Installing Windows XP professional

[Gary]

I have three computers. One is a Hp pavilion laptop
running Windows ME and the two desktops run Windows 98.
I want to upgrade to Windows XP Professional. Do I simply
buy three Xp upgrades or will the laptop need a special
addition. We also run a DOS accounting system. Will Xp
work with the accounting system.
Please can anyone give me some assistance.

Gary Voigt

 

[Chris Lanier]

Yes, you just need threee copies of Windows XP Pro. you will need to check
with the maker of your accounting software to see if it works with XP before
you upgrade.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

The laptop may need a special edition, due to proprietary hardware drivers
for some HP products. You don't mention the make of the desktops, but they
may have proprietary hardware requirements as well.

 

[Norm]

Gary, before you upgrade visit this site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/default.asp
When you get to step 3 you can download the upgrade advisor (providing you
have a high speed connection) and see for your self whether your hardware
and software will work with XP.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

The others have you covered on the install. There are no guarantees the
accounting software will run in XP. XP has no DOS, it has a DOS emulator.
Some users have had great success with while others have had a lot of
problems trying to run their DOS software.

If this is mission critical, you might be better off to do a clean install
of XP on a separate partition and dual boot with whatever current 9x/DOS
setup is currently able to run the application. This can be created by the
way in XP setup. You will need enough free space on your hard drive to
create an additional partition if you don't already have it. From their, XP
setup can create the new partition, install XP to it and create a dual boot
menu that accommodates your current OS and XP. This would then be a New
Install, not an upgrade. However, if you have your 9x media and it's retail
and not OEM, you can use an upgrade version of XP and it will just ask for
qualifying media during setup.