XP --> 2000 looking for gotchas

Hi,

sorry if this is an obvious ?, but I am a habitual linux person and want to be on the lookout for windows gotchas. I googled and searched the MS web site, but came up with no answers to my ?.

I have an XP Pro Vaio which came with various Vaio software goodies and the typical reinstall disk. I have one specialized piece of software issued by Zeiss that does not seem to want to run on XP Pro, and as my other windows boxes are all 2000 pro it would make some sense to migrate the newcomer to 2000 Pro as well.

The question is how to do it without wiping out the SW that was bundled with the Vaio, as you don't seem to be able to reinstall it piecemeal-- you either reinstall the whole thing, OS and all-- or not.

Is it possible to do this? It's an otherwise pretty much virgin system- no users or anything to back up.

thanks in advance!

Bill

You are right, there is no way to keep portions of XP when installing Windows 2000.

Have you considered using compatibility mode in XP? I've had good luck running older software with it.

Microsoft XP Program Compatibility Mode

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...p/appcompat.asp