Windows XP Installation and Upgrade Overview
Part One
of the Windows XP Installation Super Guide
How you view the move to Windows XP will depend
largely on your background. If you're a Windows 98, 98
SE, or Windows Millennium Edition (Me) user, Windows XP
is a massive upgrade that shouldn't be undertaken
lightly. To users of Windows 2000 Professional and, to a
slightly lesser extent, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation,
however, migrating to Windows XP should be painless,
with a few exceptions. But regardless of which Windows
version you're using now, how you make the move to XP is
an important choice.
In this showcase, we'll examine the issues you will face
when installing or upgrading to Windows XP and take a
look at the various ways in which this can be achieved.
After surveying your options, you can check out my many
Step-by-Step guides to installing and upgrading to
Windows XP. These will be made available in the
coming days, in rapid succession.
Crucial differences between Windows 9x and Windows XP
Most
people moving to Windows XP are coming from Windows 9x
(Windows 95, 98, 98 SE and Millennium Edition), not
Windows NT/2000. For these people, Windows XP will be both a godsend and a major problem, at least
at first. The issue is one most Windows users have never
had to consider: The underlying Windows XP platform is based on
the Windows NT/2000 product line, and not the DOS-based
Windows 9x product line. So even though they look and
act similar, Windows 9x and Windows NT/2000/XP are
really quite different under the hood. But Microsoft
knew that the two product lines would merge at some
point, so the company has been working for years to
ensure that the eventual migration would be as seamless
as possible. How seamless it is for you will depend on
the age your system and the hardware components you're
using.
It all started with Windows 95, which was the first
mainstream Windows product to use platform technology
and programming interfaces from Windows NT. And a year
later, with the release of Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft
also started incorporating various Windows 9x
technologies in its NT products for the first time. Since then, the Windows
NT and 9x lines have been converging, sometimes slowly.
Windows 2000 added support for 9x features like Plug and
Play (PnP), new hardware support, hardware-accelerated
DirectX and the like. And Windows
Millennium Edition (Me, the last version of Windows 9x)
incorporated certain Windows 2000 stability and
reliability features.
So if you've got a modern PC running Windows Me or
Windows 2000, you're probably all set to upgrade or
clean install Windows XP (And even Microsoft says that
any PC manufactured after January 2000 should be a
no-brainer). If you're using an older PC running Windows
95 or Windows NT 4.0--say, a Pentium, Pentium Pro or Pentium II--it
might be time to think about a new system (see system
requirements below). Windows 98 users--who make up the
largest group of potential upgraders--are all over the
map. Some 98 users will still be using Pentium-class
processors with 64 MB of RAM or less, while others have Pentium
4 systems with much more memory. Your ability to make
the move to Windows XP will depend on what hardware and
software you use.
Hardware and software compatibility
Hardware and software compatibility was a huge
problem with Windows NT 4.0, and a major reason why this
OS was shunned in non-corporate settings. In Windows
2000, the situation improved dramatically (over NT 4.0)
but not enough for most home users. And though things
have improved since that product's February 2000
release, most of the PCs sold in the past year are
running Windows Me, not Windows 2000.
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