Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (
More info?)
"AnnaL" <lalawless@nospamwingets.co.uk> wrote:
>I thought I'd find the answer to this, but I've searched MS sites and
>googled... nothing.
>
>I have a laptop with XP Home installed. I want to upgrade to Pro.
>
>Can I do that as an upgrade, or a repair installation, or do I have
>to either wipe Windows or install in another partition?
>The laptop came with the OS pre-loaded, no choice of XP Pro instead of
>home.
>
>AnnaL
>
If you are satisfied that you actually need at least one of the
specific features and functions that are included in XP Pro but are
not found in XP Home then you can use a Retail Upgrade version of XP
Pro and install that to upgrade your Home to Pro. In particular
there is zero difference in performance or stability between the two
versions. They are both compiled from the same source code base.
Even though it does not list XP Home as a valid upgradeable product on
the package it will in fact install without difficulty. However as in
any upgrade situation things can go awry and therefore you should
ensure that you have critical data backed up etc. before starting the
upgrade.
And your XP Home licence cannot then be used on a different computer.
There are two reasons for this:
1. When you install an upgrade version your license to use that
upgrade actually consists of two licenses combined - the original
license for the version you upgraded from plus the license for the
upgrade.
2. Licenses for OEM versions are permanently locked to the first
computer they are installed on and cannot be legitimately moved to
another computer under any circumstances.
Hope this explains the situation.
Good luck
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
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