My computer is almost five years old and I upgraded from 98se to XP Home Edition and am glad I did. I have found that XP is much more stable, and I particularly like the Restore function. I did not lose any software, but you can expect some problems with older printers and scanners.

By all means do a clean install not an upgrade. Fortunately the cost for new ones is way down, if you need to replace and performance drastically improved.

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@Dave Kitch wrote:

I have a Dell Dimension XPR 400 that is 5 years old.  I upgraded it to a 1 Gb Pentium III microprocessor, 512 Mb RAM, 64 Mb Gainward 3 Ti 200 video card, CD-RW, Turtle Beach Quadzilla sound card and am connected to the internet through a USB port to cable broadband.  It has a DVD player that came with the computer.  I also have a 16 Gb hard drive and plan to add a second 40 Gb hard drive.

 

I’m running WIN 98 SE and recently contracted spyware that we can’t completely clean out.  I’m running Norton AV 2005 and Norton Personal Firewall 2005, Spy Search & Sestroy and Adaware.  I’m planning to keep the computer and am seriously considering taking the opportunity to perform a reformat of the hard drive (never performed before) and loading with Win XP. 

 

I’m not a hard computer user – mainly internet connection, some word processing, digital photo processing and games with the grandkids.  Any comments about Win 98 vs. Win XP?  Since I don’t network I assume that WinXP Home Edition would be adequate vs. the Pro Edition?  Also, what about hardware and driver conflicts?

 

Regards,

Dave K.

You're under a misconception that XP Pro is required to network, which it is not.  It has advanced networking capability that is needed in a large network like a college or business.  Pro is not needed for 99% of home users.

You've already put a lot of money into an ancient computer.  Adding XP will cost you another $85 or so assuming you have your 98CD to validate for the upgrade.  You should do a CLEAN install, not an upgrade install.

You can run Microsoft's Upgrade Advisor to see what's not compatible.  In your case, don't be surprised if a few pieces of software and possibly hardware come up.  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/upgrading/advisor.mspx

You should buy the new hard drive and put XP on that versus trying to deal with what you have.  A 160gb drive is only $29.99 this week at CompUSA, and while your machine won't recognize all of it, you can't beat the price.