The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Quick question about changing XP versions?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by ravenmorpheus, Jul 19, 2008.

  1. ravenmorpheus

    ravenmorpheus Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    846
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Hi guys

    Just a quick question regarding XP Pro and Home versions. I currently have XP Home installed on my notebook, would it be difficult (or even possible) to change that to XP Pro without losing all my installed apps?

    Is it actually possibly to change XP Home to XP Pro? I'm thinking along the lines of how Vista works where you can upgrade it to a different version, from Home Premium to Ultimate for example.

    Thanks in advance for any advice/help :)
     
  2. A#1

    A#1 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    77
    Messages:
    204
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    i've have never done an upgrade install...but i don't see why you'd loose any files...there really isn't that much difference between home and pro...pro has more security features for networking...pro also has a true administrarive password protective account...other than that...pretty much same...same
     
  3. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    4,977
    Messages:
    34,001
    Likes Received:
    1,413
    Trophy Points:
    581
    Why do you need Pro?
     
  4. ravenmorpheus

    ravenmorpheus Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    846
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ah I see, I thought there was more of a difference than that. Never mind I have a more pressing issue now...
     
  5. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    6,926
    Messages:
    8,178
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    If you get an XP Pro retail disk (upgrade version or full version - yup, you can do just an upgrade with the full retail version, 'tho that's a bit of a pricey way to get an upgrade) you can upgrade in-situ without losing anything else that's on the system (basically, it just slips in the full complement of files - dlls and whatnot - and replaces the gelded versions of certain files - XP Home is basically a pithed version of XP-Pro).

    However, do not try to do this with one of the so-called OEM versions that can be had on eBay (for example) because the OEM versions cannot be used to do an upgrade, they're only useful for a clean install to XP-Pro.