Chris Wilson Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 If I buy a used laptop off an internet auction site that has no OS installed, and it's advertised as licensed for Windows Vista, can I install my copy of XP Professional on it with no issues? Probably a daft question, but this is not something I have come across before, and I don't understand the implications.. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 It depends on your license file. I'm guessing that you have a single user version of XP, in which case no. If you buy a PC that is licensed for windows vista home then you can install windows vista home and use the current license. It is OS specific though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted December 11, 2011 Author Share Posted December 11, 2011 It's corporate edition, so will that load OK? Cheers Scott. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Yup, a corporate key will load just fine mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted December 11, 2011 Author Share Posted December 11, 2011 Thanks, cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelfill Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Don't quote me on this but I am fairly sure you can downgrade a license, simply because at some point Microsoft discontinued XP but not every company was able to upgrade to the new OS, due to certification issues. For example our company is still running XP, with plans to upgrade to Windows 7 when windows 8 comes out, but we have still bought PCs since XP was end of life. Therefore you should be okay to use XP, but I'm not sure where you'd get a key. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Hi Chris, if there's no OS on the drive, licences shouldn't come into it. It's blank so you can use whatever you want. The only question is whether your XP Professional will allow you to register it again, if you've already entered the keycode online. I'm just trying to think how they're claiming that it's licensed for Vista when there's no OS there, unless it's stored in a seperate partition but you'd still have to have the original disk to use it. Makes no sense to me except if you're just looking at a sticker that they put on it from the OS that was installed before, then deleted. Fwiw, my XP Home allowed me to validate it 5 times before locking me out. I was building a P.C. and trying different partitions and RAID setups so had to keep re-installing. Essentially, you're only limited by the OS disk you have and it's allowed validation attempts, as stored by Microsoft. Scott probably just said that but I don't know about professional versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Hi Chris, if there's no OS on the drive, licences shouldn't come into it. It's blank so you can use whatever you want. The only question is whether your XP Professional will allow you to register it again, if you've already entered the keycode online. I'm just trying to think how they're claiming that it's licensed for Vista when there's no OS there, unless it's stored in a seperate partition but you'd still have to have the original disk to use it. Makes no sense to me except if you're just looking at a sticker that they put on it from the OS that was installed before, then deleted. Fwiw, my XP Home allowed me to validate it 5 times before locking me out. I was building a P.C. and trying different partitions and RAID setups so had to keep re-installing. Essentially, you're only limited by the OS disk you have and it's allowed validation attempts, as stored by Microsoft. Scott probably just said that but I don't know about professional versions. Corporate is a many use key. It can be used loads of times and in some cases employees even get to use it. Every bought version of windows comes with a key sticker. These are often put onto the PC/Laptop that they come pre-installed with. Even with a blank HDD the license key is still valid so it can be re-installed onto the drive and then re-validated using the key that's on the sticker. Irrelevant though as I'm guessing Chris wants XP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Corporate is a many use key. It can be used loads of times and in some cases employees even get to use it. Every bought version of windows comes with a key sticker. These are often put onto the PC/Laptop that they come pre-installed with. Even with a blank HDD the license key is still valid so it can be re-installed onto the drive and then re-validated using the key that's on the sticker. Irrelevant though as I'm guessing Chris wants XP Cool. All I know is that for Home Editions, there's a limit on the validation attempts to prevent fake copies being sold in significant numbers. I can't use my own copy of XP anymore without buying a new key which isn't going to happen. (I want to upgrade my laptop drive but can't re-install it as a 'change in hardware' detection prevents use, making it a different machine and needing a new key). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilp9876 Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Cool. All I know is that for Home Editions, there's a limit on the validation attempts to prevent fake copies being sold in significant numbers. I can't use my own copy of XP anymore without buying a new key which isn't going to happen. (I want to upgrade my laptop drive but can't re-install it as a 'change in hardware' detection prevents use, making it a different machine and needing a new key). Not sure about the "change in hardware" detection, but you should be allowed to install the OS as many times as you like, as long as its only ever on one machine at any one time. If you exceed the limit you can phone Microsoft and explain what you were doing and they can reset the counter (if they believe you). I did this a couple of years ago so I assume the rules are still the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kill1308 Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 If I buy a used laptop off an internet auction site that has no OS installed, and it's advertised as licensed for Windows Vista, can I install my copy of XP Professional on it with no issues? Probably a daft question, but this is not something I have come across before, and I don't understand the implications.. Thanks. Have you checked that WinXP drivers are available for the laptop? As for licensing, you can put whatever you want on it providing you have a CD Key/optical media that's not intended for use on a particular brand of machine with specific hardware Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Not sure about the "change in hardware" detection, but you should be allowed to install the OS as many times as you like, as long as its only ever on one machine at any one time. If you change any hardware, at least the drives, Microsoft's records will flag it as a different computer and refuse validation. My Vista 64 Ultimate did this when a RAID 1 failed and I used a different pair of drives to rebuild it. Had to rebuild to the original pair before it would validate the install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanisLupus Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 AFAIR you can still call Microsoft and confirm it's your Version of XP if you can't activate it Online anymore. Also the protection was reset after 2-3months as far as i remember so i could activate it again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 AFAIR you can still call Microsoft and confirm it's your Version of XP if you can't activate it Online anymore. Also the protection was reset after 2-3months as far as i remember so i could activate it again As far as I know that's the case when you buy an off the shelf version of the OS. If it's on the PC to begin with, I think, the OS is licensed to the hardware. When you buy it off the shelf you then own the license. When you own the license, and register it appropriately, you then have the right to put it on whatever PC you want. You still aren't allowed over your quota (1-5 machines for home use depending on license I think), but if you format a PC and buy a new one, you can then re-register your OS on the new PC. As long as the original machine doesn't pop onto the servers again you should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 Can you actually still buy a totally legit and genuine licensed copy of XP pro these days? There's a lot of diagnostic software that checks the OS and won't run on anything else, not even emulation in 7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Can you actually still buy a totally legit and genuine licensed copy of XP pro these days? There's a lot of diagnostic software that checks the OS and won't run on anything else, not even emulation in 7. I don't think you can from a retailer (online or high street) anymore. To buy XP nowadays you have to take your chances with a 2nd hand copy. Did your corporate license not work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 I wouldn't trust logging onto the MS site for upgrades, put it like that It gets SP3 and a decent AV app I ask because someone I know has bought some Volvo software and it demands and checks for XP, and he only has 7. He'd rather get a certified copy of XP, and apparently MS no longer sell it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilp9876 Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Ive used these people a few times and they've fine : http://www.softwarebilliger.de/ Its normally been via ebay, but a quick search shows that they dont have any items on ebay at the moment :http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/softwarebilliger/ They have various flavours of XP for less than £20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 That looks good, is there an issue running a German or Dutch version, or are they all the same and you just set language and keyboards to UK English? Are they totally legit genuine MS products with legit keys? Why are they so cheap? Thanks for the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilp9876 Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Mine have been English versions and the licences have been fine (legit). I think theyre cheap because theyre OEM versions bought to be pre-installed but then just sold on separately. They do different language versions. This one is English http://www.softwarebilliger.de/betriebssysteme/windows-xp-professional-sp2-oem-cd-handbuch-und-windows-xp-professional-coa-englisch/ Annoyingly the dont have an English version of the website, but Google Chrome does a pretty good job of translating it for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 OK, thanks very much, I have bought an English one, we'll see how he goes with that, I may well get myself one as well, poor old Bill seems to be struggling a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Can you actually still buy a totally legit and genuine licensed copy of XP pro these days? There's a lot of diagnostic software that checks the OS and won't run on anything else, not even emulation in 7. http://www.amazon.co.uk/WINDOWS-XP-Pro-software-intended/dp/B0018RCAD4/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1323892901&sr=8-16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 http://www.amazon.co.uk/WINDOWS-XP-Pro-software-intended/dp/B0018RCAD4/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1323892901&sr=8-16 I take it you didn't read the comments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I take it you didn't read the comments? ........ and Chris said he might buy himself one. I'm just providing an alternative source. In English. Bona Fide. No doubts or worries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 ........ and Chris said he might buy himself one. I'm just providing an alternative source. In English. Bona Fide. No doubts or worries. I meant on Amazon bud. Check out what the 1 star reviews say about it being bona fide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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