PCTech Forums

I need some help.

So heres my story. I had a PC, and it died. It was rubbish, it was an emachines and pretty old. So we went out and got a new gateway PC, which had vista. Well after using vista for a prolonged time, I can say that it makes me want to punch a wall. So I want to go back to XP.

Emachines didn't include a reformat disc in the package, but it has the usual sticker with the code on it. So my question is, how would I go about doing this 100% legitly.

Maybe I could torrent a copy of XP and use my real serial? Whatever, help would be loved.

More info if needed

Old PC -

XP Home
2.8 Celeron
512MB ram
80GB hdd

New PC -

Vista Home Premium
5000+ X2
1GB ram
320GB hdd

If it was an emachine, they used a Volume License CD, not an OEM. A big computer maker will buy a volume license and do several thousand installs using one particular product key. The sticker on the side is not the same product key used on the original install. But it is a valid product key for that type of CD. You have to match versions though, make sure if the emachine was home edition, the borrowed cd should also be home. If it wants to activate by phone tell the rep what you did and that its only installed on one machine and they will give you an activation code.

A few years back I busted down about 200 pc's with XP on them and converted them to Windows 2000. At that time Microsoft allowed a downgrade in the OS without charge.

Here is a link to downgrade rights

So if you borrow a copy of say a Dell CD Volume License (any laptop) and activate your new laptop with your old xp product key, you should be legal enough to get a phone authorization.

One tip, download the xp drivers before you do the conversion and save them on a pen drive.

Thank you!

MY question is though, this install was like, pre SP1. It was just XP. So, would a borrowed XP SP2 disc work?

Most definitely it will work. It will cut your install time by one half.

I wiped two older Toshiba laptops a week ago and used a copy of Dells XP home edition w/SP2 to do the installs. I had to phone in to activate both of them. I explained to the rep that the client no longer had the cd and that this was a reinstall using my copy of the OS with their product key.

Also if you go down a few posts to

You'll find that I have posted more information about the different flavors of the XP cd which might help you out a bit more