Win XP upgrade

[S]

Hi


I have 20 Workstations with Win XP Home edition.

I need to upgrade them to Win XP Pro.

Is there a way to upgrade from Home to Pro or should I format the WS and
install fresh install?


Than'x
Shay

 

[SAM-R]

If you do the Tech Support and want to keep busy, then do the upgrade. Do
you have a Volume License or 20 copies of XP?

 

[Malke]

I have 20 Workstations with Win XP Home edition.

I need to upgrade them to Win XP Pro.

Is there a way to upgrade from Home to Pro or should I format the WS
and install fresh install?

Certainly you can upgrade in-place from XP Home to XP Pro. If all the
machines are the same hardware, just set one of them up perfectly,
image it, and apply the image to the other workstations. With 20
workstations and presumably a server, you should be using imaging
regularly anyway.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpupgdissues.html - Upgrade Issues
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xp_in_place_upgrade.htm

Malke

 

[S]

Hi

Its not the same hardware, and user has a lot of information in his computer
files, emails, pictures.

Any idea?

Shay

 

[Yves Leclerc]

You can consider do an In-place upgrade if:

1) You have 20 Upgrade licenses
2) Do not have any Windows XP Home problems on those PCs.
3) Remember to uninstall any/all anti-virus system before upgrading each one.
Anti-virus systems can interfere with the changing of the XP files to the Pro
versions.
4) Re-install anti-virus systems after the upgrades.

You need to also note that XP Pro can only allow 10 "shared" connections at
the same time. If all 20 PCs need to access the same folder somewhere in the
network, you need a true server.

 

[Malke]

Hi

Its not the same hardware, and user has a lot of information in his
computer files, emails, pictures.

Any idea?

What do you mean "any idea"? Either look into Acronis' Enterprise
imaging software with Universal Restore or get busy and hand-upgrade
all the workstations. Why would any of your users have data saved
locally? Bad idea. With that many workstations, you should be backing
up to the server or to an NAS. Since you apparently don't have this
system set up, make sure your users - or you - back up all local data
before upgrading. You should be backing up regularly anyway!

Malke

 

[S]

Hi

Today we dont have server, the Sys admin that was till today bought only ws
with XP home and Office without P.P

So each user saved his info on its own H.D.

I"m going to put a SBS 2003 Pr. edition server, so I need to upgrade all the
WS to XP Pro.

We have all kind of WS, no WS look like the other.

Than'x
Shay

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Today we dont have server, the Sys admin that was till today bought
only ws with XP home and Office without P.P

So each user saved his info on its own H.D.

I"m going to put a SBS 2003 Pr. edition server, so I need to upgrade
all the WS to XP Pro.

Good, then you answered the question I was about to ask about why you needed
to upgrade to XP Professional.

The upgrade from XP Home to Professional is the easiest and most-likely
successful of all possible upgrades, since so little has to be changed.

However, easy as it may be, there are no guarantees that it always works
perfectly. However unlikely, it's always possible that something might go
wrong. For that reason it's prudent to be sure you have a backup of anything
you can't afford to lose before beginning.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi


I have 20 Workstations with Win XP Home edition.

I need to upgrade them to Win XP Pro.

Is there a way to upgrade from Home to Pro or should I format the WS and
install fresh install?

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.

Many uninformed people do recommend that one always perform a clean
installation, rather than upgrade over an earlier OS. For the most part,
I feel that these people, while usually well-intended, are living in the
past, and are basing their recommendations on their experiences with
older, obsolete operating systems or hearsay. One would save a lot of
time by upgrading a PC to WinXP, rather than performing a clean
installation, if there are no hardware or software incompatibilities.
Microsoft has greatly improved (over earlier versions of Windows)
WinXP's ability to smoothly upgrade an earlier OS.

Certainly, there are times when an in-place upgrade is
contra-indicated:

1) When the underlying hardware isn't certified as being fully
compatible with the newer OS, and/or updated device drivers are not
available from the device's manufacturer. Of course, this condition also
causes problems with clean installations.

2) When the original OS is corrupt, damaged, and/or virus/malware
infested. I've also seen simple, straight-forward upgrades from WinXP
Home to WinXP Pro fail because the computer owner had let the system
become malware-infested. Upgrading over a problematic OS isn't normally
a wise course to establishing a stable installation.

3) When the new OS isn't designed to properly, correctly, and safely
perform an upgrade.

But to cavalierly dismiss *all* upgrades as unsafe and inadvisable
is patently absurd. A properly prepared and maintained PC can almost
always be successfully upgraded by a knowledgeable and competent
technician. I've lost count of the systems I've seen that have been
upgraded from Win95 to Win98 to Win2K to WinXP (usually with incremental
hardware upgrades over the same time period), without the need for a
clean installation, and that are still operating without any problems
attributable to upgrades.


--

Bruce Chambers

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