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XP...upgrade or full, Pro or Home

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Matthew A.

Matthew A.

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Dec 17, 2000
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InSane Diego, California USA
I am currently using the full version of ME and am considering purchasing Windows XP. However, I am unclear on which version of XP to buy. Is it better in the long run to purchase XP Pro or the Home edition? Also, can the full version of XP be installed on a drive that has ME on it or would one need to install the upgrade edition? Also, what are the pro's and con's one might wish to consider before choosing one version from another.
 
if xp home is significantly cheaper than xp professional, then get the home edition. Personally, i don see the difference between the pro and home except for some little things. if you purchase a copy of xp (non-upgrade), it is able be upgraged from windows ME (there were some instances where i did a clean installation with the upgrade version of xp), but there might be some hardware driver issues. if i were you, i would backup all of my data and then do a clean installation because it is much cleaner and faster with a clean installation compared to upgrade.
 
OMG i cant believe what im reading! have you guys ever tried networking home edition? its almost bloody impossible! get pro, there is alot more customization things as well with it. i have a laptop that has home edition and i got pro for my desktop. my laptop has been running fine but xp pro is just so much better with networking and talking to other pc's. i still cant get that pesky laptop to network that well, so its pointless to bring it as a lan-on-the-go system like i wanted to use it for :( but still make sure you get winxp pro with service pack 1 (since sp2 is coming out you can prolly get a copy cheap ;))
 
Never do the upgrade, it is a BAD idea. If you get the upgrade, if you reinstall you will never be able to format and do over with the upgrade. IMO it is less of a head ache, for honestly not much more money. And I have Pro, and enjoy it much more then my fathers Home Edition.
 
Limited Access and Login Password Protection mean NOTHING on Win XP home, going into safe mode its so easy to get around it, not sure about Pro.
 
i personally cant stand iether, but if you want XP, pro is better in the long run.
i fix computers all the time, pro has less issues with repair install than home.
 
I personally use pro because I like the extra features, IIS and the extra networking features, however, I use home for all of my customers. Home has almost everything Pro has and it works just fine. I would go with Home Upgrade. Upgrade is the same exact thing as the full, except you just have to prove you previously owned a copy of windows, which you do (WinME). You can do a brand new, clean, formatted installation of Home with the Upgrade cd, you will just be prompted at some point to put in another version of windows, so just pop in the WinME cd. Hope that helps.

Matt
 
Well thank you very much everyone for all of your responses. If I am able to find the full (retail) version of XP Pro for under $150 walk-in sales. I'll go that route. I've seen it for salel online for as little as $114 U.S. dollars. However, I'm not all that comfortable purchasing computer goodies online as of yet.
The upgrade version of XP concerns me a little as I've nearly always found that full version software usually has less issues and is less tempermental then upgrade only versions. At least that's some of my experiece. Especially when installing game software.
Anyhow, it would seem that the 40 to 70 dollars difference between the Home version and the Pro version is more likely going to be the determing factor on which version I decide upon purchasing. And it appears that Pro maybe to wiser choice of the two.
Once again everyone...Thank you for all your help
Cheers!
 
if you buy online, go newegg bro. anyone that buys from online will tell you newegg does get the job done. they ship using fedex (the best) and its fast. once you get comfortable buying online you will see its not that hard and its alot less stressful. gets to your doorstep and you dont have to worry about messing with the dumb guys at BB or CC trying to rip you off. good luck with the upgrade to xp(GO PRO!;))
 
MyPCAlexi said:
if you buy online, go newegg bro. anyone that buys from online will tell you newegg does get the job done. they ship using fedex (the best) and its fast.
Click to expand...

lol, it's fast unless you order on a Friday. XD Then you wait 'til Monday or Tuesday. :p
 
Full version for sure.

Deciding between Pro or Home, well, I can't help you there. You need to just compare and contrast the features of each one, and see which one fits your needs best.

Myself, I opted for Pro. As a rule of thumb I would recommend Pro over Home too, especially if you plan on doing much tweaking.
 
aviod upgrade... a lot of features with pro, including higher pricetag, and many of the features you would likely not use, thus needing to disable services like mad etc. i think home would suffice. never used home, but i would think pro would would require much more tweaking because of all the services and crap included...
 
WOH guys...

you don't have to 'upgrade' if you buy the upgrade version...

You can do a NEW install after a format or whatever you want to do and the setup program will just ask you to insert your ME, 98, 2k or NT CD to verify that you are upgrading from a previous OS...

It's not like the upgrade version doesn't have all the software on the disc...

My XP Home 'upgrade' version just needs a 98 CD during install... and I seem to be able to network it fine, and thanks to VNC I can control anything 'remotely'. Ohnoz for no dual proc support, but I'd rather have 2 computers than 1 with 2 processors, I'm silly like that.
 
WuChild said:
WOH guys...

you don't have to 'upgrade' if you buy the upgrade version...

You can do a NEW install after a format or whatever you want to do and the setup program will just ask you to insert your ME, 98, 2k or NT CD to verify that you are upgrading from a previous OS...

It's not like the upgrade version doesn't have all the software on the disc...

My XP Home 'upgrade' version just needs a 98 CD during install... and I seem to be able to network it fine, and thanks to VNC I can control anything 'remotely'. Ohnoz for no dual proc support, but I'd rather have 2 computers than 1 with 2 processors, I'm silly like that.
Click to expand...

No kidding :rolleyes:
There aren't any "features" on the "full" version that aren't on the upgrade. The upgrade version is the only one that I have used for years and doesn't lack anything.
IMHO get the upgrade from Newegg on the link that I posted earlier. I got another copy for that price..
 
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