XP Home to XP Pro

[bahama llama]

I have Xp home and I just got my upgrade disk to pro. Can I just upgrade home to pro or do I have to do a clean install? The problem is that I have a sony laptop and most of the xtra hardware drivers are on the sony disk and if I do a clean install I won't have them. Do you think that this is a problem or will windows find it? One more question, I have a different copy of xp home on another computer and if I was to install it on yet another (from the same cd) how would I use the registration key that was formerly used on the laptop on the other computer?
A lot of questions, hopefull you can give me some answers, Thanks, Don:confused:

[BipolarBill]

You should back up the CAB files on the laptop. You can do that by partitioning the drive and moving them off of C:.

Yeah - you must clean-install. :(

Once WinXP Home is off, you can install from that CD somewhere else. You'll have to call to activate - no biggie. One thing - if the WinXP CD is keyed to the laptop BIOS, it won't install. You'll find out soon enough.

[itismike]

I'm kind of ignorant about XP because I don't use it directly, but I installed XP pro on my father's PC and I haven't seen any bells or whistles over XP home...what are the benefits to the pro edition?

-Mike

[BipolarBill]

Anal retentive control. Try typing GPEDIT.MSC and see for yourself.

[Midknyte]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Anal retentive control. Try typing GPEDIT.MSC and see for yourself.

LOL :D

this should answer your question.

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

[itismike]

Cool. Thanks for the info guys.

[bahama llama]

I backed up all my stuff and upgraded over the top and so far so good.

The cd with xp home that came with the computer is a sony recovery disk, so I probably won't be able to use it on another computer. I had a comcrap computer and once I deleted the partition with their info on it, it would no longer work, so I assume that when this cd meets a new hard drive it won't work either.

I do have another regular copy of xp home and could install on another computer from that but would the registration number from the sony disk work? Would I have to call microsoft to activate? Thanks, Don.:D

The difference between home and pro most notably for me is that pro will run internet information server and home will not. Pro also supports dual processors and home doesn't.