You Receive a "Windows Setup Cannot Continue Without Service Pack 5 or Greater Installed" While Upgrading to Windows XP (311775)

SYMPTOMS

While you are upgrading from Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation to Windows XP Professional, you may receive the following error message. If you receive this error message, the upgrade process quits:

Windows Setup cannot continue without Service Pack 5 or greater installed. Please install the latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack.

You may receive this error message even if the released version of Service Pack 5 or later is installed.

CAUSE

You may receive this error message if an incorrect Ntoskrnl.exe or Ntkrnlmp.exe file is installed on your computer. The incorrect file may have a version number of "RC 1.1."

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, use the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel to remove the hotfix that installed the "RC 1.1" version of the Ntoskrnl.exe or Ntkrnlmp.exe file. This restores the original Ntoskrnl.exe or Ntkrnlmp.exe file.

If this resolution does not work, you can also replace the "RC 1.1" version of the Ntoskrnl.exe or Ntkrnlmp.exe file with the correct version from the service pack that is currently installed. To replace the file, use a method from any of the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

184408 How to Replace In-Use Windows NT System Files

228930 How to Replace Currently Locked Files with Inuse.exe

229716 Description of the Windows 2000 Recovery Console

MORE INFORMATION

To determine if you are experiencing the issue that is described in this article, click Start, click Run, type winver.exe, and then press ENTER. If your computer contains the "RC 1.1" version of one of the files, you see:

Microsoft (R) Windows NT (R)
Version 4.0 (Build 1381: Service Pack 5, RC 1.1)

The version that is listed may be 1.1, or might be a different "RC" version.