Dell and XP Pro Retail

[Jerry]

I have a friend that has a Dell Dimension series computer about 2 yrs old,
with 256 mb ram and a 104mb hard drive. The computer came with Win XP Home
installed. He has the Home install CD from Dell along with a disk with
drivers for Home. He has gone and bought Windows XP Pro retail and wants to
install it on his Dell computer. At first thought, I did not think there
should be a problem, but then I got thinking about the drivers.

He has contacted Dell about doing this and got minimal help. The users
manual is not specific about which drivers need to be install.

Will the XP Pro retail find all the drivers needed? If not, then what
drivers are needed for XP Pro and where does he get them? The only drivers
downloads we saw on the Dell support site are generic for the Dimension
series. We did not know which of these would be needed or how to install
them for XP Pro.

If any Dell users can help, we sure would appreciate it.
Thank you

 

[Galen]

In Jerry had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I have a friend that has a Dell Dimension series computer about 2 yrs
old, with 256 mb ram and a 104mb hard drive. The computer came with
Win XP Home installed. He has the Home install CD from Dell along
with a disk with drivers for Home. He has gone and bought Windows XP
Pro retail and wants to install it on his Dell computer. At first
thought, I did not think there should be a problem, but then I got
thinking about the drivers.
He has contacted Dell about doing this and got minimal help. The
users manual is not specific about which drivers need to be install.

Will the XP Pro retail find all the drivers needed? If not, then what
drivers are needed for XP Pro and where does he get them? The only
drivers downloads we saw on the Dell support site are generic for the
Dimension series. We did not know which of these would be needed or
how to install them for XP Pro.

If any Dell users can help, we sure would appreciate it.
Thank you

Drivers for Home *should* work fine with Pro. Additionally there's an
upgrade path from Home Edition to Professional Edition which, with XP, works
pretty good in most cases.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[Larry Danko]

Dell usually ship a resource CD with the computer. All of the drivers
specific to your computer should be on there and they are compatible with
WIN XP PRO. If the driver is not on the CD then check to see if a standalone
CD came with a particular installed device. Most all of the drivers will be
on the new WIN XP PRO CD. If you just do an upgrade, you shouldn't have to
worry about drivers. If you do a clean install, that's where the drivers may
be needed.

You may want to install an additional 256MB of RAM to get you up to 512MB
for WIN XP. It will make an amazing difference.

Larry

 

[Kerry Brown]

I have a friend that has a Dell Dimension series computer about 2 yrs
old, with 256 mb ram and a 104mb hard drive. The computer came with
Win XP Home installed. He has the Home install CD from Dell along
with a disk with drivers for Home. He has gone and bought Windows XP
Pro retail and wants to install it on his Dell computer. At first
thought, I did not think there should be a problem, but then I got
thinking about the drivers.
He has contacted Dell about doing this and got minimal help. The
users manual is not specific about which drivers need to be install.

Will the XP Pro retail find all the drivers needed? If not, then what
drivers are needed for XP Pro and where does he get them? The only
drivers downloads we saw on the Dell support site are generic for the
Dimension series. We did not know which of these would be needed or
how to install them for XP Pro.

If any Dell users can help, we sure would appreciate it.
Thank you

I have updated many Dell pc's from XP Home to Pro. The Dell sales reps can't
seem to figure out that Home won't work with Active Directory and keep
selling small businesses XP Home. I have never had a problem upgrading from
Home to Pro. If the current Home install is working fine then the needed
drivers are already installed. Upgrading to Pro will use the same drivers.
As a precaution backup any important data first. Even though the procedure
is strightforward and shouldn't cause a problem a backup is always a good
idea.

Kerry

 

[Larry Danko]

One other thing you may want to do is go to this website and download Belarc
Advisor and run it. It will tell exactly what equipment is on the computer
as well as all installed software. Once it runs, print it out for future
reference.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Larry

 

[Jerry]

First, I do agree more ram would be helpful. The use of Belarc is a good
idea.

The plan was to do a clean install and partition the hard drive. I have
never done an upgrade, and did not know it could be done with the XP Pro
Retail disc.

Assuming a clean install is done and drivers are needed, and the ones on the
driver disc he has are ok, then does anyone have a procedure for which
drivers are needed and step by step instructions on how to use the disc that
he has.

I hope that made sense. Restating, what are the step by step procedures for
using the driver disc that he has?

Thanks again.