Windows ME and XP

[Elaine]

my sister-in-law has windows ME and can't download any music onto her kids i-pods.  She was told that she could upgrade ME to XP by buying some sort of upgrade software.  I don't think that's right, I thought you had to replace it completely with XP.  Is that right?

 

Elaine

[Mattk]

yes !

[vehelpfulguy]

If a machine has Windows ME you can buy a version of Windows XP that is an "upgrade" version that is a bit cheaper than the "normal" version.

BUT I would think very carefully before upgrading a PC with Windows ME to XP.

Windows XP requires much more PC power than ME and if the PC is 4 or 5 years old it just wont have the power.

You may also find that some of the hardware on your PC wll not work if you put XP on, and it could get very complicated to make it work.

A copy of XP is going to cost you about 90 pounds, so you are beter off putting that towards a new PC. The price of PCs has dropped lately and you can get a new PC for about �300 nowadays.

Try the Dell site, www.dell.co.uk  

[vehelpfulguy]

Here is a site that explains in great detail how to upgrade from ME to XP (if you decide to do that).

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_9xupgrade.asp

Although as I said in my previous append, I would suggest that you do NOT upgrade from ME to XP.

btw Windows XP requires AT LEAST 128Mb of memory, more if possible. I doubt if your machine has 128Mb of memory.

I think ME has an option called "System Information", select that and see how much memory you have, and also the speed of the procesor and size of hard disk. 

If you like, post them here and we can advise if your PC can run XP.     

[vehelpfulguy]

One more thing. Microsoft do have a web site where it wll check if your PC is suitable to upgrade to Windows XP.

Here it is

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/upgrading/advisor.mspx

[fo3nix]

iTunes (the software to get an iPod working) also works on windows 2000. This system is just as stable as XP, and has most of the benefits XP has over ME.

windows2000 will also run more smoothly on your computer than XP.