Hi Folks,
I'm thinking of buying a laptop for my wife but it's going to come with Vista pre-installed.
I'd like to have Win XP Pro on it so it would be the same as my current desktop PC.
Now the question is this: I have a Win XP Pro upgrade CD (Official version) which I used to convert my old desktop PC from Win 98SE to XP Pro, but this PC has now been scrapped.
Will I be able to use my Win XP Pro upgrade CD to install XP Pro on the new laptop?
Will it allow me to install over Vista?
Or will I have to blitz the system disc first and do a clean install?
If so, will the upgrade accept the Vista serial as the old system?
Many Thanks in advance.
Regards.

This will not work. You cannot upgrade from Vista to XP, as this isn't an upgrade anymore. You also have to have a retail (non-upgrade) version of XP to install over Vista. Your "upgrade cd" will not install windows correctly, if I believe.

By the way, if you want to edit the title, click the orange Edit, then next to the Save button, click Go Advanced. There you can change the title.

Thanks Kevin,
I thought it might not be straightforward.
However, I also still have my old Win 98SE disc and serial number, so if I blitz the system disc on the new laptop, then load my XP upgrade CD, select clean install, then when it asks for the previous serial number, give it the Win 98 serial?? Might that work?
I can't see why not, or am I missing something else?
Regards,
Doug.

No, the issue is, you cannot install XP off of an upgrade disc without a retail disc. The upgrade disc is designed to work off of an operating system that is already installed and simply place new files that are required in the installation. See this site Windows XP supported upgrade paths for systems that can be upgraded to XP. As you can see, the operating systems you cannot upgrade from are old ones that didn't use similar files. Like 3.1, the upgrade disc didn't have all the XP files by itself. Basically, with an upgrade disc, installing Windows is impossible to say the least. The XP Upgrade CD doesn't have a Clean Install option. To make sure what you have isn't a retail and to stop me from giving different information, please provide some of the data that is on your XP Disc. A serial number from Windows 98 will not work, as each serial is designed for 1 OS only.

You can do this though, install Windows 98 first, then upgrade to XP using your upgrade. I think that may be a bit of a hassle. I also realized that Microsoft may fail activation since your Windows XP CD has been installed on a different system and activated before. Your best bet would probably be to buy a retail copy of Windows XP somewhere like NewEgg or TigerDirect before they run out of copies. Microsoft has already stopped selling XP and is trying to push Vista.

Actually the Upgrade CD is no different from the retail with one exception:

It requires proof of a previous version of Windows.

Boot the XP CD and it will ask you to insert a previous Windows CD. The '98 will work fine.

After this point all is straight forward. You will need the XP key and not the '98 key.

After the install you will need to call a human at Microsoft and have the key transfered from the non-existent computer. One key = one computer.


That being said you will find Vista will still fight back as it realizes it is being downgraded.

You will need to wipe that hard drive first. Kill Disk will do this.

That being said you will most likely lose any warranties on a brand new laptop.

Many manufacturers will offer your new laptop with XP if you insist upon it and this would be much better.

Ahh, well thank you jephree for clearing that up. I had thought that was the way it worked, since the Microsoft page doesn't let you upgrade from certain versions of Windows. For example, you cannot upgrade XP Pro to Vista Basic. I don't see why you would need to wipe the disk. When I installed XP on my Dell, I just deleted the partition (by using the 'D' i think and it worked fine when Vista was preinstalled. That shouldn't void the warranty.

I have found that often the attempt by XP to overwrite the boot sector with Vista installed will stop the installation.

Deleting the partition which contained Vista would be similar to wiping the partition.

You need third party software in order to do this. GParted is a free and good partition manager/editor.


You are also destroying an operating system worth a couple hundred dollars.


As to the warranty it would depend on the manufacturer. One should check if the warranty is of importance to one.

I would again suggest getting a laptop with XP installed which most manufacturers do offer since consumers began to demand it.


For a more detailed page on the XP Upgrade see this:

Upgrading to Windows XP


Another factor to consider is drivers. If your manufacturer only offers Vista as an OS it will most likely only have Vista drivers. This is something you cannot change nor get around.

You can load XP as a "dual boot" system but again getting an XP laptop is the best if you want to run XP exclusively.


All the above being said removing Vista is not a good idea.



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Hi Folks,
Thanks for your replies and all the information.
When all is considered, Jephree is obviously right.
What I clearly need to do is to get a laptop with XP Pro installed by the manufacturer.
Thanks again,
Doug.