upgrading to XP Pro

[Stephen Larivee]

I know the cost of XP, both Home and Professional: 100 and 200 if you are
getting the upgrade, 200 and 300 if you want the full program. Either case
is about a $100 difference between Home and Pro.

Today I went shopping for a laptop. It is for a girl going to college, my
neice. Her father and I went to several computer stores today and saw some
good prices. Many of the laptops came with XP Home. When I asked the clerk
about upgrading to Pro, I was told it would be $200. I thought he was wrong
(he admitted to being new at the store). But he was right. Several of the
other stores we went to gave us the same price: if you buy a computer from
us and it has XP Home, it will cost you $199 to upgrade to XP Professional.

From shopping online, I see places like Dell will offer you a choice for
another $75 or so, and that seems reasonable. So how do the stores get off
asking for $200 to do the same thing?

If I have a computer already and it has Home, what would be the best way of
getting an upgrade to Professional? Or do I have to pay the going rate of
$200? Ouch!

Thanks

 

[Guest]

I would try pricewatch.com and check their prices or Ebay
as long as its still NIB unopened. Dell can do it cheaper
because of corporate licensing.

 

[Default]

The store may just be selling you a computer with Windows XP Home + the cost of
the XP Pro upgrade ($200) that you mentioned.

 

[Stephen Larivee]

I agree, but that seems unfair. But I guess they can do what they want.

 

[Stephen Larivee]

Good idea. I will check out PriceWatch and eBay.

 

[Papa]

Why upgrade to Pro at all? What do you think your niece will gain?

 

[hermes]

Why upgrade to Pro at all? What do you think your niece will gain?

Some students may need it if the university they will attend has a
windows domain network.

--
hermes
DRM sux! Treacherous Computing kills our virtual civil liberties!
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
http://anti-dmca.org/
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php

Windows XP crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams

 

[Stephen Larivee]

Some schools REQUIRE the Professional version. Easier for them to network
the computer.

 

[Tempora]

I agree, but that seems unfair. But I guess they can do what they want.

A retail store can't reimburse you the value of a OEM Windows XP Home that
comes as part of a pre-built system because the OEM versions have no retail
value, as they cannot sell it without the machine that it was bundled with.
Selling these discs separately is breaking the software license, provides no
warranty or technical support ('cause these come with the machine), and
these OEM discs may only work on the machine that it came with. For example,
OEM versions of Windows XP from a Dell machine will not install on a Compaq
machine.

 

[Stephen Larivee]

A retail store can't reimburse you the value of a OEM Windows XP Home that
comes as part of a pre-built system because the OEM versions have no retail
value, as they cannot sell it without the machine that it was bundled with.
Selling these discs separately is breaking the software license, provides no
warranty or technical support ('cause these come with the machine), and
these OEM discs may only work on the machine that it came with. For example,
OEM versions of Windows XP from a Dell machine will not install on a Compaq
machine.

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I understand all you are saying and
it makes sense.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Today I went shopping for a laptop. It is for a girl going to college, my
neice. Her father and I went to several computer stores today and saw some
good prices. Many of the laptops came with XP Home. When I asked the clerk
about upgrading to Pro, I was told it would be $200. I thought he was wrong
(he admitted to being new at the store). But he was right. Several of the
other stores we went to gave us the same price: if you buy a computer from
us and it has XP Home, it will cost you $199 to upgrade to XP Professional.

From shopping online, I see places like Dell will offer you a choice for
another $75 or so, and that seems reasonable. So how do the stores get off
asking for $200 to do the same thing?

An upgrade CD is the same price whether you upgrade XP Home or Windows
98. The difference is that Dell is providing a Pro license as an
alternative, not as an upgrade, and the price difference it asks is the
difference between the wholesale prices it pays for 'OEM' licenses for
the systems

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Why upgrade to Pro at all? What do you think your niece will
gain?

Only XP Professional can join a domain, not XP Home. It's a
common requirement in colleges to join their domain.

 

[Papa]

In


Only XP Professional can join a domain, not XP Home. It's a
common requirement in colleges to join their domain.

Well, obviously that is a very good reason for getting XP Pro, although that
need has never occurred for 3 of my grandchildren, two of whom are undergrad
students, and one who is in his second year of law school. They go to 3
different colleges in the mid-west.