Upgrade Question

Hi:
Really need XP-Home for the games that I want to play.
Did a thorough search of the bay of e to find a reasonably priced legal edition.
Best I could find was an open box new edition for $79.00 plus shipping. Others going for silly hundreds.
So...
I won't play.
Thought I may purchase one of the "upgrade" versions advertised, and marry it to my legally owned Win 98 second edition. This going into a new build.
Or, an old/new build if I buy some used parts, say from Aliexpress.
Here's my question:
Will I have to jump through the same kind of hoops using this route, as if I were trying to activate the full version of XP on my build?
Appreciate any help.
Scratch...

 

I believe you can upgrade just fine from 98 to XP without it forcing a clean install as long as you have the right disc and of course a legitimate product key. I recommend trying it out in Oracle Virtual Box First however.

 

You didn't provide any description of your computer or its hardware.

It may be capable of running Windows 98SE fine, but it may be too old or too slow to run Windows XP SP3.

 

Thanks guys.
This is an install on a computer designed expressly for 98/XP.
Plan to build it to suit.
Just getting my ducks in order.
Scratch...

 

You still have to find the drivers for this particular computer, after however/wherever you get the xp install disk/iso.

 

Right.
I'll need:
Mobo chip set drivers
Vid card drivers
Sound card drivers (unless onboard sound)
Should not need any others as I don't plan on keeping this box on the net.
Will have to research these before purchase.
Thanks for bringing this up.

I presently own one legal copy of XP Pro and two legal copies of Win 98.
My conundrum is:
Should I install Pro and have the benefit of additional ram,
or go with an XP-Home edition and have less headaches with legacy games?
If the choice is XP-Home I will either have to upgrade my 98se or find a full legal copy.
Probably on the Bay.
You should know that I'm in a rural location, so must use satellite for my internet. This is just a small step above modem. So "Steam" does not work for me.

 

Ebay is certainly not necessarily the supplier of legal copies of XP or any other os.
I dont think MS cares about XP disks/isos for free anymore. There are literally 1,000's of easily downloaded copys of XP online, Portuguese, Hebrew, (!) whatever you want! I am NOT suggesting you go there. "However", I d/l'd a copy of XP media center version to just see what it was about. I was not impressed.