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Bob said:
I currently have a Compag Presario 5635, PII 400 with
128mgb RAM. I want to uninstall Windows 98 and install
Windows XP Home, the full version, not the upgrade.
Since the upgrade is considerably cheaper than the full version, and since as a Windows 98 owner, you qualify to use the upgrade, it would be very foolish to buy the Full version. Despite what many people tell you, you *can* do a clean installation with the upgrade version.
The requirement to use an upgrade version is to *own* a previous qualifying version's installation CD (not an OEM restore 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, and follow the prompts. Everything proceeds quite normally and quite legitimately.
However, my personal advice is to at least try upgrading over the top of Windows 98. Unlike previous versions of Windows, upgrading to XP usually works very well, without problems. Worst case, if problems develop, you can always change your mind and do a clean reinstallation. And if problem's don't develop (which is likely) you'll have saved a lot of time.
Is my
computer capable of handling Windows XP Home
Based on what you say above, yes, but the amount of RAM is insufficient for decent performance. For decent performance, you should probably upgrade to 256-384MB--even 512 may help you.
But there more involved than just the CPU and RAM. Run the free upgrade advisor at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp