XP Pro overwrite home

[matt_21484]

Hi everyone, I have a dell laptop with XP home on it. I just built a computer (thanks to everyone's help here) and I want to put my new Pro OS on the laptop. My question is, can I do this without having to dual boot while keeping all of my files and programs etc intact? Thanks for your help

[bailey]

yes, you should be able to upgrade the xp home to the xp pro without having any effect on the software and data, you will need to update the service packs and security updates after your done.

it always best to make back up's of all the data that you cannot afford to loose just incase something does go wrong.

[HAL9000]

Just for clarification here.. you don't mean have the same XP Pro on the laptop AND the desktop do you? ... because that, you cannot do. What you CAN do though, if you have Office XP, one copy can legally go on the laptop and the desktop. For activation, you do need to contact MS for activation on the second machine and eplain the laptop/desktop situation.

[bailey]

wait a minute here, I hope your not asking if you can take the xp pro that you just put on your new built computer and put it on the lap top computer, if so, no you cannot do that at all, you must buy a new copy of xp pro upgrade to be able to upgrade the lap top computer to xp pro system..

keep in mind that there is no major differances between home and pro except that pro has some extra networking features for connecting to a domain network and some extra security network features, other than that they are the same and you will gain nothing from doing that.