okay, i have a some questions that i would like to get answered..."hopefully", but anywho my dad has a fairly new laptop with windows xp home..........some of the applications from work uses Windows XP Pro, he doesnt want to lose any files or programs that he has on his laptop........(i guess he has a bunch of work apps, and files that he uses for work..that he cant lose.) So my question is it possible to run Windows xp Home and Windows Xp Pro on the same machine....? Or can i upgrade to windows Xp Pro from Home without losing and files or programs? Any help will be greatly appreciated......thanks

What applications are you talking about? Any software that runs on HP Pro will run on Home. Unless you're talking features specific to the OS. Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!

Unless your dad laptop isn't required to logon to an Active Directory domain, he doesn't need XP Pro. The only features that ain't in Home Edition are mainly: Remote Desktop, Multi-processor support, Automated System Recovery, Dynamic Disk Support, Encrypting File System, Domain membership, Group Policy, Roaming profiles. i_XpUser

i think he has automation software, and i think one or couple of the programs run better on pro than on home....

Could intall Pro onto another partition, then you have two XP's to choose from during boot. HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System in Windows XP How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP How to install or upgrade to Windows XP

thanks for all the useful information....

I have upgraded two laptops from XP Home to XP pro and have not lost anything. Our IT department backed up 'ghost images' of my laptops before but I didn't need it in the end.