Upgrading to WinXP Pro from WinXP Home??

[cbuchach]

Quick question--I am looking at picking up a laptop which will be pre-installed with WinXP Home. My university offers free or nearly free XP Pro and I was wondering what the upgrade process is? Meaning--does it have to entirely reinstall the OS, or will it just upgrade (or unlock) the key component differences?

 

[Grminalac]

Well I am not sure how an upgrade would work, I 'imagine' there would be an easy way to upgrade the os then again this is MS we are dealing with. Try a google search...
I would reccomend doing a full wipe and reinstalling XP regardless. Its likely that your OEM will install a bunch of junk you do not want and a clean install will allow you to configure the system the way you want, with the software you want.

 

[CQuinn]

The problem with that is you may also end up losing drivers and settings that are specific to the
laptop, and can be a PITA to reinstall properly.

I would suggest trying the upgrade route first, to at least give you experience in how that works.
Then if the system seems to not work as expected afterward, you can then re-format and do a
fresh install if you like.

And yes, IIRC, it will try to entirely reinstall the OS, or at least the parts that it can't confirm are the
same as what it would install.

 

[cbuchach]

Normally, of course I would reinstall everything, but this is a laptop and it is a bit trickier. Anyone else have an answer--can you easily upgrade to WinXp from Xp Home without going through the whole entire install process?

 

[mikecel79]

XP supports upgrades from Home to Pro. You shouldn't lose anything and the upgrade should be fairly quick since it just adds a few features.

 

[bacillus]

the upgrade should be painless as it's the same OS in essence plus some extras!

 

[Epsil0n00]

Yes. It is possible and fairly easy to upgrade from Home to Pro. I would recommend this for laptops due to the customization that the OEMs always do--proprietary hardware and custom drivers, etc.

It is very simple... while you're in Windows XP Home, just pop in the upgrade CD and click the install button on the auto-run dialogue box that comes up. It will ask you if you want to perform an upgrade, say yes. I don't remember the exact wording of the menus, but it is fairly simple...

I have never had any problems doing an upgrade from Home to Pro on a laptop... and I do them fairly often (I work at a school and people often bring me XPHome laptops that need to be upgraded to Pro so they can join our Domain).

Good luck!
Epsil0n😀

 

[cbuchach]

Epsilon--

So does Windows recopy all the files of the operating system or does it just upgrade what is necessary?

Why I am asking is I would anticipate more problems if it were to copy over all the files rather than just upgrade the necessary components.

 

[mikecel79]

Before Windows copies a file over an old one it will check the version of the file. If it's newer than the one on the CD it will skip it. This is how File Protection Service works. Of course if the file needs to be changed because it's different from Pro to Home it will overwrite it. Also when installing tell it to check the Internet for any updates so you have the latest files when installing.

 

[dnuggett]

There should be no problem. I have upgraded several laptops from Home to Pro with no problems. If you are worried, do a backup to an external drive to be safe before you install. You can also roll back to the Home version if necesary.

 

[leolaw]

Upgrade to Win Pro would not be neccessary, well, it depends on your need.

Btw, don't be attracted to your university, use Linux !!!!!!! That's how M$ get people to use windows, they start offering university and school free windows lisence!!!!!