Yet another Upgrade question

[Guest]

Dear All,

I have checked previous posts on upgrading XP Home to XP Professional, but I
couldn't see an aswer to my question. If it has then I apologise in advance.

I have the Home version with SP2 installed on a laptop and I would like to
replace the operating system with XP Professional version.

I have an OEM license for XP PRO. I have a disk which has the XP PRO version
SP1a. This is not an upgrade XP PRO disk but just an ordinary full operating
system disk. Will this only install another copy rather than overwrite the
previous installation?

When I run the installation it advises me that it will install another
operating system along side my one on the same drive (my installed programs
will not work) and not upgrade my current version.

Will this disk not work?

Thanks again.

Alastair MacFarlane

 

[Roberto]

Dear All,

I have checked previous posts on upgrading XP Home to XP Professional, but
I
couldn't see an aswer to my question. If it has then I apologise in
advance.

I have the Home version with SP2 installed on a laptop and I would like to
replace the operating system with XP Professional version.

I have an OEM license for XP PRO. I have a disk which has the XP PRO
version
SP1a. This is not an upgrade XP PRO disk but just an ordinary full
operating
system disk. Will this only install another copy rather than overwrite the
previous installation?

When I run the installation it advises me that it will install another
operating system along side my one on the same drive (my installed
programs
will not work) and not upgrade my current version.

Will this disk not work?

Thanks again.

Alastair MacFarlane

I think your best solution will be to slipstream SP2 into your XP Pro
CD, backup all your needed data and do a fresh install .
You can google for info on creating the slipstreamed CD [not hard
to do]

rgds
Roberto

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Alastair,

An OEM version will not perform an upgrade. You would only be able to do a
parallel installation, and that is not recommended to do on the same volume.
The only thing you can do with that disk is to backup your personal files,
boot the disk and perform a clean installation. You will then need to
reinstall any software you wish to use and recover your data from the
backup.

In addition, laptops are notorious for having proprietary hardware that
requires drivers that are not in the generic version of WinXP (or any
version of Windows for that matter). Check that these are going to be
available from the manufacturer before attempting to install a generic OEM
or retail version of Windows. If you don't have them, you may find that the
laptop will not perform correctly, or it may not perform at all.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

Rick and Roberto,

Thanks for your advice. I thought I was missing something about the upgrade
process. I will wipe my machine and do a fresh install. It will just be a
real pain reinstalling the software again.

I appreciate your comments and support

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Rick and Roberto,

Thanks for your advice. I thought I was missing something about the
upgrade process. I will wipe my machine and do a fresh install. It
will just be a real pain reinstalling the software again.

Let me add one other point before you go ahead with this. Are you sure you
need or want to do this upgrade?

Are you aware that XP Home and Professional are identical except that
Professional includes a few features (mostly related to security and
networking) missing from Home? Most home users (even those with home
networks) don't need and would never use these extra features and will see
no benefits by upgrading.

For details go to

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/whichxp.asp>

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.asp

Also note another point, not included in any of the above: Professional
allows ten concurrent network connections, and Home only five.

 

[Guest]

Ken,

One of the main pieces of software I wanted to test was IIIS and active
server pages.

Thanks for your posting.

Alastair

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken,

One of the main pieces of software I wanted to test was IIIS and
active server pages.

Then you understand the issues and clearly need Professional. Unfortunately,
many people don't, and want to get Professional instead of Home because they
think it's somehow "better." They just end up wasting their time and money.

Thanks for your posting.

You're welcome.