xp upgrade question

jonnyb

another chance for me to show I know enough to be dangerous....

sorting a pc for a friend, which has a licensed copy of win 98 on it.

looking at several xp upgrade disks on ebay; a few say they have been used before - will they install OK if I buy them ?

if so, what is to stop me using my own version of the xp upgrade (to save time) and my product key ? would it fail the activation process later ?

any help gratefully received.

niceguyrichy

it would only fail activation if you let it do the online thingy. which you don't have to let it do. just tell it not to auto connect and you can use any working key you like with it

shadowdragon

niceguyrichy wrote: »

it would only fail activation if you let it do the online thingy. which you don't have to let it do. just tell it not to auto connect and you can use any working key you like with it

Except you have 30 days to register your copy of XP.

totalsolutions

XP might just run fine ... Save time and expense and use your disc, they are all the same and your is original, not a messed up copy. Use a corporate version serial no. if you can but any working serial would do.

shadowdragon

totalsolutions wrote: »

XP might just run fine ... Save time and expense and use your disc, they are all the same and your is original, not a messed up copy. Use a corporate version serial no. if you can but any working serial would do.

And also illegal, and if you register that keycode that was originally with your pc, MS will detect the hardware changes and you will get into problems.

The best and LEGAL way of doing it is to BUY a new copy of XP with its own keycode and use that.

jonnyb

loaner wrote: »

The pc is probably not upto it.

yes it would fail activation.

the pc is up to it - it is my "old" amd athlon base unit with xp 2000 cpu and 384MB ram, just with his hard drive connected.

I do know enough to be dangerous, as I said, but not 100% on the licensing issue.

I think I remember the agreement saying something along the lines of "you can install a backup copy on another p.c." which is effectively what I am doing, so I am going to give it a try.
Worst case is I have to back it out to win98 and I have wasted an hour or 2 of my time.

jonnyb

so far so good - activated and working OK.