Re: win xp pro on laptops

Windows 98 is not required on the hard drive to do an update. If you start with a blank hard drive, it will ask you for the previous version CD (Windows 98 in this case) to be put into the CD drive. But you don't have to put anything on the hard drive. And the previous version is not used, at all, for anything. It's just a legal/license check to make sure that you have it.

It's possible that the Windows XP CD could have all the drivers, but it's very unlikely. The driver set is updated very rarely, so if your laptop is newer than the last driver update to the CD (and the last one was in the fall of 2004), the Windows CD either won't have all the drivers, or will have only very old ones.

PS - While a retail update CD is about $200 (list, sometimes discounted somewhat but rarely very much), you can buy an OEM full product CD for about $130, or Windows XP Media Center for about $110. Media Center is based on Windows XP Pro and actually has more than XP Pro, plus everything in XP Pro with one exception that may or may not be significant: Media Center does not have domain networking, it only has workgroup networking (there are ways around this, but that is a complex discussion). Note that Dell sells Media Center for only $29 more than Home, while Pro is over $100 more, so when buying a Dell, buying Media Center can be a way to get all of Pro's features (except domain networking) and save $100. But OEM copies cannot be transferred to another machine, ever, while retail copies can be.


Joseph Fenn wrote:



On Tue, 11 Jul 2006, Barry Watzman wrote:

You install a generic version of XP Pro itself, but after you install it the laptop will work like crap (it may barely work at all, but it will work) until you install all of the drivers for all of the various components of the laptop. It's similar to a desktop, basically, in that after you install generic windows, your screen and sound and network, etc., don't work until you install the respective drivers for those devices (and yes, drivers for some of those devices may be "built-in" to Windows .... but not many of them). The difference is that there are usually a LOT more drivers for a laptop than for a desktop. It's not unusual, for a laptop to need more than a dozen drivers, there are a lot more "devices" in a typical laptop than in a typical desktop (many are for power management and special I/O functions). The necessary drivers should be available from the web site of the laptop manufacturer. You know you are [mostly] done when everything works AND there are no "splates" or unidentified devices in device manager.



the hotshot wrote:

hi, i just bought a new laptop on fri with win xp home and need win xp
pro for work. can i install any version of win xp pro on this laptop or
is there a special laptop version of win xp pro i should be looking
for? i think some features can be installed via drivers, but generally
speaking, can any version of win xp pro work on my laptop? model is hp
dv2000t.

Thanks!


Joe Fenn wrote
My xp/pro runs just fine on my Notepad laptop. I had to buy a restoral
disk (upgrade) which cost about $188 bux. Required win98 to be on
your drive to do the upgrade. I have'nt had any need for drivers
thus far. Everything works fine USB,Audio card, CDR, and any
external devices via usb hub. I only had to get one download and
that was a 32 bit upgrade driver for my BACKPACK external burner.
otherwise all stuff works on the laptop.
Joe

.

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