XP home or Pro?

Amba_Gambla

I just bought myself one of the special offer Dell laptops... hoepfully be here soon....

anyway... It comes with Windows XP home. I've got XP pro on CD here. Do you think it's worth the effort of upgrading/wiping and starting again to get to XP pro? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

Cheers

AG

Older_but_not_wiser_2

There's not that much extra on XP pro for the average home user, so probably as well to leave the XPhome on your new comp.

Knyght

Agreed. There's really nothing 99% of people need in Pro that isn't in Home.

If you're still not sure, read this: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

tigermatt

The only differences between XP Home & Pro is basically the ability to connect an XP Pro computer to a corporate network and perform more advanced security.

The few extra features probably aren't worth the hassles of formatting and re-installing for a home user.

zacspeed_2

If you reload with Pro, you'll also have to find all the drivers from your recovery disc(s) too!
I'd stick with Home.

steve_r123

Is the XP Pro a Dell CD?

Most Dell computers won't normally exept a 'normal' OS disk.......

If you are planning on building a network, with a few users, then XP Pro is advantageous...... if not, don't bother

zacspeed_2

steve_r123 wrote:

Most Dell computers won't normally exept a 'normal' OS disk.......

Eh?
If the hard disc is formatted properly, you can load any O/S onto it.

john_kent

Stick with what you have. XP home is 99.99999999999999% ok for home use.

tigermatt

Also, if you format and reinstall you will lose everything that came pre-loaded on the laptop - all the Dell drivers, the free software, anything else you have done since you received the laptop etc.

It's best to stay with Home

T4i

The differences are outlines here.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

Does home version offer the same kind of logging in my computer managment?

tigermatt

T4i wrote:

The differences are outlines here.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

Does home version offer the same kind of logging in my computer managment?

I know home version doesn't allow you access to a lot of the more advanced Administrative Tools, but I think the logging in Event Viewer is the same.