Hi John,
Glad you have brought an old unit back to life.
Quote:
|
Are you saying that if I were to install the Windows XP Professional upgrade on top of the Windows 2000 Professional that came loaded on my LT P-600 and then load the SP2 when it is available that I'll have the equivalent of Windows XP Tablet Edition?
|
No.
I think some issues have gotten a little confused.
1) Windows XP Service Pack 2:
- Still in beta testing
- Will be released sometimes in next 3 months (possibly this month)
- Release Candidate 2 was removed from the Microsoft site because it's getting closer to the time of release. You can see more information on
Microsoft.com - If your system uses Windows XP Home or Professional already then you will definitely want to install this service pack when it is released so you can get the new firewall, security updates, and more. It will not upgrade a Windows 98/2000 system to Windows XP Home, Professional, or Tablet PC Edition.
2) Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
- Available only when you purchase Tablet PC hardware or to software developers through MSDN Subscription
- It is a special version of Windows XP Professional that has everything Windows XP Pro has plus advanced handwriting recognition and speech recognition
- The next version of this operating system is called "Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005" and will be a free upgrade to current Tablet PC users. This upgrade will be available via download with Windows XP Service Pack 2. (It's all rolled together.)
- Systems that use Windows XP Home or Professional will not be upgraded to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 when Service Pack 2 is installed. Sorry, just doesn't work that way :)
- If your system uses Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, you should install this Windows XP Service Pack 2 when it is released so you can get the security updates, improved TIP, and other new features.
3) Tablet PC versus Pen-Tablets
A definition of "Tablet PC" is an notebook computer with pen, digitizer, WLAN, without legacy support, and orginially shipped with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
The difference is that your system is called a "Pen-Tablet" and though it has a pen (pen-enabled) it was not designed for this newer operating system, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Pen-Tablets were the predecessors to "Tablet PCs". You won't be able to get the free upgrade because your system wasn't designed for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
You can use special software for handwriting recognition on your pen-tablet, like
Meanders' Annotator for Microsoft Office or
PhatWare Inc. PenOffice English Edition. These will give you some handwriting recognition, but are still not the same as with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and supporting products.