Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Windows® XP Operating System Exam Cram™ 2 (Exam 70-27)

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Chapter 1

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Microsoft does not support any upgrades to Windows XP Home Edition or

Professional from Window 3.x, Windows 95, or Windows NT 3.5 or 3.51

Workstation. Additionally, you cannot upgrade (downgrade) any Microsoft server

operating system (Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server

2003) to any edition of Windows XP.

You must place sysprep.inf in the sysprep folder or on a floppy disk, which are the

default locations where the Mini-Setup Wizard looks for the answer file (it checks the

sysprep folder first) after you apply the image.

Performing Upgrade Installations

Windows XP supports several different upgrade paths. The easiest and most

seamless upgrades occur when you migrate from Windows 2000 Professional

to Windows XP Professional and when you migrate from Windows XP

Home Edition to Windows XP Professional. You can perform an unattend-

ed upgrade by specifying the

/unattend option on the winnt32.exe command

line. With this method, all the custom user configuration settings from the

previous operating system are carried over to Windows XP and no user

interaction is needed during the setup process. You can upgrade directly to

Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional from the follow-

ing Microsoft operating systems:

➤ Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition (SE)

➤ Windows Me

➤ Windows NT 4.0 Workstation with SP5 or higher

➤ Windows 2000 Professional

➤ Windows XP Home Edition (supports an upgrade to Windows XP

Professional only)

Planning the Upgrade and Verifying

Compatibility

Because a computer’s operating is critical to its proper functioning, you

should always treat an upgrade as a serious potential threat to the computer’s

well-being. Upgrades from MS-DOS–based systems, such as Windows 98

and Windows Me, are especially vulnerable to incompatibility problems. You

should review a computer’s current operating system, applications, and con-

figuration settings before forging ahead blindly with the install CD in hand

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Installing the Windows XP Desktop Operating System

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and clicking setup.exe. Check on the following items before performing an

upgrade to Windows XP:

➤ Hardware and software issues—The Microsoft Windows Upgrade Advisor

(also known as the Windows XP Readiness Analyzer) can point out areas

of potential conflict and incompatibility with the current operating sys-

tem. You can run this tool directly from the Windows XP CD-ROM. At

a command prompt, type <CD drive letter>:\i386\winnt32.exe /checkup-

gradeonly

and press Enter to run the program.

➤ Special disk controller drivers—For third-party small computer system

interface (SCSI) or Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) con-

trollers, you might need to press the F6 key during the initial text mode

of the setup process. If you miss this selection and Setup continues, you

will most likely end up with an error specifying that the boot device is

inaccessible, requiring you to start the installation all over again.

➤ File system options—Windows XP has three options to choose from for its

file system: FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. NTFS is the best option because it

supports compression, disk quotas, encryption, mount points, and

remote storage.

➤ Software utilities—Windows XP employs a newer version of NTFS that

can cause conflicts with pre-XP versions of antivirus tools and disk

defragmenting software. You should remove such applications before

you perform the upgrade.

➤ Windows 9x data compression—You must uncompress any drives that have

been compressed with either Windows 95 or Windows 98 compression

features such as DriveSpace or DoubleSpace. Windows XP is not com-

patible with these compression schemes. The same holds true for any

third-party data compression tools: be sure to uncompress the data and

then remove these types of utilities to insure a smoother upgrade experi-

ence.

➤ Computer system firmware (BIOS)—As a rule of thumb, newer BIOSs

support newer operating systems better. Consider installing the most

recent BIOS update for your computer’s motherboard.

➤ Virus scanners/antivirus software—At a minimum, be sure to disable any

antivirus utility during the upgrade installation. Often, it’s recommended

to uninstall the existing antivirus software, perform the upgrade, and