Windows cd is an upgrade edition or full. You are good to go
with either the Win98SE upgrade edition cd or the Win95 cd.

 

[Bill in Co.]

OK, that's what I needed to know - thanks. I had thought that maybe it
would balk at only inserting a legacy "Upgrade" CD, but I guess not.
Which is encouraging to hear!

 

[Bill in Co.]

I've been using the XP2 "upgrade" cd for years. And use an old win98 or
win98SE cd for the qualifying product.

I have no idea if the XP "upgrade" cd looks for an 98 upgrade cd as a
qualifying product.

Yeah, that's what I was inquiring about. But from Colin's post, it
appears the legacy Win98SE Upgrade CD will also work as a qualifying
product.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I have a Dell here, which comes with a "Dell Reinstallation WinXP CD".
But I was thinking of buying a Microsoft WinXP Upgrade CD from MS just to
cover my bases with the real complete thing (and not be limited to the
Dell
CD version of WinXP).

My question is, could I ever install this Win XP Upgrade CD, if I only
have
a Win98SE Upgrade CD, and a Win95 Full CD (assuming I had reformatted the
HD)? Or would I have to buy the full Win XP Home Edition CD (at twice
the
price)? I'm guessing I'd have to buy the full version. ???

XP upgrade will work perfectly OK withn a W98SE upgrade disk.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

XP Setup doesn't care about editions. It just looks for "Windows" as
defined by a list of files.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a Dell here, which comes with a "Dell Reinstallation WinXP CD".
But I was thinking of buying a Microsoft WinXP Upgrade CD from MS just to
cover my bases with the real complete thing (and not be limited to the Dell
CD version of WinXP).

My question is, could I ever install this Win XP Upgrade CD, if I only have
a Win98SE Upgrade CD, and a Win95 Full CD (assuming I had reformatted the
HD)? Or would I have to buy the full Win XP Home Edition CD (at twice the
price)? I'm guessing I'd have to buy the full version. ???

No, you don't need the Full version. Two points.

1. The requirement to use an upgrade version for a clean installation
is to *own* a previous qualifying version's installation CD, not to
have it installed. When setup doesn't find a previous qualifying
version installed, it will prompt you to insert its CD as proof of
ownership. Just insert the previous version's CD (either your 98SE or
95 CD will work), and follow the prompts. Everything proceeds quite
normally and quite legitimately.

2. If you want to do a clean reinstallation, do *not* format the drive
first. Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

As long as you have a Windows cd (not a restore cd) you can use a Win95,
Win98, Win98SE, WinME, WinNT, or Win2000 cd during the verification step
when installing an XP upgrade edition from scratch.

Actually, you can even do a clean installation if you have an OEM
restore CD of a previous qualifying version. It's a little more
complicated, but it *can* be done. First restore from the Restore CD.
Then run the XP upgrade CD from within that restored system, and
change from Upgrade to New Install. When it asks where, press Esc to
delete the partition and start over.