Telelink said:
I have 2 clients who just bought a server. Good for them, but bad
because they are running XP - Home and I need to upgrade 15
computers to XP - Pro. Is there an easy way to do this without
having to reformat and reinstall - like buying an upgrade to XP -
Pro CD or some other suggestion?
First - why must you change to Windows XP Professional? Just because they
purchased a server or is it actually because they purchased a server and are
setting up an Active Directory domain with it? Make sure you need what you
are getting:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp
You need Windows XP Professional (or superset) if you wish to join the
computer to a domain and/or have a little more granular control over the
users and/or possibly use EFS... Also if you want to be able to use Remote
Desktop. A few other things are int here too - but mostly it centers around
control, security and domain connectivity. Do not think you have to *join*
the domain with a computer to access the domain's resources.
Having said that - in a business environment - I prefer the Professional
Edition over Home - just makes sense and allows for better remote
management.
Secondly - a little research goes a LONG way:
Windows XP supported upgrade paths
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292607
You can purchase a Windows XP Professional Edition Upgrade license/CD (or
Full Retail) _for each machine_ you plan to upgrade and use that to upgrade
each machine from Windows XP Home Edition to Windows XP Professional
Edition. You'll put in the CD, choose to upgrade and hope for the best.
(Assuming you don't do backups before you run it - which you should - which
takes 'hope' out of it.)
