Windows validation help needed

A friend of mine has a second hand PC with an unlicensed copy of windows XP professional, which she seems to be having trouble with, so she has bought a genuine copy of Windows XP home edition so that she can validate the product and get full support from Microsoft.

The question is, is it possible to 'upgrade' the OS she already has to this one, or will she need to format the HD and re-install the OS using the genuine copy she has bought?

Any advice gratefully received.

If you try and fail to validate doesnt a little key appear in the bottom right, prompting for a genuine license key?

I may of course be wrong

If you try and fail to validate doesnt a little key appear in the bottom right, prompting for a genuine license key?

 

I may of course be wrong

I think so, but I'm guessing that it won't work because the OS that is installed is XP Pro and the new copy she has bought is XP home edition.

I don't think you can 'upgrade' to Home from Pro. You can the other way round, but not that way. A clean reinstall is the only way to go, I believe.

I don't think you can 'upgrade' to Home from Pro. You can the other way round, but not that way. A clean reinstall is the only way to go, I believe.

You definitely can't. Otherwise everyone would buy Home edition because it's at least £20 cheaper.

Unless you need to connect to a domain, you won't notice much difference between the two versions anyway. I take it the Home edition she bought was a full retail boxed version because Microsoft won't give support to an OEM copy anyway?

I don't think you can 'upgrade' to Home from Pro. You can the other way round, but not that way. A clean reinstall is the only way to go, I believe.

Correct.

The mistake is buying XP Home in the first place. It has to be validated within 30 days to continue to work. Microsoft assume an XP Professional disc/OS will be installed on more than one computer, and just issue as many licences as required, and it works straight from the off. I've never heard of anyone upgrading from Professional to Home. Let's face it, it's a downgrade.

The best advice I would give, would be to suggest you take XP Home back to the shop where you bought it, and plead with them that it was a mistake, and that you really wanted **XP Professional. I'm assuming the reason you're having trouble with the current disc is that it is either a cracked version, or the disc is scratched, or the licence key is missing. Anyway, pay the extra few quid and consider yourself lucky the vendor took XP Home back. Places like Novatech, for example, will not accept returned software.

**Get the OEM version and say.., a memory stick [that should cover the OEM requirements] and you won't pay huge money for the OS.

Failing all that, you'll just have to reinstall.

Thanks guys. She's going to se if the place she bought it from will take it back.

Failing that, time for a format and re-install.