Upgrading XP home to XP professional

  • Thread starter Thread starter Doug
  • Start date Start date
D

Doug

Dell just shipped me a system with home instead of
professional. Now they suggest shipping a new computer
rather than upgrading the OS or just sending the right
disks. I have the professional CD from another Dell in
house. Any reason why I shouldn't upgrade the OS instead
of waiting another 2 weeks for a new PC?
 
You can't because you'll need a new Product Key (license) for
the second installation.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Dell just shipped me a system with home instead of
| professional. Now they suggest shipping a new computer
| rather than upgrading the OS or just sending the right
| disks. I have the professional CD from another Dell in
| house. Any reason why I shouldn't upgrade the OS instead
| of waiting another 2 weeks for a new PC?
 
Why would you want to do this at all? Unless you are connected to a large
corporate network, or you are a high end web developer who needs to test ASP
code in a local IIS environment (and if this means nothing to you, you are
not), then there is absolutely no reason to upgrade at all.
Windows XP Home is the same code, byte for byte, as Windows XP Pro. There
is no qualitative difference or advantage to be gained from this upgrade
unless you absolutely need one of the few features offered in XP Pro. For
the very vast majority of users, leave it as is, and spend the money on an
upgrade to Office 2003 or something like that. Otherwise, you are upgrading
something you already have over itself. XP Pro is in no way "better" than XP
Home. They are the same product.
If, however, you *do* need one of these features, then an in-place
upgrade is just fine. After all, you are overwriting Windows XP with itself.
 
Back
Top