Upgrading to Windows 2000: What upgrades what, A Windows 2000 technology showcase
Well, it's here. And you're sitting at home with Windows 98 or at work
with Windows NT and wondering what you can do about upgrading to Windows
2000. A quick look at the Microsoft Web site betrays a bewildering number
of Windows products, including the recently released Windows 2000
Professional, Server, and Advanced Server editions. And DataCenter Server
is a few months down the road. Adding to the confusion is the number of
existing Windows products out there: Windows 3.x, 95, 95 OSRx, 98, 98 SE,
NT 3.x, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows NT 4.0
Enterprise, Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server, NT 4.0 Embedded, and even
Windows CE. And did I mention the various beta versions of Windows
2000, such as Beta 3, RC1, RC2, and RC3? And let's not forget MSDN.
It's a mess.
For many of these products, there's an
upgrade. But which products will upgrade to which versions of Windows
2000? Let's take a look.
Upgrading to Windows 2000
The Windows 2000 upgrade picture
is pretty much common sense until you really look at the big picture. If
you're running Windows 9x, for example, you can upgrade to Windows 2000
Professional, but not any members of the Server family (Windows 2000
Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server). That makes sense, of
course. But the same is true of NT 3.51/4.0 Workstation and even Windows
2000 Professional: None of them will upgrade to Server. Let's take a look
at the upgrade grid:
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Windows 2000
Edition that you're trying to upgrade to... |
|
Upgrading
from...
|
Prof.
retail
|
Prof.
upgrade
|
Server
retail
|
Server
upgrade
|
Adv
Server retail
|
Adv
Server upgrade
|
Datacenter
Server
|
| Windows
CE (any version) |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Windows
3.x
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
|
Windows
95/98/98 SE
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
|
Windows
NT 3.51 Workstation
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
| Windows
NT 4.0 Workstation |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Windows
2000 Professional (Beta 3+)
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
|
Windows
NT 3.51 Server*
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
|
Windows
NT 4.0 Server
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
|
Windows
NT 4.0 Terminal Server
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
|
Windows
NT 4.0 Enterprise Edition
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
BackOffice
Server Small Business Edition 4.x
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
| NT
4.0 Embedded |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Windows
2000 Server (Beta 3+)
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
|
Windows
2000 Advanced Server (Beta 3+)
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Windows
2000 Datacenter Server (beta)
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
* Windows NT 3.51 with Citrix is
not a supported upgrade path to any version of Windows 2000.
Confused? Don't be alarmed, it is confusing.
The short version goes like this: Windows CE, Windows 3.x, and NT
Embedded can't upgrade to anything 2000-related. Windows 9x, NT 3.51/4.0
Workstation, and any beta of Windows 2000 Professional from Beta 3 on
(including RC1, 2, and 3) can upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional. After
that it gets a little more obtuse: For example, NT 4.0 Server can upgrade
to Windows 2000 Server and the full version of Windows 2000 Advanced
Server, but not the "upgrade" version of Windows 2000 Advanced
Server. Yeah, that's weird.
Versions of Windows 2000 on CD
In addition to the various Editions of Windows
2000--Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server--there
are also various versions of these editions. Microsoft calls them
"flavors," a word that I find despicable. You might also think
of them as SKUs. In any event, there are five basic versions:
- Retail (full and upgrade): The version
you see in boxes in retail stores such as Best Buy. Microsoft refers
to the "full" and "upgrade" products internally as
variants called Full Packaged Product (FPP) and Compliance
Checking Product (CCP) respectively. So the Windows 2000 Professional
Upgrade you buy in the store is really a compliance checking product
variant of the retail flavor of Windows 2000 Professional Edition.
Cute, eh?
- OEM (also in full and upgrade
variants), or "Original Equipment Manufacturer." I call
these people "PC makers," though you sometimes see Windows
bundled with other hardware, such as hard drives. Functionally
identical to the retail version without the box. OEM versions
sometimes come with vendor-specific user manuals as well.
- Select: Available through the
Microsoft Select program, where enterprises work directly with
Microsoft to purchase software solutions. This program is specifically
designed to give large companies big discounts on large purchases. For
the most part, software is shipped in a single box with a pad of
client access licenses (CALs).
- NFR (Not For Resale): Microsoft
provides these in a variety of ways to certain customers, including
the press and its own employees through the Microsoft Store in
Redmond. NFR copies of Windows are exactly what they say they are: Not
for resale. One small limitation on the NFR version of Windows 2000
Server: It's limited to 10 client connections to prevent companies
from installing this in production environments.
- Evaluation: 120-day limited versions
of Windows 2000 that are not limited in any other way. That is, aside
from the usage limitation, evaluation versions of Windows 2000 are
otherwise functionally identical to the retail and OEM versions.
However, I'd add a sixth version to this
list. Remember MSDN? MSDN Universal and Professional members get Windows
2000 on CD as well. So let's also add this one:
- MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) :
The versions of Windows 2000 Professional, Server, Advanced Server,
and Datacenter Server that are shipped as part of MSDN Professional
and Universal are functionally equivalent to the full Retail versions,
not the upgrades. So MSDN members get the full deal, not a version
that is limited in any way other than by license.
So what are the upgrade paths between
versions (or, ugh, "flavors") of Windows 2000? They're
disgusting, to be honest: Check with the Microsoft
Windows 2000 Upgrade site to be sure. But the short version goes like
this: BackOffice SBS, Windows 3.x, Windows CE, and NT 4.0 Embedded can't
upgrade to any version of Windows 2000. Windows 9x can upgrade to any
version of Windows 2000 Professional, but not to any Server Family
product. Windows NT 3.x/4.x can upgrade to any version of Pro, but no
versions of Server. It goes on, but you get the idea.
Now for some version trivia: Product keys for one edition (say Professional) will not work on another
edition (Server, for example). You cannot upgrade an evaluation copy of
Windows 2000 to an upgrade version, you must use the full version to
upgrade an evaluation version. Another case where the full version, not
the upgrade version, must be used to... upgrade. Curious.
Conclusions
The Windows 2000 upgrade is going to cause headaches in a lot of
corporations, so it's something worth looking at closely. As always,
Microsoft is the end-all when it comes to this kind of information,
because they'll have accurate explanations for the exact versions,
editions, and whatever else you'll need, not to mention the inevitable
CAL issues, which is another topic altogether. But like anything else in
life, it all comes down to common sense: You can't upgrade Windows CE to
Windows 2000 Professional, for example, but then why would you expect to
be able to?
--Paul Thurrott
December 20, 1999
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© 2002 Duke Communications International, Inc. All rights reserved.
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