XM Home OEM to retail version

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Guest

I have a name brand PC with XP Home OEM but no XP media. I want to
"genericize" it by formating the hd and installing the retail upgrade version
of XP Home. How do I make the upgrade version work after the drive has been
formatted? Can I use a Win98 CD to trick the upgrade?
 
'I want to format the hd and installing the retail upgrade version of XP
Home. How do I make the upgrade version work after the drive has been
formatted?

you should be able to install from the retail upgrade to the formatted HDD
but it might ask you for the OEM disk to initialize it along with the
original serial before the upgrade.

If by "I have no XP media" you mean you don't have the OEM install disk then
you might find yourself looking to buy/replace one from microsoft if you
can't install the upgrade alone.

If the format isn't a necessity then maybe overlaying the upgrade over the
old OS might be better for you but I don't know much about upgrade discs and
what you need to use it.
 
Yes, a Windows 98 CD will work.

However, before you do that, see if your computer has an "I386" folder
on it (could be in the root, or burried somewhere in or below
C:\Windows). If you have that, it's very nearly the equivalent of a
Windows CD, particularly if it has BOTH Winnt.exe and Winnt32.exe. If
you have the I386 folder with the two setup programs, then installing a
new copy of Windows is pretty much a waste of money. You have
everything required to install Windows in the I386 folder (burn that
folder to a CD), and it's as good as a generic retail copy.

[If you burn that folder to a CD, then before burning it, create a text
file in that folder called PRODKEY.TXT, and in the text file record the
Windows product key from BOTH the running system (use a keyfinder
software to read the installed product key) and also the COA label that
should be located somewhere on the machine. The two product keys may be
different, or they may be the same. If they are different, record them
both. Put it/them in Prodkey.txt in the I386 folder before burning the
I386 folder to a CD.]
 
John said:
I have a name brand PC with XP Home OEM but no XP media. I want to
"genericize" it by formating the hd and installing the retail upgrade
version of XP Home. How do I make the upgrade version work after the
drive has been formatted? Can I use a Win98 CD to trick the upgrade?
Click to expand...



No tricking is necessary. The requirement to use an upgrade version is to
*own* a previous qualifying version's installation CD, not to have it
installed. When setup doesn't find a previous qualifying version installed,
it will prompt you to insert its CD as proof of ownership. Just insert the
Windows 98 CD, and follow the prompts. Everything proceeds quite normally
and quite legitimately.
 
John said:
I have a name brand PC with XP Home OEM but no XP media. I want to
"genericize" it by formating the hd and installing the retail upgrade version
of XP Home. How do I make the upgrade version work after the drive has been
formatted? Can I use a Win98 CD to trick the upgrade?
Click to expand...


Yes, that should work.

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.


--

Bruce Chambers

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