I have XP Home and I dont think I can make "file/folder available
offline" so is there a way I can exchange xp home with Windows2000 for
free by calling Microsoft Croporation? Or is offline option can be
used for XP Home?

Hello nickvaidya,

I believe that you are correct that you need Windows XP Professional
to use offline files. See this URL for instructions on how to do this
if you have Windows XP Professional:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307853

Unfortunately you do not have downgrade rights from Microsoft going
from Windows XP Home to Windows 2000. First, Microsoft generally
reserves downgrade rights to corporate customers and people who
purchase software though volume licensing. Even if this was the case
for you, you would need Windows XP professional to have downgrade
rights to Windows 2000.

"Microsoft Volume Licensing allows downgrade rights to operating
system products under Volume Licensing 6.0. Volume Licensing customers
who license Windows XP Professional have full downgrade rights to
Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Windows 95, and
Windows 98."
Source: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/desktop/business/faq.mspx

I have a few suggestions for you and hopefully one of them will work.
You already have Windows XP Home edition, I suggest that you list it
on ebay and sell it (if you have the retail version). It is perfectly
legal to sell a retail version of your software and this will help
offset the cost of Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional.

Next I advise you to visit this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/matrix.asp
Do you have a copy of Windows 98 or Windows ME? This makes you
eligible to purchase an upgrade version of Windows XP Professional!
The upgrade version is much cheaper than the full version, and if you
sell your Windows XP Home and purchase Windows XP Professional (or
Windows 2000 upgrade) that the cost will be much lower. Also if you
are a student, you might be able to purchase an academic version for
an even greater discount.

I hope that the above information will be useful to you. In summary,
unfortunately Windows XP Home does not have the offline option and you
will be unable to downgrade your Windows XP Home into Windows 2000
(different product families and this is not done for non
volume/corporate customers). Basically you will need to purchase a new
or used copy of Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional to gain this
feature.

If you need any clarifications regarding this answer, please do not
hesitate to let me know using the "Request Clarification" feature, and
I will do my best to further assist you as best as I can.

tisme-ga


Search Strategy:

searched on www.microsoft.com
used support.microsoft.com

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Request for Answer Clarification by nickvaidya-ga on 18 Jan 2003 11:32 PST

Thank you so much for a detailed response.  Two follow up questions:
1)I got the XP Home with the system that I purchased, I suppose I can
not sell that?, and 2) is there anyother software that you are
generally aware of that can help me keep my two systems synchronized?
I have XP Pro on my desktop and XP Home on the laptop.  I'd like to be
able to synchronize my outlook pst file too.

Thanks again.

---

Clarification of Answer by tisme-ga on 18 Jan 2003 12:04 PST

1)I got the XP Home with the system that I purchased, I suppose I can
not sell that? 

ANSWER: You are correct that you cannot sell XP Home unless you sell
it as part of the system that you purchased. (You would need to sell
the entire computer to legally sell this OEM Version).

2) is there anyother software that you are generally aware of that can
help me keep my two systems synchronized?

ANSWER: Yes, in fact there is tons of software available to help you
do this. Since I do not know what your exact requirements are (for
example what reliability you need, level of automation, ease of use
etc), I recommend that you try the numerous shareware/freeware
programs available to find the software that is working for you. If
you cannot find anything appropriate, you might want to visit a retail
store to find a software product for synchronization.

Going to http://www.download.com and searching for 'synchronize'
returns numerous software that might meet your needs. Direct URL:
http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=synchronize&tg=dl-2001

You can sort these by User Ratings (what other people thought of the
software) and by the number of downloads etc.

Here are a few trials that you can try found using the above method:

http://download.com.com/3000-2248-10113452.html?tag=lst-0-3 (30 days
free, $24 to buy)
http://download.com.com/3000-2242-10145338.html?tag=lst-0-5 (30 days
free, $10 to buy)
http://download.com.com/3000-2248-9014953.html?tag=lst-0-13 (free to
try, $25 to buy)

Please let me know if you need any additional clarifications regarding
this answer.

tisme-ga

A thorough reply to the problem... Helpful indeed.