|  | Planning an Installation of Microsoft Windows XP Professional Checking Hardware and Software Compatibility
Generating a Compatibility Report Windows XP Professional provides a report-only mode that can generate compatibility reports. To generate a report, an operating system must be installed on the computer. These reports provide you with information about incompatible hardware and software before you perform an installation or an upgrade. You can analyze these reports to determine whether your hardware is compatible with Windows XP Professional, or whether you need to install update packs or new versions of applications. Using the Upgrade Advisor You can generate a compatibility report by running the Microsoft Windows Upgrade Advisor. The Upgrade Advisor checks the existing hardware and software to determine if any unrecognized or incompatible hardware or software is installed on your system. To run the Upgrade Advisor, insert the product CD and then run winnt32, using the /checkupgradeonly switch. For example, if your CD-ROM is the E: drive, you would type E:\I386\Winnt32 /checkupgradeonly. The Upgrade Advisor will display a system compatibility report, which can then be viewed in detail or saved. The default name is Upgrade.txt, and the default save location is the Windows folder on the local drive. To analyze the upgrade readiness of a large number of computers, you can run the Upgrade Advisor as part of an organization-wide logon script, and store the results in a central location for later evaluation. Software Compatibility If you perform a new installation, you might not need the information on software compatibility; in fact, there may not be any existing software. However, the software information is essential during an upgrade.
| Note: Because of the differences in the system registry and setup procedures, many applications install differently on computers running Microsoft Windows 98 than they do on computers running Microsoft Windows NT® Workstation, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP Professional. Therefore, if you are upgrading from Windows 98, you may need to reinstall certain software.