Re: Upgrade to Windows XP Professional

Richard Williams wrote:

Hi
I recently bought a Compaq SR1799AN desktop computer which has an AMD
Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor and 2GB RAM. It comes with Windows
XP Home pre-installed.

I tried to upgrade to Windows XP Pro and the installation seemed to
be going smoothly until the system tried to re-boot. As soon as the
computer began restarting a blue screen would appear only for an
instant (so I couldn't read what it said) and then the computer would
try to restart again. This process would just repeat in what appeared
to be an endless cycle. I recovered the system back to the factory XP Home
installation with the recovery disks I had made.

When I contacted Compaq Telephone Support they told me that their OEM
version of Windows XP Home cannot be upgraded to Windows XP Pro and
blamed Microsoft for this. I can't believe that Microsoft would close
the door on so many potential sales of upgrades to people who buy
brands like Compaq, HP and all the other major companies who bundle
OEM versions of Windows with their computers.

Could somebody please advise if what the Compaq people told me is
correct or are there in fact other issues with upgrading Windows on
this particular machine.
e.g. When installing I chose the "Upgrade" option - should I have
chosen "New Installation"?


Try this: Run the XP Pro upgrade from within XP Home, and change from
Upgrade to New Install. When it asks where, press Esc to delete the
partition and start over.

But why are you doing this? Are you aware that XP Professional and XP Home
are exactly the same in all respects, except that Professional has a few
features (mostly related to networking and security) missing from Home. For
most (but not all) home users, even those with a home network, these
features aren't needed and would never be used.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


.

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