xp home to replace XP professional

[louaa]

I have a new Dell computer. I bought it with XP professional, but I don't care for the idiosyncrocies it has. So, I bought XP HOME, OEM (legal) to replace pro---. Is there a problem in doing this? I will use the new Key code that came with the new disc.

[bailey]

xp-pro is much better than home as far as security and networking is concerned, but you cannot down grade it, you will have to format the hard drive and do a clean install of the new system.

be sure you really want to do this first.

[jamesrpm]

What idiosyncrasies are you talking about? I don't see allot of differences with the everyday usage . Have you used XP before or did your old computer have 98 on it. if that is the issue you can run XP in classic mode where it resembles 98; it's under the display tab in the control panel , themes

To downgrade to XP home I think you'll have to format your HD as you can't install XP home over XP Pro

[el_novato]

Have you tried sending it back to Dell and asking them to downgrade it? You may even get a few bucks back. But I'm curious why you would spend money on another copy if the one you have now is a perfectly ok? You won't notice alot of difference. You may even be disappointed by the few visible differences. Anyway...

Hth,

e.n.

[MulderMan]

i think it was a bad move to go out and buy home to downgrade it. usually if you buy on the dell website there are options so you can downgrade and upgrade parts to what you like, but its a good idea to stay with professional.

[mb26]

the only difference i have noticed between XP Home and Pro is that pro allows you to network more than 5 PCs, and has a few better security features.. theres no noticeable difference with day-to-day use.

[jamesrpm]

There is no limit to the number of computers that can be networked with both Windows XP Home and Professional. However, there is a different limit. No more than 10 other people can connect to your computer at one time if you are using Windows XP Professional. For Windows XP Home Edition, the limit is 5. These limits cannot be changed. For more details, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base Article.

Inbound Connections Limit in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314882

[louaa]

The problem I see with Professional is that because it is intended for large business environment, is protected against running software efficiently, such as Xcopy ,or allowing for a wireless card to be installed to work off a router in a different room. On my other computers running XP Home, it recognizes the wireless card immediately and allows me to connect to the WEB with not problem. I have contacted Dell and Microsoft and neither have answers to this problem nor support for drivers to do this. Right now my computer locks up when trying to use the wireless card from Netgear. Netgeat does not have the right drivers for the software I am running on XP Pro. Incidentally, I create backup copies of all my discs DVDs, CDs etc. for safety and personal use only. And I am never going to connect more than two computers to this system. I appreciate the advice. Well taken.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I have been using XP Pro and have never had such problems. Some things you need to rummage through menus in order to find them but they are still there. If you use an account with admin rights you would have no problems whatsoever. And you can always log on as Admin and set up what you need in case something refuses to run or be set up in the normal account.

Downgrading to Home is a bad move.