Windows XP - Best Place To Buy / Best Price ?

Nesima

Friend has a 5 year old PC he wants to rebuild, his younger brother has done all sorts of dodgy things to it (software installs and accessing offensive websites). therefore he would like a clean fresh start.

I have had a search around the internet for OS prices and there seems to be a wide variation for the same thing (Windows XP Home) - £80 to £160.

Some of these have 'upgrade' in the product title, upgrade from what ?
Does this mean they are not a full product and they would therefore be useless for a rebuild ?

OEM versions - are these legal ? and are they easy to install (have instructions) ?

What we are looking to buy is Windows XP Home SP2, is this a good sound choice for non-IT users ? - I have read some of the Windows V Linux discussions.

Thanks for your help.

Quincy_3

OEM is totally legal.

Upgrade from an earlier version i.e M.E = Millenium Edition.

More Driver support with XP that Linux but Linux is catching up very very fast.

And XPSP2 is well as easy as anything really, you just gotta learn.

JohnR

Bear in mind, that you can purchase an OEM version of windows legally if you buy a qualifying piece of hardware at the same time. This can be anything from a Motherboard to a Hard Drive. I am sure I read somewhere that a mouse also qualified, but I can't be sure. The drawback to these OEM versions is that they can only be sold on (whether used or no) if the hardware is also sold - in other words if you sell the PC you've installed it on!

If you buy an upgrade version, this will need a qualifying product to upgrade from, this being either version of Windows 98, or Windows Millenium, but NOT Windows 95 or 2000 Pro. Make sure you have a CD with your original OS on, as if you need to reinstall XP (or should I say when?) you will need this again. If it is installed on the hard drive, then it will be gone once you upgrade, and when you reinstall XP, there will be no product for it to upgrade from.

The biggest problem with upgrading an older PC is making sure you have all the drivers for the hardware in the PC. Check out the hardware before you upgrade, and download XP drivers in advance, so that you can install them easily.

T4i

Upgrading works but i'm not a big fan as it leaves bit and bobs that fresh install wouldnt leave.

XP seems to run much happier when installed on a formatted (clean) drive.

amcluesent

>as it leaves bit and bobs<

I vaguely recall an XP upgrade edition could be installed on a blank disk, the installer would just ask for the CD of a qualifying OS to be inserted at some point during the process? But it could have been a dream :-)

wobbley

amcluesent wrote:

>as it leaves bit and bobs<

I vaguely recall an XP upgrade edition could be installed on a blank disk, the installer would just ask for the CD of a qualifying OS to be inserted at some point during the process? But it could have been a dream :-)

Yes, that is correct. You can do a fresh install with and upgrade disc. One thing that did surprise me was that you only need the qualifying disc, you dont need a serial number for that disc.
In my opinion the best value is an OEM version of XP home which can be found for about £55 - £60. This isn't a retail version so you are limited on tech support, but then when did you last call Bill Gates for a chat?

T4i

Depends how u do it. Various ways, some easier than others....

JohnR

T4i wrote:

Upgrading works but i'm not a big fan as it leaves bit and bobs that fresh install wouldnt leave.

XP seems to run much happier when installed on a formatted (clean) drive.

I quite agree, T4. Its a shame that Microsoft, in its wisdom, uses the same word for both the licence and the installation. I always prefer to call the installation of XP whilst keeping programs etc as a "migration", with the fresh clean method as the proper installation.