Andrew,
You are mistaken/incorrect/wrong.
Windows XP Home to Windows XP Professional is not only a valid upgrade
option - but the easiest and least painful in most cases - because the
change for the user is minor to none - dependent on what the actual
user does - it may accomplish more for the network administrator than
anyone.
Let's take your post and see where it went wrong..
You wrote:
"These mvps where do they get those ideas that are posted......"
From the Internet, books and actual day-to-day experience with the
products we voluntarily support here in the newsgroups. While we do
make mistakes on occasion - I'm afraid on this one - it is not an MVP
(but you) that has made an error in your post.
You wrote:
"If you chk any microsoft division TechNet,MSDN,etc They
specifically say thier is no upgrade from home to pro,the upgrade
is for older windows OS."
Wow - pretty bold statement. Incorrect as well.
It doesn't take much research at all to come up with supported
upgrade paths for Windows XP straight from a Microsoft Knowledge Base
article:
Windows XP supported upgrade paths
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292607
That article clearly shows a path from Windows XP Home Edition to
Windows XP Professional Edition..
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292607#XSLTH3140121123120121120120
Even external (non-Microsoft sponsored) confirm this:
What are the supported upgrade paths to Windows XP?
http://www.jsifaq.com/subI/tip4300/rh4349.htm
Now maybe you have a legitimate beef with the ability to upgrade in
the statement that sometimes occurs when someone tries to upgrade a
Windows XP Home Edition (SP2) machine to Windows XP Professional
using a non-SP2 version of the installation media:
"Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your
computer is newer than the version on the CD."
If so - even that has a simple solution.. You slipstream the Service
Pack 2 patch into your installation media so that the Service pack
level of what you have installed (Windows XP Home Edition SP2) is the
same as the installation media you are going to use to upgrade with
(Windows XP Professional SP2.)
Maybe you have another beef if you try to use an OEM copy of Windows
XP Professional to "upgrade" anything without formatting the system
drive first. Legitimate - sure - because an OEM copy of Windows XP
does not have the ability to upgrade - only perform a clean
installation. One of the (some say many) disadvantages of the
admittedly less expensive OEM version of the OS.
You wrote:
"Although its possible to install pro over
home, a clean install is the way to go..."
This is more of an opinion. It can be right/wrong dependent on the
needs of the end-user(or administrator in this case.) Said
user/administrator will have to decide.
Perhaps they do not have as much to spend and decided to buy all OEM
copies of Windows XP Professional instead of a volume license or
retail/upgrade editions. Then their decision is made - they must
clean install the OS.
Perhaps they want to make sure the upgrade is as painless on the
end-users (and them in the end) as possible - then their best choice
in my opinion is an upgrade from Home to Professional. They use up
some of the user's time, gain all sorts of abilities useful to them
to control the machine remotely and manage it better in a network
environment and the user barely notices a difference the next time
they log into the machine.
A clean install is not always best. It is not always the fastest
solution. And in the case given by the OP, I would personally try and
get a volume license and upgrade all my machines to Windows XP
Professional, create a domain and gain a lot of needed control over
the machines - even if I didn't convert the users to strictly domain
logons "right away".
Andrew, If possible in the future - please do some research before
posting hastily on a subject. You'll end up likely helping yourself
as much as the OP. Your never too old to learn and you will never
learn any younger than you are right now.