Upgrading XP from Home to Pro

[lilford christie]

Hi

I am in the process of upgrading 8 desktops from XP Home to XP Pro, as my company intends to implement a SBS 2003 server. I have been assured over the phone by the software licensing guy that I can I will not have to do a clean reformat on each machine and the settings/files/defaults will remain the same when upgraded. Hmmmm….. if something sounds too good to be true it probs is!

Anyone had any experience upgrading from Home to Pro?

Thanks in advance

[SJWB]

For my two cents worth, having just gone through this with a Dell.

Do not load the disc with the machine running and install; this will format C: and destroy all of youe files.
Open the disc drive drawer and turn the machine off.
Insert the disc, close the drawer.
Start the computer and at the opening page press F12 (in the case of Dell that is).
This will take you to a DOS screen from where you can make your choices.

If you are quick, during start up on a dummy run, you will see a note telling which button to press to enter the set-up mode.
Hope this helps.

[ThePassenger]

Never tried but expect oddities if your doing an upgrade. Best bet, is if the machines are all identicle write out a ghost image of a fresh install and blitz the other 7.

[Plotloss]

Upgrade from Home to Pro shouldnt be too fraught with issues as the core code base is identical, theres just some more stuff being added.

[SneakyNeil]

Behold! Note that it specifically specifies the retail version of Pro, doesn't mention OEM.

[Silent1]

You can do it, but when you do, because of the frankly, homosexual ways that microsoft do it, the computers will run slower if upgraded from home to pro rather than a clean install, this is because the upgrade is poorly coded and creates merry hell with the registry

[ThePassenger]

Silent1 said:

You can do it, but when you do, because of the frankly, homosexual ways that microsoft do it, the computers will run slower if upgraded from home to pro rather than a clean install, this is because the upgrade is poorly coded and creates merry hell with the registry

It's never a good move to 'upgrade' a live MS OS. Wipe away the old, install the new. When it asks for proof insert the XP Home CD. Done.

[arcturus]

I agree with the previous two posters. Save yourself a lot of work by formatting and clean installing. I know you will have to backup files and reinstall the apps, but in my experience it just works a whole lot better and will save you time over sorting out the 'problems' caused by upgrading from home to pro. Dont forget to backup the .pst from Outlook. That's the one I used to forget!!

[lilford christie]

Cheers guys, some great posts, pretty much confirmed what I thought, its an office full of luddite women, so i can just hear them screaming "My PC is running slower than last week, fix it NOW"

In relatiion to the PST files, Outlook dosent make it easy or obvious does it!!

[BliarOut]

The only real difference between Home and Pro is the registry

[SneakyNeil]

lilford christie said:

Cheers guys, some great posts, pretty much confirmed what I thought, its an office full of luddite women, so i can just hear them screaming "My PC is running slower than last week, fix it NOW"

In relatiion to the PST files, Outlook dosent make it easy or obvious does it!!

You could use the 'files & settings transfer wizzard', that might make it quicker/easier? Install the latest version on the old machines before using it though. Restore the profile onto the Pro install after installing the apps, then the 2K3 SBS wizzard thingy will help you make the profile roaming.

[Tonsko]

For what it's worth, I've found upgrading a windows install brings nothing but problems, so always go for the flatten, re-install. The advatage with doing that is that you can set up a ghost image of the machine, so any serious problems down the line its a quick 15 minute operation to apply the known working copy back to the pc, away you go.