Urgent advice please guys

[BrynTeg]

My mate has a laptop with Windows xp media edition on it, he has knackered it up somehow and wants to do a fresh install, unfortunatly he cannot find his discs and has only a windows xp home disc, will the code thats undeer his computer work with the home edition cd, i dont think it will.

 

[AnthonyG]

No you cannot use a Media Centre Product Key on Windows Home CD.

But what you could do, as when you buy windows all you effectively buy is the Product key nothing more.

So you could download a Media Centre CD from many of the less than reputable places on the internet, but register it with your official product key.

The above is totally acceptable and above board to do.

Check the MD5 after download to make sure it is the genuine Media Centre edition though.

 

[potatouk]

No you cannot use a Media Centre Product Key on Windows Home CD.

But what you could do, as when you buy windows all you effectively buy is the Product key nothing more.

So you could download a Media Centre CD from many of the less than reputable places on the internet, but register it with your official product key.

The above is totally acceptable and above board to do.

Check the MD5 after download to make sure it is the genuine Media Centre edition though.

If you go down that route it may also be worth slipsteaming the latest service packs to save time updating when its installed, have a look for nlite which will do this.

Also I use ninite for a quick way of installing applications. Theres nothing worse than after a reinstall waiting for hours for it to up date then waiting even longer to get applications downloaded and installed.

 

[Stabilo8763525]

I certainly agree about using Ninite - excellent little utility and they are expanding the list of software all the time

 

[qysuccess]

no, sn is version specific.