Good grief... XP Pro to Home Conversion a solution??

[Guest]

'Cousin worked at univ. and had her computer upgraded by staff from SE to XP
Pro so she could work from home. No MS sticker was attached, so I presume
this was some sort of site license. She's since left univ.

Her computer, today, has started booting with a warning she's running an
unregistered version of XP. Well, nothing has changed (deliberately), though
she did have a crash (power-plug reboot) this weekend. Also, she just
returned from six weeks abroad [I should be so lucky!] and probably just
loaded a sty-ful of "Updates".

Is there a sane solution to this "problem" -- to the report that her XP is
illegimate? [My parenthetic thoughts about the matter are colorful but... oh
you can guess them. ]

If she has to "upgrade" her system, she has no need of Pro over Home. CAN
one even "upgrade" from Pro to Home?

 

[Bob I]

'Cousin worked at univ. and had her computer upgraded by staff from SE to XP
Pro so she could work from home. No MS sticker was attached, so I presume
this was some sort of site license. She's since left univ.

Her computer, today, has started booting with a warning she's running an
unregistered version of XP. Well, nothing has changed (deliberately), though
she did have a crash (power-plug reboot) this weekend. Also, she just
returned from six weeks abroad [I should be so lucky!] and probably just
loaded a sty-ful of "Updates".

Is there a sane solution to this "problem" -- to the report that her XP is
illegimate? [My parenthetic thoughts about the matter are colorful but... oh
you can guess them. ]

If she has to "upgrade" her system, she has no need of Pro over Home. CAN
one even "upgrade" from Pro to Home?

Nope, flush and fill is the only way.

 

[DL]

If xp was installed with a site licence its possibly a problem with genuine
advantage tool. I believe there is a MS specific forum for this

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Additionally, if it was a site license (Volume License), then she lost the rights to use it when she left the university.

 

[Mac]

back up- reinstall...

Additionally, if it was a site license (Volume License), then she lost the
rights to use it when she left the university.

 

[Leythos]

'Cousin worked at univ. and had her computer upgraded by staff from SE to XP
Pro so she could work from home. No MS sticker was attached, so I presume
this was some sort of site license. She's since left univ.

Her computer, today, has started booting with a warning she's running an
unregistered version of XP. Well, nothing has changed (deliberately), though
she did have a crash (power-plug reboot) this weekend. Also, she just
returned from six weeks abroad [I should be so lucky!] and probably just
loaded a sty-ful of "Updates".

Is there a sane solution to this "problem" -- to the report that her XP is
illegimate? [My parenthetic thoughts about the matter are colorful but... oh
you can guess them. ]

If she has to "upgrade" her system, she has no need of Pro over Home. CAN
one even "upgrade" from Pro to Home?

Many abused site licenses have had their validation revoked, this
happens mostly with Edu versions as they get spammed all over the world.

She could purchase XP Prof/SP2 OEM and run a repair/reinstall and save
everything - OEM XP Prof runs about $140 most places (USD).

 

[Guest]

I understand -- and almost agree -- but wouldn't the flip side of this would
be: MS should support a non-geek upgrade method from "Pro" down to "Home".

It's a 2000 mile (+/- 5 miles) drive from my house to my cousin's; she's
incapable of safely doing a backup-install-reload cycle on her own; and the
so-called support folks in her mountain area haven't shown any cleverness in
their past efforts (I wouldn't trust them to do more than load my groceries,
which I've guessed is their main job).


So... it's (A) mail her a $180 retail XP Pro Upgrade pkg or (B) have her
limp along with an unupdateable system for months until I can fly out with a
$50 (C-USA) XP Home Upgrade and a spare disk to recreate her SE2 for
"upgrade"... what a deal!


The Best Answer doesn't always create the happiest customer base, alas....

Additionally, if it was a site license (Volume License), then she lost the rights to use it when she left the university.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

'Cousin worked at univ. and had her computer upgraded by staff from SE to XP
Pro so she could work from home. No MS sticker was attached, so I presume
this was some sort of site license. She's since left univ.

Her computer, today, has started booting with a warning she's running an
unregistered version of XP. Well, nothing has changed (deliberately), though
she did have a crash (power-plug reboot) this weekend. Also, she just
returned from six weeks abroad [I should be so lucky!] and probably just
loaded a sty-ful of "Updates".

Is there a sane solution to this "problem" -- to the report that her XP is
illegimate? [My parenthetic thoughts about the matter are colorful but... oh
you can guess them. ]

If she has to "upgrade" her system, she has no need of Pro over Home. CAN
one even "upgrade" from Pro to Home?

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Unfortunately there is no downgrade path from Windows XP Pro to Home.
Whether there should be is another question.

First verify whether it is genuine or not:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/invalpk.htm
If you still believe it may genuine:
http://forums.microsoft.com/Genuine/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=125&SiteID=25
But the installer did not seem to install a legitimate license since you do
not have the Product Key or CD.
If that is the case, the person installing Windows XP Pro did her no favour.

I rarely recommend spending the $ for Pro, but in this case it may be best
for you.
If she has qualifying media such as Windows 95,98, ME etc, she can use
Windows XP Pro Upgrade, otherwise Windows XP Pro full would be necessary.
The Windows XP Pro route costs more but the upgrade is less likely to be
problematic and with the type of support she has available, this may be
least likely to need any detailed support.

 

[Guest]

That's good to know. What troubles me is that it indicates I've
miss-understood the rules: I thought one could -not- fix this problem from an
OEM version.

I'll believe ya, but not having done it I can't put my cousin in the
position of doing it on her own, and if I have to do it I might as well
"Downgrade" to Home for only $50.

The unmentioned dark side of any upgrade/re-install is all the post-boot
"upgrading" to re-do: not a problem for those of us with high band-width
connections, but it's a couple of days [well, nights] over her phone lines.
( Would this save any of the MS and non-MS installed packages? Or would
they need reloading/updating all over?


Thanks for the suggestion... I might do it.





:
:

 

[HeyBub]

I understand -- and almost agree -- but wouldn't the flip side of
this would
be: MS should support a non-geek upgrade method from "Pro" down to
"Home".

So... it's (A) mail her a $180 retail XP Pro Upgrade pkg or (B) have
her
limp along with an unupdateable system for months until I can fly out
with a $50 (C-USA) XP Home Upgrade and a spare disk to recreate her
SE2 for "upgrade"... what a deal!

(C) She sends you her computer (or better, just her hard drive) FedEx
overnight. You fix it and send it back.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Shipping hard drive:
Not a very good chance of success unless he has an identical computer as
her.

Shipping computer:
Possibly, but expense of shipping as well as possibility of something coming
loose in shipping.
Then the time back and forth.
Remember, she has no real tech support close by.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

A Repair Install will work with a new OEM Windows XP Pro or Pro Upgrade as
long as she has qualifying media.
All updates not included on the CD will need to be reinstalled.
Just be sure you get Pro with SP-2 so fewer updates will be needed.

Anything you do other than nothing will result in updates needing to be
installed.
A CD with SP-2 will put the needed updates at a minimum.

 

[Guest]

[This is a test. Two posts have failed to... Post. The first obviously hung
in the submission cycle without an "accept" message filling page. Didn't
notice anything odd about second post -- 30 minutes ago! Maybe the server
knows I also have FireFox browsers running? ]

 

[Guest]

I've no reason to -try- to reply: site has dropped last two replies (ignoring
test). But I'm a masochist... here goes. Actually, by now I've forgotten
several of my Q's since I couldn't continue trying after the local power
outage [during thunderstorm].


Thanks x 2, Jupiter -- that's thanks for each reply. I'm still unclear on
one aspect of your reply, however: Are -NON-Microsoft- packages "lost" when a
Repair Install is used? I expect so, but I wasn't sure from your reply.




Latest insanity on your site: it -repeatedly- refused to log me in, so I
asked it to reset my password; then I used the emailed link to try to reset
my password, but it refused to allow the new password as it complained that
it was the same as the old one which it hadn't let me log in with. So I went
back to see if it I could get in if I tried one more time with the old
password; but it wouldn't present the login page as I was already logged in.
Am I the only one thus cursed on your system???

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

"NON-Microsoft"?
If you mean other installed programs, they should be untouched as the Repair
Installation changes only Windows..