Some day you'll realize you want to dump Windows 98 or ME for the latest hottie on the block, Windows XP. Since you already own a copy of Windows, you qualify for the upgrade, and don't need to feel any guilt about leaving your old OS behind. Today Roger shows you how to upgrade your OS or use these steps to reinstall WinXP so you can get a fresh start.

Before you upgrade to Windows XP, you're going to have to determine if your PC is ready for the upgrade. If you're unsure or need a little refresher, read Are you Ready for XP?.

Upgrade vs. clean install

As with other versions of Windows, you have the option of performing a clean install or an upgrade from a previous version of Windows. The upgrade pack will allow you to do both. But, you must have a copy of the full version of your current operating system if you want to perform a clean install using an upgrade disk.

A clean install is a nice way of saying that you'll be erasing the entire contents of your hard drive and starting over from scratch. We only recommend a clean install if -- for some reason -- the upgrade fails.

Formatting a hard drive and starting over isn't a complicated process once you know how, but it does require extensive patience and time to follow through from beginning to end.

I won't be covering how to perform a clean install of WinXP in this article. We have other instructions for that. However, I will cover what you need to do to successfully upgrade you current PC to WinXP or reinstall it on your machine.

Continue reading to learn how.