Fixing XP home or killing it

[Harold]

I have windows Xp home version on my main system now, with some
problems with pages downloading graphic and being able to see them.
And have installed all updates for same, to no help.
My question is just bought a new laptop and have all the disc for it
and it came with windows XP pro and the card with disc says it is good for
two
systems. Can I install it over XP home and maybe straighten things out.
Would like to do something to fix my problem without losing everything
I have saved on my harddrive.
windows 98 and the other operating systems would let you reinstall them,
but good old XP does not want to without re-formatting every thing, as
far as I can see

Harold

[Bob Knowlden]

I imagine that the XP Pro version that came with the laptop supports two
CPUs. This doesn't mean that it can be installed on two PCs, but rather
that it can support both processors on a dual CPU system. (XP Home does
not support two physical CPUs.)

If your "main system" is sufficiently messed up, you might consider a
repair installation of XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

"How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Re-installation) of Windows XP"

(In short: change the BIOS setup to boot from the CD drive first. Boot
from the XP CD. Choose to install, rather than going to the repair
console. Under install, choose to repair the existing version rather
than installing a new one.)

This ought to preserve most files and settings, although you'll lose
everything installed through Windows Update. (Like installing older
versions of Windows over themselves, it's sufficiently drastic that
doing a backup would be a good idea.)

HTH.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be altered to avoid spam. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

Harold wrote:
> I have windows Xp home version on my main system now, with some
> problems with pages downloading graphic and being able to see them.
> And have installed all updates for same, to no help.
> My question is just bought a new laptop and have all the disc for it
> and it came with windows XP pro and the card with disc says it is good for
> two
> systems. Can I install it over XP home and maybe straighten things out.
> Would like to do something to fix my problem without losing everything
> I have saved on my harddrive.
> windows 98 and the other operating systems would let you reinstall them,
> but good old XP does not want to without re-formatting every thing, as
> far as I can see
>
> Harold
>
>
>

[Lorne Smith]

"Harold" > wrote in message
...
>
> I have windows Xp home version on my main system now, with some
> problems with pages downloading graphic and being able to see them.
> And have installed all updates for same, to no help.
> My question is just bought a new laptop and have all the disc for it
> and it came with windows XP pro and the card with disc says it is good for
> two
> systems. Can I install it over XP home and maybe straighten things out.
> Would like to do something to fix my problem without losing everything
> I have saved on my harddrive.
> windows 98 and the other operating systems would let you reinstall them,
> but good old XP does not want to without re-formatting every thing, as
> far as I can see
>
> Harold
>
>
>

Read the card again, it's does NOT say it's good for 2 installations, it
says it's for 1-2 CPU's which is different. It means it's licensed to run
on ONE computer with a maximum of 2 CPU's installed in it. You cannot
install more than 1 copy of XP Pro at a time without breaking the terms of
the EULA, and the second copy won't activate. Also, there's a good chance
that the copy of XP Pro that came with your laptop is BIOS locked to that
laptop and cannot physically be installed elsewhere anyway...

Your XP Home disc should be capable of performing a repair installation.
Boot from the CD, take the option to install Windows (NOT the recovery
console) and it should then detect your existing installtion and give you
the option to repair this installation. Make sure you backup any important
file before you do this!

Lorne