Non authorised version of XP Home installed by IT company

[Guest]

HI,
I have just had a message come up to say my Wndows XP may be counterfeit.
Some time ago I got a virus and had to send it to be repaired,it seems they
have installed a version of XP Pro.
I still have my original disk and Product key how do I change back to this
authorised version,I have limited skills,is it possible to do this without F
disking and starting up again?
Hope someone can help.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

Is your original CD an XP Pro ? If so, you can do a repair-install & use it's product key.

If your original was Home edition, you'll need to off-load (save) your personal files and couments, and then do a fresh (new) install of XP.

Following is the Repair Install scenario.
Only if you have a "full" XP CD ----
The object of this exercise is to do an in-place upgrade or an in-place installation for purposes of "repair".
It needs to go to the same partition as before , and the same directory as before.

Usually for example XP is on C drive and is on folder/directory \Windows or \WINNT.

Configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive. You do that from the pc BIOS setup screen. You specify CDROM as the first drive to boot from.

Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM drive, and then restart your pc.

When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your
screen, press a key to boot pc from the XP CD.

When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen,
press ENTER:
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. Do NOT select this option.

On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 function key to agree to it.

Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP (in your case, the one you wish to repair) is selected in the box, and then press the R key to repair XP.

Follow the instructions on the screen.

 

[Guest]

Is your original CD an XP Pro ? If so, you can do a repair-install & use it's product key.

If your original was Home edition, you'll need to off-load (save) your personal files and couments, and then do a fresh (new) install of XP.

Following is the Repair Install scenario.
Only if you have a "full" XP CD ----
The object of this exercise is to do an in-place upgrade or an in-place installation for purposes of "repair".
It needs to go to the same partition as before , and the same directory as before.

Usually for example XP is on C drive and is on folder/directory \Windows or \WINNT.

Configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive. You do that from the pc BIOS setup screen. You specify CDROM as the first drive to boot from.

Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM drive, and then restart your pc.

When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your
screen, press a key to boot pc from the XP CD.

When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen,
press ENTER:
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. Do NOT select this option.

On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 function key to agree to it.

Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP (in your case, the one you wish to repair) is selected in the box, and then press the R key to repair XP.

Follow the instructions on the screen.

Thanks maurice I'll give that a try.
Appreciate you taking the time to help me.
Regards,
Chris