Windows XP :: Upgrade another version of Windows to Windows XP ::
Upgrading to Windows XPIf Windows XP wasn’t preloaded on your computer, you may count yourself among the unlucky people who need to upgrade to Windows XP from an earlier version of Windows. This article tells you how to do that. It also tells you how to activate the product and scream bloody murder if something goes wrong. Upgrading A Brain Transplant If your current machine runs Windows 98 or ME, you can upgrade to Windows XP by simply starting Windows, inserting the Windows XP CD into your CD drive, and following the instructions. If you decide that Windows XP isn’t your cup of tea, you can remove it and restore your old Windows 98 or ME system, intact. Here’s how: 1. Choose Start -> Control Panel. 2. Click Add and Remove Programs. 3. Click Windows XP, and then click Add/Remove. 4. Pick the option to Uninstall Windows XP, and click Continue. If your current machine runs Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000, you can upgrade to Windows XP Professional directly with the CD. However, you will not be able to automatically uninstall Windows XP and reinstall NT 4 or 2000. If your current machine runs Windows 95 or NT 3.x, you won’t be able to upgrade. Your only option is to erase Windows from your hard drive (never a simple proposition) and perform a clean install from scratch (see the “Considering a clean install” section for sobering enlightenment). Chances are good that your Windows 95 or NT 3.x system isn’t powerful enough to run Windows XP very well anyway. Far better to wait until you can afford a new PC with Windows XP preinstalled. Windows Upgrade Advisor/HardwareCompatibility List Microsoft keeps a master list of all hardware that’s passed muster for Windows XP. The so-called Hardware Compatibility List (HCL to techies) contains the names of products that have received Microsoft’s seal of approval. If you’re thinking of upgrading your current computer to Windows XP or if you want to add new hardware to an existing PC, Windows XP compatibility is a bit, uh, important. You can browse through the list at www. microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp. The hardware compatibility list must be taken with at least a small grain of salt. While it’s true that hardware manufacturers sweat blood to meet Microsoft’s stringent standards, the fact remains that any randomly chosen piece of hardware may refuse to behave itself, whether the cause is a conflict in another piece of hardware, in a lousy device driver, or the phase of the moon. Before you upgrade an existing PC to Windows XP, you should check the machine to make sure there are no known problems. Microsoft distributes a program called the Windows XP Upgrade Advisor that reaches into the innermost parts of your PC and reports on potential problems with the upgrade. You can download the Windows XP Home Upgrade Advisor from www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp. The Windows XP Professional advisor is at www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/ pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp. You may also find a copy of both advisors on a free CD at your friendly local computer shop. Considering a clean install Windows XP is an enormously complex program. In the best of all possible worlds, if you upgrade from your current version of Windows be it 98, ME, NT 4, or 2000 to Windows XP, the upgrade routines successfully grab all of your old settings, get rid of the extraneous garbage that’s floating around on your old machine, and install a stable, pristine copy of Windows XP, ready for you to take around the block. Unfortunately, the world is not a pretty place, and your hard drive probably looks like a bit-strewn sewer. Historically, Windows has been considerably less stable for upgraders than for those who perform aclean install wiping out the contents of the hard drive and starting all over again. All the flotsam and jetsam left from an old version of Windows invariably mucks up the works with the new version. A clean install is not for the faint of heart. No matter how hard you try, you will lose data, somewhere, somehow it always happens, even to those of us masochists who have been running clean installs for a decade. If you value everything on your computer, go for the simple upgrade. If you want your PC to run smoothly, think about a clean install. The following is my general procedure for a clean install on computers that can start from the CD drive, in very broad terms: 1.Download and install Revelation from SnadBoy software at www.snadboy.com. Use Revelation for a few days (or weeks!) to retrieve any passwords that you may have stashed away. 2.Make sure that you have current CDs for all the software that you normally use. If the programs require passwords/installation keys, you need the passwords, too. 3. Back up everything. Twice. If you have a Windows XP computer handy, and you can attach it to the PC that you’re upgrading through a network or a direct-connect cable, you may want to try a Vulcan Mind Meld, er, the Windows XP Migration Wizard. Use it to transfer all your files and settings over to the other PC, temporarily. Follow the instructions in the next section, “Using the Migration Wizard,” to pick up the settings before you perform the upgrade and stick them on the temporary machine. Then follow the instructions again to move them from the temporary PC back to your (freshly upgraded) original PC. 4. Insert the Windows XP installation disk in the CD drive, and then choose Start -> Shut Down to go through a full shutdown. Windows XP may offer to install itself while you’re trying to shut down. If it does, click Cancel. Power off the PC and wait at least a full minute. 5. Turn the power on. If the PC is capable of starting (“booting”) from the CD, you see a line on the screen that says something like Press any key to boot from CD. Press the Enter key. 6. Go through the steps indicated by the installer to delete the primary partition. That wipes out all the data on the hard drive. 7.Pick your jaw up from the floor, kick yourself twice for being so obstinate, pat yourself on the back for starting out fresh, and follow through with the rest of the installation. Windows XP does a good job of taking you through the steps. Just follow along. The only really tricky part of the installation: Windows XP has to restart your PC early in the installation process. When that happens, you’ll probably get that Press any key to boot from the CD message again. This time the second time you see the message ignore it. Let Windows XP start itself from the hard drive. Clean installs rate right up there with root canals and prostate exams. Nobody in their right mind will try one, unless they really want to make sure that Windows XP will run smoothly. Using the Migration Wizard Windows XP’s Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (better known as the Migration Wizard) makes transferring certain kinds of settings and data files between two computers comparatively easy. It sounds great and works well, as long as you don’t expect too much. You need to be aware of several limitations: - The PC you’re transferring files and settings “to” must be running Windows XP. If at all possible, it should be connected to the PC that you’re transferring settings “from.” The “from” PC can be running just about any version of Windows Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000, or XP. The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard can send a humongous amount of data from one PC to another. You can schlep diskettes from one machine to another, if you have a few spare hours or days. Far better, though, is if you can get both PCs talking to each other on a network. Failing that, you can buy a special cable, called a Serial PC to PC Transfer Cable, that plugs into the serial slots on both PCs (the slots you may be using for printers). The wizard will work with any of ’em. - The wizard can’t install your old programs on your new PC. You have to do that yourself, manually, one at a time, generally from the original CDs that the programs came on. If you use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard but you don’t install all of your old programs on your new PC, weird things may happen on the new PC. You may double-click on a file in Windows Explorer, for example, and have Windows XP say that it can’t find the program associated with the file. Outlook may have trouble displaying a file attached to a message. Nothing earth-shattering will happen, mind you, but it can be annoying. - The wizard picks up only data files and some Windows Registry entries. That means you can’t expect it to pull across all of your passwords, and some copy protection schemes (on games, for example) may go haywire. On the plus side, though, the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard doesn’t pick up much of the garbage that seems to accumulate in every Windows PC, which means you can use it without fear of gumming up your new computer. Here are the kinds of things you can expect to go across in a transfer: - Data files from your Windows Desktop, the My Documents folder (including My Pictures and My Music, if you have those in the My Documents folder), and the Shared Desktop and Documents folders. - Other files scattered around your hard disk(s), as long as Windows recognizes them as common data files. The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard really chooses which files to transfer based on the filename extension. It looks for filename extensions that are commonly associated with data files, such as .doc or .jpg. - Settings for Windows (desktop, screen savers, Taskbar options, and the like), Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer (including your list of Favorites), and Outlook Express. - All of your Microsoft Office settings. To use the Migration Wiz . . . er, the File and Settings Transfer Wizard: 1. Make sure Windows XP is up and running on the “to” PC. Get your hardware installed, set up your users, and run Windows XP long enough to be familiar with it. 2. Log on the “to” PC as the user who’s supposed to receive all the files and settings from the “from” PC. If both the “to” and “from” PCs are connected to your network, choose Start -> My Network Places or Start -> My Computer to make sure that the network connection is up and kicking. If they aren’t connected to the same network, get a Serial PC to PC Transfer Cable and attach it to the serial ports on both PCs. 3. Choose Start -> Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, if it’s on the Start menu. If it isn’t, choose Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. 4. Follow the steps in the wizard. The exact steps vary depending on the method you’re using to transfer the data. If you have many large documents or picture files, plan on spending a few hours. If you’re transferring by diskette, don’t be surprised if it takes all day. If you perform a scorched-earth clean install of Windows XP (see the preceding section), you can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard twice to drag most of your data (but none of your programs!) through the upgrade, even though you delete everything on your hard drive in the process of upgrading. All it takes is an intermediary machine running Windows XP that holds your settings while the old PC is wiped clean. For the first run of the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, use the intermediary machine as the “to” machine. Then upgrade the old PC. Finally, run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard again, this time using the intermediary machine as the “from” machine. Works like a champ. |
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