Upgrading to Retail WinXP Pro on top of an OEM Installation of Hom

[Shyster]

I have a sony laptop that came with a pre-installed copy of WinXP Home
Edition - obviously, an OEM license.

I would now like to upgrade the OS to WinXP Professional and need to know if
I can simply purchase a retail upgrade package for WinXP Professional, or if
I will be required to purchase a new retail license for WinXP Professional.

As far as I know, at this late date, the OEM (Sony) doesn't provide any sort
of upgrade path such as this, I no longer get any active support from Sony
(it's been 5 years since I bought the system), and I have no desire to do any
more business than is absolutely necessary with Sony regarding this laptop.

So, my question is, briefly, can I install a retail upgrade license for
WinXP Pro on top of my original OEM installation of WinXP Home Edition, or
must a purchase an entirely new retail license for WinXP Pro?

 

[DL]

A retail upgrade will work, I assume you have origonal Sony cd's in case you
should ever need to reinstall your upgrade, if you dont you wont be able to
reinstal
I assume you need Pro for networking/Domain reasons

 

[Shyster]

DL,

Thanks for the quick response; I really appreciate the help. I do have the
original Sony CDs (which give me a circa-2003 factory-fresh install; not a
lot of fun since using them ends up requiring about two nights of serial
updating); however, as my parenthetical indicates, relying on them is a pain
so I've gone to making hdd images I can restore from instead.

I am contemplating going to WinXP Pro for networking reasons, although I
haven't made up my mind yet; I asked now primarily so that I have an idea of
the parameters I have to work within.

Basically, I have an old desktop running WinXP Pro that I would like to use
as the foundation of a small network, as well as a file server and internal
http server. I will be getting a new laptop for myself in a month or so
which will come with WinXP Pro installed (still a few sellers left who offer
WinXP ;^) ). That leaves two other computers unaccounted for that
currently run WinXP Home Edition - my wife's laptop and one other system.
The last system I'm not too worried about - it could be put to use or it
could gather dust as far as I'm concerned.

Thus, unless I upgrade my wife's laptop from WinXP H-E to WinXP Pro, her
system will be the odd computer out in what would otherwise be a WinXP Pro
network. I did find the earlier post from 2004 by Carrie Frisch with the
link to the MS knowledgebase article on setting up a network with WinXP H-E
(which I haven't read through yet, but I will later today), so I will explore
the possibility of setting up a network with what I've got (I'm not quite as
dumb as I sometimes seem, and would prefer to avoid unnecessary costs if
avoidance is reasonable). However, in the event that I decide that I want to
have a uniform network with all systems on the same OS, I would need to
upgrade my wife's WinXP H-E to WinXP Pro. Since her system is the Sony with
the OEM license for WinXP H-E, and since I know that the rules for
plain-vanilla individual retail licenses don't always apply in exactly the
same way to OEM licenses, I wanted to check to see if the upgrade path was
feasible - that way, if it turned out to be nonfeasible, I would know that I
needed to come up with alternate arrangements before I sank too much in the
way of time or money into setting up an all WinXP Pro network.

Cheers,

Shyster

 

[DL]

Theres no reason to upgrade to Pro simply to run on a network
I currently have a network of win2kpro, winxppro, winxphome (sony) & Vista
Business also media server box all via a netgear wired/wireless print server
router.
They all run together without a problem, its just that initial setup
requires manual config on the earlier o/s rather than a wizard

 

[Shyster]

Again, thanks for the quick reply. Since I (obviously) know next to nothing,
would you by any chance have any useful references to hand that I might
consult - my experience level in general is probably best characterized as
advanced beginner, with a like for detailed explanation of what's going on as
opposed to glib cut-n-paste recipe booklets.

Regards,

Shyster

 

[DL]

You might try this - I havent used it
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/

Your main issues maybe Firewall related, depending on what Firewall you use

 

[Shyster]

Thanks. I'll take a look-see through the site - at a first glance, it looks
like it should be technical enough (or more so) for me. The firewall is
another aspect I haven't finished thinking through yet (actually, I've barely
begun) - I was thinking (in very broad-brush terms) about setting up the
surplus desktop I'm going to be using as a general-purpose server machine to
also act as a firewall. Right now internet comes through cable and feeds
into a wireless router that the other computers connect to - the principal
defenses being the ISP (hee, hee), the router itself (a Belkin G-plus MIMO,
with MAC filtering, for what it's worth), and each computer's individual
firewalls/anti-virus (which I've managed to have play nice with each other,
so far).

By the way, I must say that I'm very grateful for your timely help. Thanks.

Shyster

 

[DL]

With Firewalls on the individual PC's, preferably those that block in & out
as apposed to Win default firewall that only blocks in, and a NAT router you
should be fine

 

[Shyster]

Again, thank you very much! The individual firewalls are through the
anti-virus software, not the Windows default, and the router does NAT.

Also, I've taken more of a look at that website you linked to, and that
looks like a fantastic resource, with references for both beginners like
myself as well as for experienced admins. I'm really grateful for your help.

Shyster

 

[DL]

well your good to go then
If you have a problem on an individual PC, try disabling the Firewall first,
at least you know then its a firewall config isssue