Reusing my WinXP Home

[Stan]

My main rig is custom built and came with W XP Home. At
purchase, I paid extra money for my own install disc and
prod. activ. code. It is now time to upgrade. Actually
building whole new system. If old machine is dismantled,
some parts reused, some sold off, can I install my XP on
the new machine. How will MS verify that I'm installing
my copy on a brand new machine?....or do I have to
purchase new copy?

 

[Tom]

My main rig is custom built and came with W XP Home. At
purchase, I paid extra money for my own install disc and
prod. activ. code. It is now time to upgrade. Actually
building whole new system. If old machine is dismantled,
some parts reused, some sold off, can I install my XP on
the new machine. How will MS verify that I'm installing
my copy on a brand new machine?....or do I have to
purchase new copy?

Is your Disk an OEM version, or is it retail? If it is retail, you can use it, as long as it doesn't exist on the previous (or any other system). OEM, it is dead with the previous system, unless it came with like your MOBO with the older system, and you are using that MOBO in the newer one. If it came with the harddrive on the older system, and you are using that hard drive in the newer system, then it is cool, as just two examples.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Assuming retail licenses (OEM licenses are not transferable),
simply remove WinXP and Office from the computer they are currently
on, and install them onto the new one. If it's been more than 120
days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.

Here are the facts pertaining to activation:

Piracy Basics - Microsoft Product Activation
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/basics/activation/

Windows Product Activation (WPA)
http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm


Bruce Chambers
--
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[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

My main rig is custom built and came with W XP Home. At
purchase, I paid extra money for my own install disc and
prod. activ. code.

Retail version or OEM version? If it's a retail version, there's
no problem and you can move it as desired and reactivate as
necessary. If it's OEM, see below,

It is now time to upgrade. Actually
building whole new system. If old machine is dismantled,
some parts reused, some sold off, can I install my XP on
the new machine.

Microsoft's rule is that an OEM version is permanently tied to
the first machine it's installed on and it can never be moved to
another. You can change components as desired, but not the whole
machine.

So there's obviously a gray area here, and there's no precise
answer. Are you keeping the old machine and changing some of its
components, or are you building a new machine and using some of
the components of the old? If the former, you can use the same
OEM copy of Windows; if the latter, you can't. Microsoft has
never precisely defined what constitutes a new computer (probably
on purpose), so you can, with some justification, make your own
decision as to whether it's a new computer or not.