pirate dick!!

[Giraffe49]

I have foolishly ( and unwittingly) bought a pirate copy
of xp professional. Steps are being taken!! Meanwhile, I
am going to purchase a legitimate copy of xp home. Will I
have to uninstall the professional version first, and if
so, can this be done without affecting all the other
software installations I have on the hard drive

Thanks - the long one

[Chris Lanier]

You willl have to do a clean install of XP Home.

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary to
partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow Windows XP
to partition and format your drive:

1. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.
2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your omputer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. After installing Windows XP, be sure and visit the support website of
the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any available
Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter and audio drivers.

*All Courtesy of Nicholas

"Giraffe49" > wrote in message
...
> I have foolishly ( and unwittingly) bought a pirate copy
> of xp professional. Steps are being taken!! Meanwhile, I
> am going to purchase a legitimate copy of xp home. Will I
> have to uninstall the professional version first, and if
> so, can this be done without affecting all the other
> software installations I have on the hard drive
>
> Thanks - the long one

[Jim Macklin]

W XP Home will not upgrade a W XP Pro. In order to install
XP Home you will need to set up a dual boot and there may be
file access problems.

I would suggest that you exchange the XP Home CD for a XP
Pro which will fix your problem with a repair install.



"Giraffe49" > wrote in message
...
| I have foolishly ( and unwittingly) bought a pirate copy
| of xp professional. Steps are being taken!! Meanwhile, I
| am going to purchase a legitimate copy of xp home. Will I
| have to uninstall the professional version first, and if
| so, can this be done without affecting all the other
| software installations I have on the hard drive
|
| Thanks - the long one

[Ken Blake]

In ,
Giraffe49 > typed:

> I have foolishly ( and unwittingly) bought a pirate copy
> of xp professional. Steps are being taken!! Meanwhile, I
> am going to purchase a legitimate copy of xp home. Will I
> have to uninstall the professional version first, and if
> so, can this be done without affecting all the other
> software installations I have on the hard drive


Sorry to tell you that you can not install Home over
Professional. That's considered a downgrade and is not supported.
You'll have to do a clean installation, which means you will lose
and have to redo any software installations you've already done.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

[Sharon F]

Giraffe49 wrote:
> I have foolishly ( and unwittingly) bought a pirate copy
> of xp professional. Steps are being taken!! Meanwhile, I
> am going to purchase a legitimate copy of xp home. Will I
> have to uninstall the professional version first, and if
> so, can this be done without affecting all the other
> software installations I have on the hard drive
>
> Thanks - the long one

If you want to keep the software and settings you have now, buy Pro instead.
In other words, install Pro over Pro. Pro is a superset of Home. The only
way to step down the ladder (a small step but a step none the less), is to
start over and reinstall everything from scratch.


--
Sharon F
Microsoft MVP, Windows - Shell/User

[Ron Martell]

"Giraffe49" > wrote:

>I have foolishly ( and unwittingly) bought a pirate copy
>of xp professional. Steps are being taken!! Meanwhile, I
>am going to purchase a legitimate copy of xp home. Will I
>have to uninstall the professional version first, and if
>so, can this be done without affecting all the other
>software installations I have on the hard drive
>
>Thanks - the long one

You will have to do a clean install of XP Pro, wiping out everything
on your hard drive including all of the installed applications etc.

One thing you could do beforehand is to run the Files And Settings
Transfer Wizard (in Accessories - System Tools) and save the output
file to another hard drive partition, a network drive or a backup
device.

Then when you have installed your XP Home you can run FASTW again to
import the saved information. Application programs will have to be
reinstalled but having the data files etc. saved makes the procedure
much less painful.

MVP Gary Woodruff has written an article on using FASTW which you will
find at http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/fast.htm

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

The only way to change from WinXP Pro to WinXP Home is to format
the drive and start over. There is no supported downgrade path or
technique.

Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the
order of boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

Of course, you'll want to back up any important data before
starting.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


"Giraffe49" > wrote in message
...
> I have foolishly ( and unwittingly) bought a pirate copy
> of xp professional. Steps are being taken!! Meanwhile, I
> am going to purchase a legitimate copy of xp home. Will I
> have to uninstall the professional version first, and if
> so, can this be done without affecting all the other
> software installations I have on the hard drive
>
> Thanks - the long one