XP Home to XP Professional

[Gary]

I currently have XP Home edition. My bother had XP
Professional on his computer. His computer crashed and is
having to get another.
He has given me his XP Professional disk.
Can I install this on my computer?
If so, can I do this without losing my files?

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I currently have XP Home edition. My bother had XP
Professional on his computer. His computer crashed and is
having to get another.
He has given me his XP Professional disk.
Can I install this on my computer?

You need to buy your own copy if he's going to use the same one. If he's
buying a new PC with XP preinstalled (OEM copy), he can give you his
copy/license only if it's a retail copy - OEM versions are limited to the
hardware they were bundled with.

 

[Jone Doe]

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

Gary wrote: <snip>

If so, can I do this without losing my files?

Probably. But it's always a good idea to back up important files before
making any major changes to the system.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

I currently have XP Home edition. My bother had XP
Professional on his computer. His computer crashed and is
having to get another.
He has given me his XP Professional disk.
Can I install this on my computer?

If it's a retail copy, yes. But if it's an OEM copy, no; its
license restricts it to the first computer it's installed on and
it can never be moved to another.

If so, can I do this without losing my files?

If it's a retail copy, you can do either a clean installation or
an upgrade. By definition, an "upgrade" (as opposed to a clean
installation) means that all data, programs, etc. are kept
intact.

However 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.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I currently have XP Home edition. My bother had XP
Professional on his computer. His computer crashed and is
having to get another.
He has given me his XP Professional disk.
Can I install this on my computer?
If so, can I do this without losing my files?

Provided it was a retail XP Pro CD and not one of the 'OEM' ones that
came with hardware and is marked 'for supply only with a new computer'.
Those are only licensed to the machine first installed on, and the
license dies with it. Also that would mean cleaning everything off the
disk and starting over.

Unless you *need* one of the facilities that are only in Pro, I would
leave it anyway, but if it is a retail CD you run it from your Home
system, enter Install, continue with Upgrade. Use the Product Key that
is with the Pro CD - you Home one will not work with it.

Note that it will need complete updating afterwards. When it comes to
activation and is a retail copy, you will find it will go through on the
net just like first time. If not, you will have to phone a toll-free
number that will be given, to explain and swap one long number for
another to check back as you type it in