i bought my pc around a year ago from a comouter shop that has now changed
hands. I was given a cd "copy" of windows and although I asked them for a
gneuine cd I was told it wasn't necessary - something about oem. yes, i
know, to an extent it's my fault im in the position i'm in.

i'm now geting serious issues with software upgrades and also want to look
at upgrading to (genuine) vista. but i've got a years' worth of application
installs and data on my disk and while I can back up my data, I don't want to
have to reinstall every piece of software i have in order to go "genuine",
which seems the case. i don't put my self in the bracket of being dodgy, I'm
an honest customer that got stiffed and I find it very, very hard to take
that MS appears not to allow me to buy a gebuine certificate so that i can
upgrade. i don't care if it costs me £150, i jsut want to be genuine
without affecting what i've already got. i must be 1 of thousands if not
millions in the same boat, so please tell me MS can help the likes of me.


how do i get out of this mess without having to do full reinstalls and
losing all of my installed applications? your help would be much appreciated.

I had a similar problem when SP2 came out. I called Microsoft and they
sold me Windows XP upgrade which I installed and I was soon up running
with everything intact. Did not have to reload anything or lose
anything. I found Microsoft Support to be very helpful.


"Dan K" <Dan (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:0B6B21D3-4E48-46DD-B429-(E-Mail Removed)...
|i bought my pc around a year ago from a comouter shop that has now
changed
| hands. I was given a cd "copy" of windows and although I asked them
for a
| gneuine cd I was told it wasn't necessary - something about oem. yes,
i
| know, to an extent it's my fault im in the position i'm in.
|
| i'm now geting serious issues with software upgrades and also want to
look
| at upgrading to (genuine) vista. but i've got a years' worth of
application
| installs and data on my disk and while I can back up my data, I don't
want to
| have to reinstall every piece of software i have in order to go
"genuine",
| which seems the case. i don't put my self in the bracket of being
dodgy, I'm
| an honest customer that got stiffed and I find it very, very hard to
take
| that MS appears not to allow me to buy a gebuine certificate so that i
can
| upgrade. i don't care if it costs me £150, i jsut want to be genuine
| without affecting what i've already got. i must be 1 of thousands if
not
| millions in the same boat, so please tell me MS can help the likes of
me.
|
|
| how do i get out of this mess without having to do full reinstalls and
| losing all of my installed applications? your help would be much
appreciated.
|
|
|

if it means keeping everything intact then that is the way forward.
actually, if i'm going to spend any money, does anyone know if it's possible
for me to just upgrade to vista - but without trashing all of my applications
that are installed alredy for xp? baring in mind my genuine license issue.

regards,

dan



"John" wrote:

> I had a similar problem when SP2 came out. I called Microsoft and they
> sold me Windows XP upgrade which I installed and I was soon up running
> with everything intact. Did not have to reload anything or lose
> anything. I found Microsoft Support to be very helpful.
>
>
> "Dan K" <Dan (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:0B6B21D3-4E48-46DD-B429-(E-Mail Removed)...
> |i bought my pc around a year ago from a comouter shop that has now
> changed
> | hands. I was given a cd "copy" of windows and although I asked them
> for a
> | gneuine cd I was told it wasn't necessary - something about oem. yes,
> i
> | know, to an extent it's my fault im in the position i'm in.
> |
> | i'm now geting serious issues with software upgrades and also want to
> look
> | at upgrading to (genuine) vista. but i've got a years' worth of
> application
> | installs and data on my disk and while I can back up my data, I don't
> want to
> | have to reinstall every piece of software i have in order to go
> "genuine",
> | which seems the case. i don't put my self in the bracket of being
> dodgy, I'm
> | an honest customer that got stiffed and I find it very, very hard to
> take
> | that MS appears not to allow me to buy a gebuine certificate so that i
> can
> | upgrade. i don't care if it costs me £150, i jsut want to be genuine
> | without affecting what i've already got. i must be 1 of thousands if
> not
> | millions in the same boat, so please tell me MS can help the likes of
> me.
> |
> |
> | how do i get out of this mess without having to do full reinstalls and
> | losing all of my installed applications? your help would be much
> appreciated.
> |
> |
> |
>
>

Dan K wrote:

> if it means keeping everything intact then that is the way forward.
> actually, if i'm going to spend any money, does anyone know if it's possible
> for me to just upgrade to vista - but without trashing all of my applications
> that are installed alredy for xp? baring in mind my genuine license issue.
>
> regards,
>
> dan
>

Be sure you know what you are doing when correcting to the genuine
version or you will be doing a new installation. Take the standard
precautions of backing up all important files beforehand. The major
difference between doing a repair and a new installation is inversely
related to one's impatience.

"Dan K" <Dan (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:0B6B21D3-4E48-46DD-B429-(E-Mail Removed)...
>i bought my pc around a year ago from a comouter shop that has now changed
> hands. I was given a cd "copy" of windows and although I asked them for a
> gneuine cd I was told it wasn't necessary - something about oem. yes, i
> know, to an extent it's my fault im in the position i'm in.
>
> i'm now geting serious issues with software upgrades and also want to look
> at upgrading to (genuine) vista. but i've got a years' worth of
> application
> installs and data on my disk and while I can back up my data, I don't want
> to
> have to reinstall every piece of software i have in order to go "genuine",
> which seems the case. i don't put my self in the bracket of being dodgy,
> I'm
> an honest customer that got stiffed and I find it very, very hard to take
> that MS appears not to allow me to buy a gebuine certificate so that i can
> upgrade. i don't care if it costs me £150, i jsut want to be genuine
> without affecting what i've already got. i must be 1 of thousands if not
> millions in the same boat, so please tell me MS can help the likes of me.
>
>
> how do i get out of this mess without having to do full reinstalls and
> losing all of my installed applications? your help would be much
> appreciated.

You should always have a full and complete backup of important data, and
have original installation media for all installed apps.

I also recommend using a drive imaging program such as Acronis True Image
version 10 to image the system to an external hard drive. Image regularly
for backup purposes. Images can be full, incremental or differential on a
drive or partition basis. Restores can be on a file, folder, partition or
drive basis, and it also does file backup and disk cloning.

With the system backed up purchase a genuine copy of XP of the same type and
language version currently installed, XP Home or Pro, from your favorite
discount software retailer, and do a repair install using the new CD and
product key.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]