knead2no said:
Hi All,
I am currently using XP Home (SP2) and I may soon have reason
to start using XP Pro.
How easy is it to upgrade and is there such a thing as a Home to Pro
upgrade disc, which will do the upgrade without having to reformat and
all the tedious things that entails?
There is no special "Home to Pro" upgrade disk; the standard Upgrade CD
is all that's required.
WinXP is designed to install and upgrade the existing operating system
while simultaneously preserving your applications and data, and
translating as many personalized settings as possible. The process is
designed to be, and normally is, quite painless. That said, things can
go wrong, in a small number of cases. If your data is at all important
to you, back it up before proceeding.
The upgrade from WinXP Home to WinXP Pro, in particular, almost
always goes smoothly, as both operating systems use the same kernel.
Another option I could follow is that I have another (lower spec)
machine which came supplied with XP Pro (although it was not
required). How easy would it be to transfer the serial numbers so that
my machine has XP Pro and the lower spec machine has the Home
version?
Based on your description, you have an OEM licenses for both copies of
WinXP. An OEM license must be sold with a piece of hardware (normally a
motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC) and is _permanently_
bound to the first PC on which it's installed. An OEM license, once
installed, is not legally transferable to another computer under _any_
circumstances. This is a contract term to which you willingly agreed,
the first time you booted each PC.
Further, depending upon the specific type of CDs that came with that
each computer, it may not even be technically possible to use them to
perform installations on different computers. For several years, now,
one standard anti-theft measure used by computer manufacturers has been
to "lock" the installation CD to a specific motherboard BIOS; if an
installation is attempted on another computer, the Setup routine detects
the change in hardware and refuses to continue. This practice started,
if memory serves, during the distribution of Win2K and WinMe, and has
become even more widespread with WinXP.
If both PCs happened to have come with unbranded, generic OEM CDs, such
as are usually provided by small (Mom & Pop type shops) systems
builders, then the OS "swap" may well be technically feasible. You'll
just have to lie to the Activation Center personnel to get the two
illicit installations activated. If you're not burdened with integrity,
you may be able to do what you want.
--
Bruce Chambers
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You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
