XP Prof Upgrade

[Guest]

I am upgrading from XP Home Edition to XP Professional addition to utilize
IIS. I have software such as Visual Studio.Net and Macromedia Studio MX
installed on my machine. After the upgrade will I need to reinstall my
software or will the machine retain it's previous installs?

 

[Yves Leclerc]

I am upgrading from XP Home Edition to XP Professional addition to utilize
IIS. I have software such as Visual Studio.Net and Macromedia Studio MX
installed on my machine. After the upgrade will I need to reinstall my
software or will the machine retain it's previous installs?

It should. However, you may want to copy your documents off the PC before you
do the upgrade.


As long as the XP Pro Upgrade is at the same Service Pack level as your Home
PC, you should not have any problem. Just un-install your anti-virus software
before starting the upgrade. Most anti-virus software left on during the
upgrade can "damage" the final results (personal experience.)

 

[Guest]

If you use the Upgrade version to upgrade, then everything is left intact,
but if you have the Full version that is meant to be installed on a PC
without Windows, you have to reinstall you apps, etc., to register them with
the new Windows Registry.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/default.mspx

http://www.duxcw.com/dcforum/DCForumID7/559.html

Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/

 

[ANONYMOUS]

I always thought that with full versions you can still upgrade your
existing software/operating system except that you pay the full price
when a discounted price would have sufficed.

All the software remains intact including user settings and personal
documents. However, one always has to be prudent to backup mission
critical documents just in case!. You never know what spywares can do

 

[Bob I]

You must be thinking of the Full OEM version. Full retail Pro version
may be used to upgrade any Windows installation 98 and after, except
servers.

 

[Tim Slattery]

If you use the Upgrade version to upgrade, then everything is left intact,
but if you have the Full version that is meant to be installed on a PC
without Windows, you have to reinstall you apps, etc., to register them with
the new Windows Registry.

A full retail CD will do an upgrade, just like the Upgrade disk. An
OEM CD will not upgrade an existing OS (that's what Eric means by "the
Full version that is meant to be installed on a PC without Windows,
even though the full retail CD will install on a PC without Windows.)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

If you use the Upgrade version to upgrade, then everything is left
intact, but if you have the Full version that is meant to be
installed on a PC without Windows, you have to reinstall you apps,
etc., to register them with the new Windows Registry.

Sorry, this is not correct. Both the Full version and the Upgrade version
can do either a clean installation or an upgrade. The only difference
between the two is that to do a clean installation with the Upgrade version,
you have to have a CD of a previous qualifying version to insert as proof of
ownership when prompted to do so.

Do not mix up the Full version with an OEM version. Unlike the Full version,
an OEM version can *not* do an upgrade.

And to Jason, 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 and everything
could be lost. For that reason it's prudent to be sure you have a backup of
anything you can't afford to lose before beginning.

 

[Peter]

I hope that means I'm OK to upgrade my OEM XP Home SP2 using a full retail
(NOT OEM) XP Pro SP2 Upgrade package.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I hope that means I'm OK to upgrade my OEM XP Home SP2 using a full
retail (NOT OEM) XP Pro SP2 Upgrade package.

Yes, no problem. But if you haven't bought that Full version yet, you might
want to buy the Upgrade instead. It's much cheaper, you qualify for it, and
it's identical in every way but the one I pointed out below.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

 

[Peter]

It is the upgrade, not the full version and definitely not OEM. It's on
ebay but from a reliable source, so I'm not worried about being ripped off.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

It is the upgrade, not the full version

Good.


and definitely not OEM.

No, there's no such thing as an OEM Upgrade version.

It's
on ebay but from a reliable source, so I'm not worried about being
ripped off.

OK. I'm usually very distrustful of software sold on eBay, but if you're
comfortable with the source...

 

[Peter]

The user has money back if not satisfied coverage and PayPal
guarantee..should be OK and all the feedback is positive.

 

[Patty]

A full retail CD will do an upgrade, just like the Upgrade disk. An
OEM CD will not upgrade an existing OS (that's what Eric means by "the
Full version that is meant to be installed on a PC without Windows,
even though the full retail CD will install on a PC without Windows.)

Is it possible to do a clean install using an upgrade disk? I'd like to
upgrade a Win98SE system, but I always prefer clean installs rather than
installing over older systems. I know in the past all you needed was to
provide the original disk or key code to do a clean install, is that
possible with the WinXP-Pro upgrade as well? Thanks!

Patty

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Is it possible to do a clean install using an upgrade disk? I'd like to
upgrade a Win98SE system, but I always prefer clean installs rather than
installing over older systems. I know in the past all you needed was to
provide the original disk or key code to do a clean install, is that
possible with the WinXP-Pro upgrade as well? Thanks!

Patty

Yes, it's quite possible to perform a clean installation using the
Upgrade CD, provided you have the true installation CD for the earlier OS.

Simply boot from the WinXP Upgrade CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. The Upgrade CD checks to see if a qualifying OS
is installed, and, if it finds none, it asks you to insert the
installation media (CD) of that OS. Unfortunately, an OEM
"Recovery/Restore" CD will not work for this purpose; you must have a
true installation CD, complete with the "\Win98" folder and *.cab
files, or the "\i386" folder of WinNT/2K.

Alternatively, or especially if all you have is an OEM Recovery CD
for the earlier OS, you can even start the upgrade from within the
current Win98/Me/NT/2K installation, and still elect to perform a clean
installation, to include formatting the drive. In this case, there's no
further request for the qualifying OS's installation CD, because the
installation routing "remembers" that you started from within the
qualifying OS. This process is more time-consuming, but you get the
same results: a clean installation of WinXP.

Many uninformed people do still 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're no hardware or software incompatibilities.
Microsoft has greatly improved (over earlier versions of Windows)
WinXP's ability to smoothly upgrade an earlier OS.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Ken Blake, MVP]

Is it possible to do a clean install using an upgrade disk?

Yes. See below.

I'd like
to upgrade a Win98SE system, but I always prefer clean installs
rather than installing over older systems.

Although many people will tell you that formatting and installing cleanly is
the best way to go, I disagree. Unlike with previous versions of Windows, an
upgrade to XP replaces almost everything, and usually works very well.

My recommendation is to at least try the upgrade, since it's much easier
than a clean installation. You can always change your mind and reinstall
cleanly if problems develop.

However, don't assume that doing an upgrade relieves you of the need to
backup your data, etc. before beginning. Before starting to upgrade, it's
always prudent to recognize that things like a sudden power loss can occur
in the middle of it and cause the loss of everything. For that reason you
should make sure you have backups and anything else you need to reinstall if
the worst happens.

I know in the past all
you needed was to provide the original disk or key code to do a clean
install, is that possible with the WinXP-Pro upgrade as well?

The requirement to use an upgrade version is to *own* a previous qualifying
version's installation CD, not to have it installed. When setup doesn't find
a previous qualifying version installed, it will prompt you to insert its CD
as proof of ownership. Just insert the previous version's CD, and follow the
prompts. Everything proceeds quite normally and quite legitimately.

 

[Peter]

I've also found, through experience, that it's best to disconnect from the
internet (cable in my case), unplug everything except the keyboard, mouse
and monitor plus, (strangely) uninstall my LAN connection (Intel Pro100 VE)
as for some reason it always stalls the network installation during Windows
installations.