upgrade win2k to xp?

[edmicman]

how painless would an upgrade to xp from win2k be? i don't really wanna mess with reformatting, etc., again, after just doing it a short while ago. it seems like 2k to xp would be about the same as 95 to 98, which was pretty smooth...no major changes. any thoughts?

 

[nateholtrop]

if its not a legit copy then its gonna be hard/expensive

nate

 

[Escalade]

The transition *should* be painless, but if I was intent on doing this I would probably do a fresh install.

What are you expecting to gain by going to WinXP?

 

[edmicman]

some of the cool little things it offers......for instance, is there a way to make win2k group like programs on the taskbar, ie, if i have like 8 browser windows open, it will group them together into one expandable button to clear room on the taskbar? or the xp skins?

also, how would it be different upgrading whether the copy was legit or not? the mechanics and feasibilty of upgrading wouldn't involve the source of the software i wouldn't think...i'm just eyeballing the future, hopefully i can snag a free/cheap copy from my university when it comes out

 

[M O M O]

bah,,, going to install myself, as far as it being hard if the copy is legit or not .. double bah..

 

[SuperT]

you will be able to upgrade just fine, its just going back thats hard !!

 

[Flatline]

You CAN, but I wouldn't if setting intricate permissions is something you want to do. The security settings in XP have been simplified from those of 2000 to the point that the security settings are pretty much useless (one check box saying "make this folder private" is pretty pathetic). If you're used to 95/98 style computing (meaning permissions aren't something you worry about), then XP is perhaps a worthy upgrade; just remember that there's a pretty big performance hit when you "upgrade"😉

 

[edmicman]

how can it dumb down permissions? i thought they were all still there, maybe theres just a slightly different way of implementing them.....and what kind of performance hit are you talking about? i've read that xp performs pretty much the same as 2k

 

[Flatline]

No, they improved it from the 30% performance hit for RC1 to a 20% performance hit...don't sound too lovely to me.

 

[edmicman]

hmmmmmm

 

[vailr]

FYI: Don't boot from the WinXP CD if you want to do an upgrade; first boot into previous OS (or else from Win9x boot floppy) & run Setup from there. There's no option to upgrade when booting from CD.