Xp Home to Pro upgrade

I just purchased a HP notebook. I believe I am pretty computer literate but I have never used a laptop before so this is new to me, although the hardware principals are the same.

The notebook came installed with XP Home and other software which I am not interested in. I want to upgrade to XP Pro for wireless security. After I back everything up from the stock drive, I will then install XP Pro.

After I delete the installed programs I do not want, should I then perform an upgrade of XP Home (to Pro) or go with a new installation and re-format the drive?

Sadly I believe the notebook installed version of XP home is machine (drive) specific and I cannot use it on another computer.

I know this sounds simple but I believe the notebook should be functional, but limited, after a new installation of XP Pro and all that is necessary is adding the proper HP driver’s necessary.

Regards to all.

 

that should be good. However, if you are just adding it for wireless security you wont be gaining everything. Home can already do PEAP and every other common strong encryption for wireless data.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

I did an upgrade from home to pro just yesterday. I let the Windows XP Pro installation reformat my hard drive durring the install. One of the nice things HP did for us is they provided a separate disk with all of the drivers and pre-installed software on it. Just put this disk in, install the drivers and then install the software you want. Leave the software you don't want unchecked and it won't be installed.


This is much better than doing an upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro.

One of the great things <burp> about Microsoft licencing is that the copy of Home that came with your machine is only licenced to be run on that machine. So even if you could install it on another machine you'd be breaking your licence agreement.

 

doing a simple upgrade of any Windows flavor is a bad idea...it is stronly encouraged to do a clean install.

Also, technically you can install your Home version on another computer, nothing would stop you with the exception of you would be in violation of the license agreement.

Network Guru Extraordinaire

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by phroenips

 

DaGreek,
The HP Recovery CD's will allow you to install the OS on a different (non-HP) computer, but it will require you to Activate the OS. If installed in the HP system, it will not require Activation (BIOS Code specific).

Mtonic,
I'd reformat the system and install from scratch. There's always the possibility of conflicting files/drivers/settings that XP Home might have when installing XP Pro on top. This way you know that the OS is XP Pro only and everything should work fine.

-Vb-