Re: Upgrade from ME to XP

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I have to agree on the practical side of this. While the upgrade process itself works fine, the result from upgrading Win9x/ME to XP has usually disappointed me. In extreme cases (involving ME) the upgraded system became unstable in only a few hours.

"philo" <philo@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:exL7bvLaIHA.3940@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"M.I.5¾" <no.one@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"philo" <philo@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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>
> "Joan A" <JoanA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:BD6099A7-AFBC-4BAE-9D50-CFE7F48D18B1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> I've upgraded from ME to XP and now I can't find any of my programs.
Not
> on
>> desk top, hidden in Program files and if I click to run them, they say
I
> have
>> to re-install. What do I do to fix this?
>>
>
>
>
> You did not actually upgrade...
> you actually installed Windows in a seperate folder...
> don't fret though..There is a good chance the upgrade would not have
> worked
> anyway.
>

Why? Windows upgrades are the one feature that usually works well. And
in
the event that it doesn't, the uninstall is one thing that Microsoft have
got really right.

> You will need to dig out the CD's your apps came on...then reinstall
them
>

Better still would be to restore the backup of the original windows ME and
then do the upgrade correctly.

The OP *does have* a backup, doesn't he?



You know he does not have a backup<G>


As to upgrades... I work on literally hundreds upon hundreds of machines
each year.
and no longer even bother with the upgrade option.

The worst possible scenario is an attempt to upgrade a dos-based os (win9x)
to an NT-based os (Win2k, XP)

One upgrade that will probably work out OK is Win2k===> XP
as they are essentially the same operating system.


A properly prepped Win9x might be upgradable with no problems...
but the amount of work needed to properly prep. a win9x system...
is probably going to be more work than simply backing up the data
and performing a clean install.(Then re-installing the apps and copying back
the data)

The biggest reason for not doing an upgrade is that fairly often , though
the upgrade seems to work...
there are a number of idiosyncrasies. One not thoroughly familiar with how
win2k/XP is supposed to work
may simply plod on unaware...and think of the problems as bugs in the OS.


I don't recall ever having a problem with a clean install.






.

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