How to upgrade WinXP Pro Pirated Corporate to WinXP Home Edition Upgrade?

[Homer S.]

Hello,

I have a friend who owns an accounting business and is getting the
'counterfeit' messages on three of her computers. The systems in
question were all purchased at a local computer show about five years
ago from a 'guy' who has since gone out of business. They originally had
apparently legal OEM versions of Windows Millennium loaded on. A short
time after she purchased the machines they all started having problems
so the 'guy' at the show reloaded all three with the illegal Windows XP
Pro Corporate Edition. Since then everything was fine until a couple of
weeks ago when she did the 'Genuine' updates and started getting the
'Counterfeit Windows' messages. Then, last week my friend saw the
Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade on sale at OfficeMax and went out and
purchased three packages to replace the illegal copies of XP Pro. This
morning she called me and asked if it was possible to change her three
counterfeit Corporate versions of Windows XP Pro into legal versions of
WinXP Home just by running the Home Edition Upgrades. She still has the
three legal OEM Millenium CD's. I told her that it would be a lot better
to just wipe the three machines clean and load the XP Home upgrades
fresh but she wants to try to upgrade due to time constraints. She's
totally lost when it comes to backing up anything - she just prints
everything out then if she loses something, types it back in. Anyway,
can this be done??

Thanks,
Homer

 

[bud]

Hello,

I have a friend who owns an accounting business and is getting the
'counterfeit' messages on three of her computers. The systems in
question were all purchased at a local computer show about five years
ago from a 'guy' who has since gone out of business. They originally had
apparently legal OEM versions of Windows Millennium loaded on. A short
time after she purchased the machines they all started having problems
so the 'guy' at the show reloaded all three with the illegal Windows XP
Pro Corporate Edition. Since then everything was fine until a couple of
weeks ago when she did the 'Genuine' updates and started getting the
'Counterfeit Windows' messages. Then, last week my friend saw the
Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade on sale at OfficeMax and went out and
purchased three packages to replace the illegal copies of XP Pro. This
morning she called me and asked if it was possible to change her three
counterfeit Corporate versions of Windows XP Pro into legal versions of
WinXP Home just by running the Home Edition Upgrades. She still has the
three legal OEM Millenium CD's. I told her that it would be a lot better
to just wipe the three machines clean and load the XP Home upgrades
fresh but she wants to try to upgrade due to time constraints. She's
totally lost when it comes to backing up anything - she just prints
everything out then if she loses something, types it back in. Anyway,
can this be done??

Thanks,
Homer

You can't upgrade XP pro to Home. That would actually be a downgrade and it
isn't supported. A fresh install is the only way.

 

[Gene K]

As another responder to this thread has already stated, changing from XP Pro
to XP Home is a downgrade NOT an upgrade and is not allowed. A clean
install of XP Home is her only choice. In doing so, she must use a
legitimately licensed copy of the previous Windows Operating System in order
to continue installation. In other words, use the licensed ME disks NOT the
illegal systems already on board. SHE MUST backup everything that she does
not want to lose.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hello,

I have a friend who owns an accounting business and is getting the
'counterfeit' messages on three of her computers. The systems in
question were all purchased at a local computer show about five years
ago from a 'guy' who has since gone out of business. They originally had
apparently legal OEM versions of Windows Millennium loaded on. A short
time after she purchased the machines they all started having problems
so the 'guy' at the show reloaded all three with the illegal Windows XP
Pro Corporate Edition. Since then everything was fine until a couple of
weeks ago when she did the 'Genuine' updates and started getting the
'Counterfeit Windows' messages. Then, last week my friend saw the
Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade on sale at OfficeMax and went out and
purchased three packages to replace the illegal copies of XP Pro. This
morning she called me and asked if it was possible to change her three
counterfeit Corporate versions of Windows XP Pro into legal versions of
WinXP Home just by running the Home Edition Upgrades. She still has the
three legal OEM Millenium CD's. I told her that it would be a lot better
to just wipe the three machines clean and load the XP Home upgrades
fresh but she wants to try to upgrade due to time constraints. She's
totally lost when it comes to backing up anything - she just prints
everything out then if she loses something, types it back in. Anyway,
can this be done??

Thanks,
Homer

No, it can't be done. Transitioning from WinXP Pro to WinXP Home
isn't an upgrade; it's a "downgrade." The only way to change from WinXP
Pro to WinXP Home is to format the drive and start over. There is no
supported downgrade path or technique.

It's possible to perform a clean installation using the Upgrade CD,
provided you have the true installation CD for the earlier OS.

Simply boot from the WinXP Upgrade CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. The Upgrade CD checks to see if a qualifying OS
is installed, and, if it finds none, it asks you to insert the
installation media (CD) of that OS. Unfortunately, an OEM
"Recovery/Restore" CD will not work for this purpose; you must have a
true installation CD, complete with the "\Win98" folder and *.cab
files, or the "\i386" folder of WinNT/2K.

Alternatively, or especially if all you have is an OEM Recovery CD
for the earlier OS, you can even start the upgrade from within the
current Win98/Me/NT/2K installation, and still elect to perform a
clean installation, to include formatting the drive. In this case,
there's no further request for the qualifying OS's installation CD,
because the installation routing "remembers" that you started from
within the qualifying OS. This process is more time-consuming, but
you get the same results: a clean installation of WinXP.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin