Win XP MCE upagrade to Win XP Pro??

Hi every one in this wonderful forum,

I have a silly question for you guys.
I have a friend who got a Dell XPS140 loaded with Win XP MCE 2005, he went to the store (CompUSA) and bought a Win XP Pro SP-2 upgrade CD.
He's planning to do an upgrade of Win XP MCE installed on his notebook to Win XP Pro (retail version). He asked me for advice about if this can be done but I told him I was going to research to come up with a straight answer since me, myself don't upgrade OS, I just wipe the hard drive clean and instal the version of Windows I want running on my notebook.

Since he doesn't want to wipe his notebook HD clean and install XP Pro, just to upgrade XP MCE to XP Pro, I was wondering if this upgraded is supported or not.
I know that you can upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro but I'm not 100% sure if this can be done with XP MCE.

If someone in here could clarify this doubt for me so I can advise my friend about it I'd appreciate it.

Thanks so much

Carlos

I6000D: Pentium M760 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM dual channel 533MHz, 80GB HD 5400,
8X DVD+RW, ATI X300 128MB, 2915abg Intel, 350 bluetooth, WSXGA+ matte,
9 cell battery, Windows XP PRO..(notebook reformatted the same date I got it)

 

if it is a viable upgrade path, he just needs to put the CD in and go. it sounds like he already bought so i'm not sure what he's waiting for?

 

Maybe he already opened it. I had a hard time returning software from walmart, that was misleading. Eventually I finally talked to enough people.

If you can't upgrade it with out whiping the drive then he could back up the files. There shoulden't be too many since it is a new computer anyway.

 

Thanks so much, Drumfu & Tokuman por your quick responses.

I'm suspecting he hasn't opened the CD yet. But I've got to talk to him and let him know that it can be done. I think he's awating to make sure he'll be able to upgrade from XP MCE to XP Pro without any hassles.

I wanted to get an answer for him through Google but all I could find was people wondering if the colud upgrade the other way around (from XP Pro & XP Home to XP MCE and not the reverse).

Again, thanks so much guys for the information, when I can contact him tonight, I'll let him know the upgrade will work.
(If I were him, I'd reformatted botting from the XP Pro CD and wiping the HD clean, but...oh well, that's my way to do that)

Carlos
I6000D: Pentium M760 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM dual channel 533MHz, 80GB HD 5400,
8X DVD+RW, ATI X300 128MB, 2915abg Intel, 350 bluetooth, WSXGA+ matte,
9 cell battery, Windows XP PRO..(notebook reformatted the same date I got it)

 

id also try to encourage him to just reformat; an upgrade sounds like a conflict zoo waiting to happen.

 

XP MCE is built on pro...
see here:
http://www.techreplies.com/windows-...12/xp-media-center-vs-xp-professional-230591/
Also, when I reinstalled with my disk from Dell it just says that it's installing XP Pro, not even 1 mention of MediaCenter.

 

clarification: i'm not sure if it's a viable upgrade path (it's specific to the CD he bought); i was saying that IF it is a viable upgrade path, he just had to pop the CD in and go.