XP Home to XP Pro 'Upgrade' Question

[Guest]

First let me set the stage -- I am a member of a local ski patrol group and
about 2.5 years ago we purchased a laptop for the group. We use it for
training and presentations as well as part of our network of PCs to
administrate our annual Ski Swap. Shortly after we had bought the laptop, we
upgraded it from XP Home to XP Pro (actually we have a full version of XP Pro
that we did the upgrade with). Now skip forward in time to the present --
The "old" laptop has died and we have decided to purchase a new one (actually
have the new laptop in hand).

My questions:
1.) Can I use the full version of XP Pro to upgrade the new laptop from XP
Home? Since the Old laptop in now dead, can I install this full package on
the new machine. This is not the OS that came with the old lap top but a
full package that we purchased, but it was installed / activated on the old
lap top 2.5 years ago. We need > 5 network connections for our ski swap
(actually we need 6) and XP Home limits you to 5 simultaneous connections,
that is why I need to upgrade it to XP Pro.

2.) Hints on how to go about the upgrade? I put the CD in the new lap top
and tried to run it and got an error (The version of Windows on the CD is
older than the version currently installed on the PC) Can do the upgrade
without loosing all of the files and programs already loaded on the new
laptop?


Thanks for the help

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Because your new computer likely has SP2 preinstalled,
you'll need to create a new Windows XP Pro CD with
SP2 slipstreamed, then "Upgrade" to Windows XP Pro.

Either one of the following utilities makes slipstreaming
(integrating) SP2 into Windows XP a breeze:

Windows Slipstreaming and Bootable CD Guide
http://www.msfn.org/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=49

or

AutoStreamer 1.0.33 (preferred)
http://www.wbeta.com/comments.php?shownews=1063&catid=2

Windows XP Service Pack 2 - Direct Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| First let me set the stage -- I am a member of a local ski patrol group and
| about 2.5 years ago we purchased a laptop for the group. We use it for
| training and presentations as well as part of our network of PCs to
| administrate our annual Ski Swap. Shortly after we had bought the laptop, we
| upgraded it from XP Home to XP Pro (actually we have a full version of XP Pro
| that we did the upgrade with). Now skip forward in time to the present --
| The "old" laptop has died and we have decided to purchase a new one (actually
| have the new laptop in hand).
|
| My questions:
| 1.) Can I use the full version of XP Pro to upgrade the new laptop from XP
| Home? Since the Old laptop in now dead, can I install this full package on
| the new machine. This is not the OS that came with the old lap top but a
| full package that we purchased, but it was installed / activated on the old
| lap top 2.5 years ago. We need > 5 network connections for our ski swap
| (actually we need 6) and XP Home limits you to 5 simultaneous connections,
| that is why I need to upgrade it to XP Pro.
|
| 2.) Hints on how to go about the upgrade? I put the CD in the new lap top
| and tried to run it and got an error (The version of Windows on the CD is
| older than the version currently installed on the PC) Can do the upgrade
| without loosing all of the files and programs already loaded on the new
| laptop?
|
|
| Thanks for the help

 

[Guest]

Since you have a full version, you could just do a "Clean Install".
This will erase whatever is on HDD. If there are software applications, they
will be lost and any personal files would need to be backed up. Then SP2 and
all updates could be downloaded and installed. Then all software that you
have could be loaded.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

First let me set the stage -- I am a member of a local ski patrol group and
about 2.5 years ago we purchased a laptop for the group. We use it for
training and presentations as well as part of our network of PCs to
administrate our annual Ski Swap. Shortly after we had bought the laptop, we
upgraded it from XP Home to XP Pro (actually we have a full version of XP Pro
that we did the upgrade with). Now skip forward in time to the present --
The "old" laptop has died and we have decided to purchase a new one (actually
have the new laptop in hand).

My questions:
1.) Can I use the full version of XP Pro to upgrade the new laptop from XP
Home? Since the Old laptop in now dead, can I install this full package on
the new machine. This is not the OS that came with the old lap top but a
full package that we purchased, but it was installed / activated on the old
lap top 2.5 years ago. We need > 5 network connections for our ski swap
(actually we need 6) and XP Home limits you to 5 simultaneous connections,
that is why I need to upgrade it to XP Pro.

Yes, you can use the full version to do the upgrade. It will install
and activate without problems.

2.) Hints on how to go about the upgrade? I put the CD in the new lap top
and tried to run it and got an error (The version of Windows on the CD is
older than the version currently installed on the PC) Can do the upgrade
without loosing all of the files and programs already loaded on the new
laptop?

OK, so almost without problems. Here the issue is that the new laptop
came with either SP1, or more likely SP2, installed. Your XP Pro disk
is either without any SP or at least a lower SP than is already
installed. You'll want to download the full install of SP2 and then
slipstream that with your XP Pro CD. There are a number of free tools
that make that process pretty simple. One that I use is nLite from
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

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