cheapest way to upgrade from Windows Me to XP?

[Patrickhat2001]

I'm currently cursed with Windows Me on my computer which I bought nearly two years ago. I remember when I bought it there was a little slip which said I could use it to upgrade to Windows XP for free. I didn't take advantage of it at the time because I was a computer newb and needless to say I lost the slip. Does anyone have any idea how I could upgrade to Windows XP on the cheap? I assume that using a friend's copy wouldn't work because I would have to use their CD key which would likely create problems somewhere down the line. Am I right? Wow, I am still such a newb.

 

[wallijonn]

http://www.pricewatch.com/
http://www.pricegrabber.com/home_cat...03ec6c9663d6cc

http://www.tekhwy.com/

you buy a license for $57.

then get in touch with Microsoft. they may be able to supply a CD at a nominal cost.

http://www.componentsdirect.com/ $77 Full Edition. it doesn't get much cheaper than that.

PS,

i may be able to help you with your ME problems.

all it takes is setting the swap space to 512MB, a [VCache] registry entry, www.jv16.org registry cleaner, then run celanup and defrag.

what software you use after that is strictly up to you. (like DX7.0a, DX8, DX9, Media Player 6, 7, 8 or 9), etc.

before you upgrade - make sure that you can put in 512MB MINIMUM in your PC. XP won't work too well with any less. and if it's slower than a 700MHz, well... i definitely suggest a nice 2.0G P4. or better.

 

[ProFingerSk8er]

damn microsoft, overcharge on everything...no wonder there are soo many people using copied versons instead of paying full price and buy a new OS which will get old again after 2, 3 years

 

[wallijonn]

ProFingerSk8er,

aren't you being a little unfair?

only Linux is cheaper.

you get a lot with MS. like support.

pay a fair price for a fair product. or learn to do everything yourself.

it's only money.

don't grip about paying $100 for an OS and then go out and buy a SUV or a $2000 Headphone Amp to drive $200 headphones. it's all relative. guys don't want to pay "high" prices for a fast cpu, then go out and pay $50 for a heatsink and overclock. gee, i wonder why it crashes when you try to run it at 145MHz?

 

[ProFingerSk8er]

i would pay MSRP if windows is stable like OSX, untill then....burned XP all the way

 

[djgustashaw]

i would take walijonn's advice to get XP for a good price. but MAKE SURE you get the full version and not the upgrade. ME was a nightmare, and as its final move to piss me off, it crashed while i was installing xp. not cool. i would have been screwed if i had the upgrade only. i had to format the hard drive and do a clean install.

 

[Patrickhat2001]

Cool guys, thanks for the replies. But I'm still confused. Why should I get the full version of Windows XP instead of the update? Is this just so I will be able to do a clean install if need be? And 512 MB of RAM just to run XP!!? I've never heard that before, could you elaborate please?

 

[djgustashaw]

yeah, you need the full version to install it on a bare hard drive in case something goes wrong. the update will only work if you have an older working version of windows already installed on the machine.

as for ram, xp requires 128mb. but i wouldn't go quite that low; 256 is the realistic minimum. thats how much i have in our PC and it runs great. no slowdown or anything.

 

[spaceman]

If you are a student, you may be able to get a significant reduction in price if you buy academic software. There are a number of places online that can do better than your local university

 

[Vertigo-1]

How do you install XP onto a bare drive anyways? The last time I tried, it said the setup couldn't run from MSDOS, which is your only option when using a boot disk I believe?

 

[spaceman]

Quote:

Originally posted by Vertigo-1 How do you install XP onto a bare drive anyways? The last time I tried, it said the setup couldn't run from MSDOS, which is your only option when using a boot disk I believe?

Go into your BIOS, and change the first boot drive to your CD, that way, your XP disk will boot, and ask if you want to install.

 

[Rizumu]

Quote:

cheapest way to upgrade from Windows Me to XP?

Pirating.

 

[radrd]

Quote:

yeah, you need the full version to install it on a bare hard drive in case something goes wrong. the update will only work if you have an older working version of windows already installed on the machine.

Are you sure that the upgrade version doesn't simply require you to insert a legit copy of your old OS at some point during the upgrade? I've never tried it, but that's what one of my computer geek friends told me.

 

[averydonovan]

Quote:

Originally posted by Rizumu Pirating.

I paid $150 for a CD-ROM, a license sticker, Product Activation, and no support or anything. Great incentives to go legit

 

[wallijonn]

donovan,

i also paid the $150 the day XP came out. i don't regret it though. as a tech i have to buy the tools. i was just happy that i didn't have to pay the $300 CompUSA/BestBuy/CircuitCity price.

ProFingerSK8er,

how is XP unreliable and unstable? like every other WOS, just make sure that you do not mix and match programs, ie, W95 program on XP, etc. At least it doesn't crash like WNT4.0 when you install a W95 program, like a spell checker or dictionary, under NT4.

Games have always been a bitch. I have games that will only play under DX7 or DX8. So I use caddies.

WXP support comes in the form of security updates and patches. I've never had to call MS, did you? Is the unstability caused by the OS or the mobo and it's associated peripherals? (Man, don't you get frustrated when you buy a scanner and find that there is no WXP driver for it - so you are forced to buy another scanner or printer?

)

Vertigo-1,

you could probably use a WME or W98 boot floppy and cd E: and run the setup.exe. part of the reason why you do not want the upgrade is because W9x used mscdex to map out CD devices; that and it also used autoexec.bat and config.sys. Do that on WXP and you're likely to blow away your boot.ini file in the boot record. It's the main reason why I do not advocate dual boots.

So, who went and got a pirated OSX? the old computer users, probably. if you bought a new Mac, chances are that it came with the latest OS. On OSX, how are updates handled? Is there an Apple website that scans your system and then installs the updates?