I got an full version of xp professional from our University’s MSDAA (Microsoft Developers Academic Alience). I currently have xp home on my machine and I want to upgrade it to pro but I need to keep all my files and programs that are installed. I have many programs to which I no longer have the cd for and therefore I cant afford to lose them. This cd I got from the school is a full cd, not an upgrade cd. I popped it in and try to install it but i get an error message saying it couldnt install it due to a "third party kernell" being installed (the home edition kernell im assuming). So I tried booting from the cd and installing from there, but it didnt give me an option to upgrade. Instead I ended up with 2 versions of xp installed in my machine. Now when the pc starts, it asks me which OS i wanna load (pro or home). Again my question is, is there a way to just upgrade my home edition to pro using a full cd without losing anything? Thank you very much.
Tagged with: error message • full cd • kernell • microsoft • microsoft developers • third party
Filed under: Clean Up Computer
Yes, choose XP Pro and proceed with loading the OS. The XP Home is an OEM version and when you get an Academic version, you will get the ""third party kernel"" message.
I am a perennial IT student and always get the Academic versions whenever possible and i have encountered this message a few times when installing OS and other software.
You will not lose your personal files, but the XP Pro will overwrite the system files over the XP Home.
In the event that there may be data corruption – which can happen, or the install could not complete, always backup your personal files BEFORE the installation.