# Upgrading from Windows XP Home Edition to XP Professional Question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrading-from-windows-xp-home-edition-to-xp-professional-question/251095
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 18, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrading-from-windows-xp-home-edition-to-xp-professional-question/251095 "2004-06-18T19:20:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dreamer)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrading-from-windows-xp-home-edition-to-xp-professional-question/251095/1 "2004-06-18T19:20:40Z")
My Windows XP Home edition is not allowing me to have any usage of my volume control, for some reason the file is missing and I can’t get it on my taskbar or anything. I have spoken with my tech support 3 times and they have told me the _only_ choice I have to fix my problem is to re-install and start from the beginning. I really don’t want to do that because I have some programs that I will lose and do not have the install CD’s for.
My question is if I purchase and upgrade to Windows XP Professional, will that fix my problem?
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrading-from-windows-xp-home-edition-to-xp-professional-question/251095/2 "2004-06-18T19:25:20Z")
When you re-install a Windows O/S, you do not lose the applications already installed.
Huh?
Re-install WinXP Home. It will re-install over itself and leave untouched your applications (programs). Upgrading to WinXP Pro should not be the case since you used to have that functionality with WinXP Home.
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### Author:  [@dreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dreamer)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrading-from-windows-xp-home-edition-to-xp-professional-question/251095/3 "2004-06-18T19:32:10Z")
:smack: Ooops sorry, I meant Restore not Re-install.
The problem is that I don’t have the XP CD. It was already installed on my computer when I bought it.
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrading-from-windows-xp-home-edition-to-xp-professional-question/251095/4 "2004-06-18T19:41:36Z")
I just had to reinstall XP Pro over XP Pro. (don’t ask.) No major issues.
I would recommend :
A.) Don’t buy XP Pro, buy XP Home, unless you have some specific other reason for wanting Pro.
B.) But first, talk to the person.place that sold you the computer. It _should_ come with an O/S disk, if it came with an O/S.
C.) Pay close attention to the details of the version of XP you eventually buy. You want the full, regular version - not the kind for “New computers only” and not “Upgrade only” - because I don’t think XP will let you “Upgrade” from XP, it has to be an older Windows O/S.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrading-from-windows-xp-home-edition-to-xp-professional-question/251095/5 "2004-06-18T20:13:28Z")
There is probably a hidden partition on your hard drive that contains the WinXP Home installation files. You should be able to re-install from that.
How?
There should be written documentation that came with the computer that describes how to do this. It is a normal course for computer makers to sell computers with the Windows operating system installed, but no CDs in case you have yo do a re-install. That’s because the installation files are on that hidden partition. Some computer makers will go so far as to make available a set restore CDs for their computers just in case the hard drive dies and needs to be replaced.