upgrade question

[cabal]

I think I know your answer already, but I have a customer with a laptop that is running NT4.0 and she would like to take it up to win xp. It has many installed programs,including Novel from her previous job. What kind of problems will I run into if I upgrade this machine ? Anyone ever tried this? I know I should recomend a clean install, but i can save a lot of re-installing if this upgrade is feasable.

[Ya_know]

[quote]Originally posted by cabal:
<strong> but i can save a lot of re-installing if this upgrade is feasable. </strong><hr></blockquote>

Or you could waist allot of time initially, in attempting the upgrade, having issues, then deciding to wipe it out and start over.

You have to use your own discretion. For starters, will the laptop hardware function in XP? Have you tried running the software compatibility, just to see what the software suggests? Finally, if there is software installed that she isn't using, remove it all prior to any upgrade. This will eliminate any confusion, and if the compatibility checker comes back telling you something isn’t going to work, remove that as well.

There really isn’t any perfectly correct answer, just preference, and/or discretion.

[cabal]

It says it needs the nt4.5 service pack installed to run the compatability test. The machine is an IBM Thinkpad with a 600mhz cpu and 256meg ram so I think it can handle xp ok.

[Matridom]

My rule of thumb is to never upgrade.. alway clean install for the OS. Remember, when you upgrade an operating system, you upgrade the problems.