Can I use an XP Professional Licence Key for XP Home?

mobfant

I have a Dell laptop with XP Professional installed. I bought it a year ago, when Dell were not including an OS cd as standard. However, I recently bought a Dell laptop for my Dad, which included an XP Home CD. I want to do a clean install on my current laptop and have used a keyfinding program to find the licence key for this system (with XP professional). Will this key work with an XP Home installation of Windows? Are there any benefits of XP Pro over home that make it worthwhile me paying for the original OS CD (I don't think it's that much)?

Cheers in advance

Marty999

AS far as I am aware, there is no advantage in running XP Pro if you are using a stand-alone PC. XP Pro contains networking components that you need if you wish to connect to a domain (company network).

kevinwj

Short answer is no.

XP home, pro, media, and upgrade versions all have different algorythms for the COA keys and they are not interchangeable.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

.

banger9365

xp home and xp pro licenses are different and so is each version of the os ,you need the same version as the license, they are not interchangeable

epz_2

if you dont have recovery cds then you should have a recovery partition, likely pressing f2 or something before windows boot's and it will recover it for you and do all the drivers .

you have a legit licence so you can legally use any xp pro cd even one from ahem dubious sources

albertross_2

Doesn't the laptop have a restore partition for you to do that, or a method of creating the disk.

Rumour has it that Dell will send you a disk for free if you call them,, just a rumour though, never tried it.

mobfant

Thanks people. The laptop does have a restore partition but there are two problems

a) It takes up five gb of hard drive space
b) It contains all the junk that is included when Dell ships out computers that I don't need, and don't want to spend the time uninstalling.

I might give them a call and see if they'll send me the OS cd for free, otherwise I'll see where it can be downloaded.

energy80s

Check out the following link for some info on making a "clean" install disc from a restore partition ... http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml

krishna

I tried replacing a missing Win2000 CD through microsoft some time ago. They will actually do this if you can prove you owned the full product, but they said for OEM versions ask the PC manufacturer. So as albertross suggested, get in touch with Dell and give them the serial number (or whatever it is that they call the codes they stick on each PC - mind's gone blank) for the PC that came with XP Pro installed. They can verify that you had it and should be able to provide a replacement CD.

j_davies

mobfant wrote:

otherwise I'll see where it can be downloaded.

Along with all the spyware and viruses you can get

brinky_2

I did a clean install on a DELL and didnt have the sonic software. I phoned the helpline explained what I had done and got sent everything including a new xp disc and driver disc together with the original machine software. All for free.

So they should certainly send you a new xp pro disc.