XP Home to XP Pro Upgrade?

[Tokyoprince]

Hi,
is it possible to upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro without loosing settings and having to reinstall applications? Is a complete reinstall of the OS the only answer?

[Catweazle]

Hi TokyoPrince

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341&Product=winxp

That's the procedure. but I have to ask. Why?

There's not enough difference between Home and Pro to make it worth doing. Unless, of course, you need to connect to a Domain rather than a simple network. In every other respect, given a few settings and a few tools to access them with other than the Registry Editor, Home and Pro are identical!

[Tokyoprince]

Hi,
The main reason is because I want to run Internet Information Server (IIS), so that I can develop ASP.NET applications.

[Tokyoprince]

Hi Catweazle,
if there is such little difference between Home & Pro, I wonder why there isn't an upgrade patch available to convert Home to Pro? Is it because Microsoft doesn't want us to do it?

[Catweazle]

heh heh....

Considering the price difference between the two, no I don't reckon they do :D

You get differences in default permissions and settings, extra tools like the Group Policy Editor, the Defrag tool is better in XP Pro and stuff like that, but basically they're the same thing. There's other differences, but nothing to effect most Windows users. Your reason to change, of course, is a valid one.

I'm just glad you're not a user who's decided to change because someone told them "Pro is better", which is why I asked :)

Cheers.