Re: win xp pro on laptops

What's wrong with third party apps like PC Anywhere and Laplink? Also,
is it easier to upgrade to media center than xp pro, if starting from
scratch? .... i was thinking of formatting my harddrive and then
reinstalling everything from scartch instead of adding media center/xp
pro on top of home.

any other advices would be very welcome :) .... thanks!


Barry Watzman wrote:
XP Home does not have remote desktop, this is correct. But Media Center
does (Media Center IS XP Pro with modifications and additions, but there
was a conflict between using Media Center Extenders and Domain
Networking which was resolved by mostly (but not entirely) removing
domain networking from Media Center).

However, while XP Home does not have remote desktop, it (and XP Pro and
Media Center) does have remote assistance, which is just remote desktop
with a variation in how the connection is initiated. But the variation
is important, because it requires someone to be at the computer and to
actually start it manually.

There are 3rd party products which add remote desktop, such as PC
Anywhere and Laplink. However, while those options exist, they are
really not the right way to do it. If you really need remote desktop,
you really should get either XP Pro or Media Center Edition.



the hotshot wrote:

actually this is a very good point- the only thing i need from win xp
pro is remote desktop connection. i was told that win xp home doesnt
have this feature, is it true? does it only come with win xp pro? also
is it possible to add remote connection to win home if it doesnt come
with it? maybe purchase additionally form microsoft?

let me know and thanks for all the help!


Barry Watzman wrote:

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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