Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Technical Help and How To's Windows XP Professional - Upgrade or full thing?

So at my school, I'm required to have Windows XP Professional to be able to get my computer configured to have access to their network.

Apparently, my computer came with "Media Center Version", whatever that is. (Version 2002, Service Pack 2, if that makes any difference.) Not Home Edition. Not Professional.

So, I can order Professional through a school store at a discount. There is an Upgrade and a Full Version.

The Upgrade says: This is an upgrade edition of Windows XP, not the full version. You must have a previous version of Windows 98, 2000, Me, NT 4.0 or Windows XP Home Edition already on your computer to install this upgrade.

I was told (at the school) to get the full version.

Is this true? Or can I use the upgrade?

This is a difference of $200, so I'd really like to be *certain* that I need to spend it all before I do.

Thanks!

Bethy

The reason why they want you to go with the full package is that the Windows upgrade packages are notoriously flaky - since they don't perform a full low-level format and rewrite of the hard disk all sorts of problems can creep in.

There are people who know how to get the upgrades to work pretty well, by tweaking in lots of different ways to get rid of the bugs, but I'm not one of them.

One thing to bear in mind is that a computer with XP professional installed on it may not be ludicrously expensive, since there's a lot of old stock around and the latest machines come with Vista (which I really don't recommend) - buying a new machine and selling the old one may actually work out cheaper than buying the full XP professional package. And if you want to stick with your existing PC, check out other vendors, the college isn't necessarily the cheapest source. Take a look at this, for example:

http://www.buycheapsoftware.com/details~productID~3266.asp

I should stress that I've never dealt with these guys, they don't take overseas orders unless you want to spend a lot of money, but I've bought OEM versions of software from British vendors without problems.

You might also want to ask if they will allow you to use an alternate operating system such as Linux ; it's more or less free, and inherently more secure than Windows, but you need to get good advice (e.g. not me) on which of the current versions is best and how to install it for maximum user-friendliness.

Windows is unstable. Upgrades are even more unstable. In general.

The one exception I've found so far is, in fact, XP Pro. This very comp started out with 98se, was downgraded to ME, and then was saved by the XP pro upgrade, which has been running smoothly for the last few years.

I used the upgrade on my old laptop, too.

It is prone to some minor glitches (I notice that the cute little system tray icons have a tendency to come and go as they please), but for the most part, it's just fine.

What's even nicer is that you get to keep your files. The full version will wipe your drive. The upgrade lets you keep all of your data and the bulk of your installed programs.

As for pricing... you may want to look around a bit. As a student, you qualify for academic pricing. You might be able to find another vendor on the 'net which could save you a few extra bucks over the school store.

In short: It is a little more error-prone, but, in my experience, not $200 more. And keeping your data and stuff is worth something, too...

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Marcus -- I can't use Linux or one of the other systems. A) The school doesn't support them. B) My brain doesn't support them. {g} Maybe someday...

And the 'get a new pc' option doesn't work, either, as this *is* the new pc. Funny, when I bought it, it seemed everything I could possibly want.

And thanks for that breakdown of things, Paul.

Haven't ordered yet, but it looks like more work for my credit card is coming soon. :-)

Bethy

What do they do if someone turns up with a Mac?

They warned us in their letter that they don't support Macs. Yeah, I know, I was surprised, too -- especially as this school is linked with an undergraduate 'institute of technology', and thus claims to be advanced when it comes to technological tools in the classroom/courtroom.

Oh, well. Glad I didn't go for a Mac, then.

Bethy

BTW, Windows Media Center Edition is essentially Windows XP Professional with a few multimedia add-ons. Give it a try before you fork over any more money to Microsoft.

Upgrade editions of XP are merely full versions that looks for current installs or install disks before permitting an installation. With XP upgrade editions, you don't need to install over top of another Windows. All you need is the install disk for a previous OS.

Vista is the exception. It requires you to have XP installed before it will upgrade it. It's not because it's all that different from a full version of Vista. It's just another attempt by Microsoft to prevent piracy. Just like their awful Genuine Advantage gunkware.

That said, I dislike upgrading an OS. If you have an upgrade version, have the previous OS disk handy and do a full wipe of your drive before installing. Clean installs tend to be more stable.

Thanks for the advice, Roger.

Unfortunately (<sigh>), I can't just 'give it a try'. I've asked the tech department (even telling them what you told me) and received the same response -- XP Professional is the *only* version of XP that they will support.

GRRR.

For such a supposedly 'technologically advanced' institution, I'm not very impressed.

On the plus side, I *can* access webmail for the school without configuring my computer to their network. (As I thought should be the case -- even though they told me I couldn't. Seriously, they're on crack.) So the need to get XP Pro has become less urgent. I'll need it by the start of school, but it's no longer a 'drop everything' matter.

Thanks again for your help!

Bethy

That's very odd that they wouldn't help you with getting on their network. The networking components of XP Pro and Media Center Edition are identical because they are the same OS. Anyone who tells you that they differ by anything more than a few additional apps don't know what they're talking about.

Change the task bar color from MCE's nice-looking default blue to silver or green, delete the Media Center app shortcuts from the Start\Programs menu and few would even notice it's not XP Pro unless they looked at the Systems Control Panel, which identifies the OS.

What exactly do you need to get configured? You need to be on their network as part of their domain? Or do you merely need to configure your system to get access to their wireless network?

If it's to be on their domain, you're probably out of luck since it takes a systems administrator with the appropriate password to put your machine on the domain. So instead of being on a workgroup, your machine would be placed under Active Directory with all the permissions and policies of the domain. Sometimes your machine has to be on a domain to get access to resources not available to guest computers.

I would doubt that's what they mean, though. Few businesses or institutions would permit ANY strange computers onto their domain that aren't under the tight control of their IT department. Personal computers tend to have non-approved apps and are are higher risks to get spyware or viruses. So exactly what does it mean to get access to the network?

If it's just getting an IP address off of a wireless network, just tell them you have XP Pro and ask for the SSID and password/encryption method to get on the network. They would never have to even see your computer.

As for your question about whether you can use XP Pro's upgrade CD, the answer is no because you're essentially cross-grading and not upgrading, so the installer wouldn't permit it. Of course the whole thing is really dumb because there are no differences network-wise between the two OS versions.

I came across something even sillier where I work - I was given a PC (and needed it) but the IT guys wouldn't support it because the hardware was slightly different to others on the site, so they couldn't just whack a standard rollout of XP Pro (with a lot of extra software we use) onto the hard disk.

Last I checked, MIT\'s Information Services department also supported only XP Pro. (Within the Windows family. They do also support Macs, and, of course, Linux and Unix.) Thing is, MIT has an XP Pro site license, so anyone on campus can get it free.

Hmm... Looks like they're currently phasing in Vista support, as well, but don't recommend it.

I'll second this. I've never had a problem doing things that "required Windows XP Pro" when using my MCE installed computer. They are the same (only different.)