New copy of Xp install help

[Guest]

Hello all,

I bought a computer (used) only to find out it had a illegal copy of XP pro,
I bought a ligit copy of XP home but I get a message all the time when
installing saying I cant upgrade with this version of XP??

Any help would be appreciated

Thank you

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hello all,

I bought a computer (used) only to find out it had a illegal copy of XP pro,
I bought a ligit copy of XP home but I get a message all the time when
installing saying I cant upgrade with this version of XP??

Any help would be appreciated

That's correct. Going from XP Professional to XP Home is a downgrade,
not an upgrade. Downgrades are never supported.

However, you should be doing a clean installation, anyway. If I bought
a used computer, the first thing I would do with it would be to
reinstall the operating system cleanly. You have no idea how the
computer has been maintained, what has been installed incorrectly,
what is missing, what viruses and spyware there may be, etc. I
wouldn't want to live with somebody else's mistakes and problems,
possibility of kiddie porn, etc., and I wouldn't recommend that anyone
else do either.

 

[Daave]

Hello all,

I bought a computer (used) only to find out it had a illegal copy of
XP pro, I bought a ligit copy of XP home but I get a message all the
time when installing saying I cant upgrade with this version of XP??

That's because going from XP Pro to XP Home is not concerned an upgrade.
It's actually a downgrade. And that being the case, you will need to
perform a clean install:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

But first we need to determine what kind of XP Home CD you have. Is it
full or an upgrade? If the former, you should be fine. If the latter,
you will need a qualifying disc, such as 98SE, ME, or 2000.

 

[Guest]

Great, Thank you for all the help...one more thing what is the best way to
backup some of the programs that are on the computer.

 

[Daave]

Great, Thank you for all the help...one more thing what is the best
way to
backup some of the programs that are on the computer.

Only standalone programs (those which aren't installed) may be backed
up. So for all the others (the majority), you will need your original
installation files, which are either on discs you already have or can be
downloaded from the Internet.

Your data (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, photos, music, video,
e-mails, browser favorites, etc.) may be backed up to any medium you
wish: CDs, DVDs, or an external hard drive.

Here's a helpful article on the Files and Settings Transfer (FAST)
Wizard:

"Moving Files and Settings to a New PC"
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/getstarted/bott_fstw.mspx

HTH.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Great, Thank you for all the help...one more thing what is the best way to
backup some of the programs that are on the computer.

In general, backing up of programs is useless, unless done as part of
an image or clone of the entire drive. That's because all applications
(except for a very occasional trivial one) have many entries and
pointers to them within Windows--in the registry and elsewhere. The
programs without Windows--without those entries and pointers--are
worthless.

So if you have to reinstall Windows, you also have to reinstall all
your programs.