# Change XP Home Spanish to XP Prof English
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 9, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763 "2006-02-09T23:47:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/1 "2006-02-09T23:47:42Z")
I recently bought a new HP w5030la computer. Pentium 4 - 2.93Mh, 512Mb Ram, 160Gb HD, DVD±RW, CD-R, Wireless keyboard and mouse, Windows XP Home in Spanish. I really don’t like the OS because they don’t even give me an Original CD with the operation system on it. It did, however give me an opportunity to create a recovery system of 9 CD’s or 1 DVD. Unfortunately, I don’t have any DVD’s yet, so I chose the 9 CD method.
My question is whether or not I can change the OS to Windows XP Professional in English without problems. Will I have to download the drivers for needed things or will Windows XP Prof handle these without problems.
The big problem is that I called HP and they told me that if I change the OS, that they will not guarantee the computer.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/2 "2006-02-09T23:49:46Z")
You’ll have to buy a new OS. You can’t just go from home to pro. There _might_ be just an upgrade CD you can buy, but it will still be at least $50.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/3 "2006-02-09T23:50:50Z")
Oh, and I meant to add, the transition should be seamless. Just pop in the CD while the computer is on, and it should walk you through the rest. I think there should be a way to not have it rewrite over any of your files.
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/4 "2006-02-09T23:53:46Z")
> [@bouv](#):
>
> You’ll have to buy a new OS. You can’t just go from home to pro. There _might_ be just an upgrade CD you can buy, but it will still be at least $50.
I am aware that I have to buy a new OS. My question was whether or not I can change the OS to Windows XP Professional in English without problems. Will I have to download the drivers for needed things or will Windows XP Prof handle these without problems.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/5 "2006-02-10T00:07:31Z")
> [@robcaro](#):
>
> I am aware that I have to buy a new OS. My question was whether or not I can change the OS to Windows XP Professional in English without problems. Will I have to download the drivers for needed things or will Windows XP Prof handle these without problems.
It should handle it without a problem. Do you really need XP Pro? It isn’t that different although it has some advanced networking features and things that some businesses require and have to pay a premium for.
XP Home probably has 95+% of the functionality and the interface, look and feel, and the same for the most part.
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/6 "2006-02-10T00:15:28Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> It should handle it without a problem. Do you really need XP Pro? It isn’t that different although it has some advanced networking features and things that some businesses require and have to pay a premium for.
>
> XP Home probably has 95+% of the functionality and the interface, look and feel, and the same for the most part.
I had XP Pro in my old computer and it is has functionality that I am used to. So, if I buy XP Pro, do I have to do a complete install or what?
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/7 "2006-02-10T00:29:40Z")
> [@robcaro](#):
>
> I had XP Pro in my old computer and it is has functionality that I am used to. So, if I buy XP Pro, do I have to do a complete install or what?
I think it is called an “upgrade” install. However, it is still a pretty big deal and will take a while. I wouldn’t put any new files on it until you upgrade or you may have hassles. I know that people have had issues with that type of upgrade.
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### Author:  [@frankenberrycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frankenberrycat)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/8 "2006-02-10T03:52:29Z")
Seriously. The only thing Pro can do that Home can’t is join a domain. And that doesn’t matter, because a Win2003 Server can host both a domain AND a workgroup. For instance my home network has a Win2003 Server with a domain. Only two of my home computers are on the domain. The third has XP Pro but I use the quick user switching and the Welcome Screen so it can’t join the domain. The computer I’m typint this on is laptop running XP Home connected to the internet through the server via a wireless access point. UNLESS you’re using a company network that requires you to join a domain, you’re probably never going to find a difference between XP and Home, I haven’t ever noticed a difference going back and forth…
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/9 "2006-02-10T04:01:22Z")
> [@robcaro](#):
>
> The big problem is that I called HP and they told me that if I change the OS, that they will not guarantee the computer.
Is this legal, does anyone know, or is this the sort of flimflam that tech support flunkies tell people to get them off the phone?
Of course, if they said they wouldn’t **support** software issues on a computer with a different OS, that’s a different matter, and much more understandable.
I would still recommend getting them to send you a link to (if you don’t already know it) a list of all your computer’s specific hardware. When I formatted my HP at work and installed XP Pro on it, I had a helluva time tracking down the driver for the integrated soundcard.
Daniel
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/10 "2006-02-10T12:11:01Z")
> [@frankenberrycat](#):
>
> Seriously. The only thing Pro can do that Home can’t is join a domain.
And Home also won’t run on multiprocessor boxen, which includes all those fancy dual core chips. I wonder if that’s why the MacIntel people can’t get Windows running yet? Maybe they forgot about that limitation with dual core chips….
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/11 "2006-02-10T13:57:10Z")
I am OK with XP Home and I suppose it will work with everything that I have. The big worry is the driver files. They are in the inf folder I believe, but I cannot find that folder. Besides, there are a lot of folders and files that have Spanish names. I don’t think an upgrade will overlay those and I don’t want to have a lot of clutter on my HD with Spanish names. Where can I find the inf folder to copy it to a CD?
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/12 "2006-02-10T14:12:25Z")
> [@robcaro](#):
>
> I am OK with XP Home and I suppose it will work with everything that I have. The big worry is the driver files. They are in the inf folder I believe, but I cannot find that folder. Besides, there are a lot of folders and files that have Spanish names. I don’t think an upgrade will overlay those and I don’t want to have a lot of clutter on my HD with Spanish names. Where can I find the inf folder to copy it to a CD?
You shouldn’t do it that way and things will probably get hosed if you try. Just having a folder full of driver files won’t do much for you. They have to be installed through a process in Windows and have registry values written etc.
Installing the English version of Windows will give you enough drivers to make things function and you may be lucky enough that you won’t need anything else. For things that may need special drivers installed, you will need either the install CD or download the drivers from the manufacturer and put those in a folder ready to go.
You shouldn’t need more than a few drivers and those would be for the DVD writer, the keyboard, and the mouse, and possible a video card. Just find and download those in advance. It won’t take long.
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### Author:  [@Queuing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queuing)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/13 "2006-02-10T17:14:20Z")
If I understand correctly all you really want is to change the language input to English from Spanish? It seems that you may be okay with XP Home oppose to pro. Can’t you just go to control panel–regional and lang options—language tab–details and add English as an text input language? Spanish and English are in the same language group, or whatever MS call them, so you should b able to switch seemlessly between the two just by using the language bar after you have set english as one of your options. Am I missing something here?
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-xp-home-spanish-to-xp-prof-english/343763/14 "2006-02-10T20:17:50Z")
> [@Queuing](#):
>
> If I understand correctly all you really want is to change the language input to English from Spanish? It seems that you may be okay with XP Home oppose to pro. Can’t you just go to control panel–regional and lang options—language tab–details and add English as an text input language? Spanish and English are in the same language group, or whatever MS call them, so you should b able to switch seemlessly between the two just by using the language bar after you have set english as one of your options. Am I missing something here?
Sorry Queuing, but that doesn’t cover all avenues. Sure, I can type with an English keyboard, but there are many windows that come up with Spanish lanuage. I want all to be in English so that I am never confused. I want what I am used to with my old computer. With an English version of XP, I can do just that.