XP Registration

[Paul]

My daughter is away at school and has a 633Mhz vintage
computer that came with Millennium. It started having
performance problems, so she borrowed a friend's copy of
XP Home, which worked really well. She never registered
it, and when she was home for Christmas the registration
deadline ran out. Now it won't give her access to
anything, hers originally and she can't use the original
number twice. She wants to buy XP, but if because it
needs the registration number, but it will not let her
register, because it wasn't she does, will she be able to
get it installed, since we can't even get to the
operating system? Any thoughts about whether we can boot
from a new XP install CD?

 

[Guest]

With the new xp cd,install,reboot computer,boot to cd when the text appears.
You might need to figure boot to cd in the BIOS,but not always,then select
install xp,select,new installation,this leads to reformatting the hd,then xp
installs on its own.Once installed you shouldnt have any problems.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

When she purchases the new XP CD, she should do a repair install as follows
and during setup, input the CD Key that comes with the new CD. After setup
is complete, she will need to activate XP when prompted to do so:

boot with the XP
CD in the drive and perform a repair install as outlined below. If the
system isn't set to boot from the CD or you are not sure, you need to enter
the system's BIOS. When you boot the system, the first screen usually has
instructions that if you wish to enter set press a specific key, when you
see that, do so. Then you will have to navigate to the boot sequence, if
the CD-ROM drive is not first line, set it first in the boot sequence. Save
your settings and exit with the XP CD in the drive. The system will reboot.

NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to start
over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed up,
you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.

Boot from the CD. If your system is set to be able to boot from the CD, it
should detect the disk and give a brief message, during the boot up, if you
wish to boot from the CD press any key.

Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.

Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console.

The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.