Upgrading to Windows XP Professional

In many cases, you will want to upgrade a previous operating system to Windows XP. This feature should enable you to maintain the existing settings and applications during the upgrade to Windows XP. As a general rule, upgrades are more troublesome than clean installations. Windows XP must deal with previous operating system files, possible incompatibilities, driver issues, and often hardware components that were not designed with Windows XP in mind. Because of this, you should study upgrades carefully before performing them. Careful consideration will help you ensure that the upgrade will be successful.

When you begin the installation of Windows XP, the setup routine detects any previous versions of Windows that may be present. Depending on the version, Windows XP can either upgrade the existing operating system or it can install a clean copy of Windows XP. The procedures are as follows:

• Upgrade  Windows XP installs in the same folder as the previous operating system, upgrading files and drivers as needed. Your existing applications and settings are preserved.

• Clean Install  Windows XP installs in a different folder. Once installation is complete, you must reinstall any applications that you want to use.

If you want to maintain existing settings and applications, choose the upgrade option. However, in some cases, a clean install may be desirable. For example, let’s say you are upgrading Windows 98 to Windows XP. A first choice might be to perform an upgrade and keep your existing settings. However, suppose that you ran into some problems during the Windows 98 installation that you have been unable to resolve. A better choice might be the clean installation, so that you can be sure of avoiding installation problems with Windows XP. In either case, you’ll have to decide which option best suits your needs and the particular computer you are installing.

Troubleshooting: Limitations of Upgrades

Notice that Windows 95 did not make the list, nor did any previous versions of Windows NT. If you want to upgrade these operating systems, your choices are a clean install (in which case, you lose all of your applications and settings) or an upgrade of the unsupported operating system to a supported version, followed by an upgrade to Windows XP. For example, you could upgrade Windows 95 to Windows 98, and then to Windows XP.

Before running these kinds of upgrade, however, you should carefully inspect the computer's hardware and make sure it can handle Windows XP. Most Windows 9x computers will need either a RAM or processor upgrade—or both—before installing Windows XP, so be sure to look at not only the operating system, but also the hardware itself before you try to run any upgrades.

All hardware requirements still apply in an upgrade scenario, so it is important to check out the computer’s hardware before starting an upgrade. Also, spend a few moments checking out the applications that you are installing to see whether they are compatible with Windows XP. You can check the software vendors’ web sites for upgrade information.

Windows XP Professional can directly upgrade the following operating systems:

• All versions of Windows 98

• Windows Me

• Windows NT 4.0 Workstation (with service pack 5 or later)

• Windows 2000 Professional

• Windows XP Home Edition