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    Have licensed key for WinXP Pro but want Home Edition

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by wdro, Jan 26, 2009.

  1. wdro

    wdro Notebook Evangelist

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    Is it possible to use the computer's WinXP Pro product key to activate WinXP home edition? It's a long story but Home edition is the only thing available to me now. Thanks :)
     
    wdro, Jan 26, 2009
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  2. Hep!

    Hep! sees beauty in everything

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    Nope, not possible. Sorry.
     
    Hep!, Jan 26, 2009
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  3. gengerald

    gengerald Technofile Extraordinaire

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    I am almost positive that this can not be done. Is this a matter of installation files (CD) or do you prefer a simplistic feature of home? If it came with your computer, than you should be able to get a restore/reinstall disc from the manufacturer. If you purchased it yourself, then MS may assist you with an installation disk. These of course are the legal avenues, but are the limit to the discussion here.
     
    gengerald, Jan 26, 2009
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  4. wdro

    wdro Notebook Evangelist

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    My uncle's old p4 2.6 ghz 256 mb ram is running so slow with winxp pro. My cousin's p4 1.5 ghz 256 mb ram computer runs so much faster with winxp home. My uncle got the computer from a company who were throwing away their computers. the company erased everything in the computer and from my understanding there's only a fresh copy of winxp pro left in the machine. I know the ram is too low but it doesn't make sense that the 1.5 ghz computer runs so much faster.
     
    wdro, Jan 26, 2009
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  5. Alex

    Alex Super Moderator

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    I have found that home and pro run equal in speed and resources


    Alex
     
    Alex, Jan 26, 2009
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  6. skuban

    skuban Notebook Enthusiast

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    Go spend $20 on RAM.

    Problem solved.
     
    skuban, Jan 26, 2009
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  7. gengerald

    gengerald Technofile Extraordinaire

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    Sounds like a driver or setting problem. The difference between Home and Pro is very minimal, as it is changes in mainly the features and not core coding. Check the pagefile, drivers, performance settings, fragmentation, etc. A $20 RAM upgrade will make a huge difference. Going from 256MB to 1.25GB is huge.
     
    gengerald, Jan 26, 2009
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  8. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Well, I generally found clean instals to eat more resources than the factory restore on the old Medion, and XP pro eating RAM in comparison to XP home, but anyway.

    The processor can do little idling - so a RAM upgrade is worth it, although, the more RAM you have, the more the computer seems to use idling...
     
    DetlevCM, Jan 27, 2009
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  9. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    Agreed, windows xp (any flavor) with sp2 or sp3 requires a bare minimum of 384mb of memory to be tolerable, and 512mb to be acceptable

    It may be your uncle has an integrated video card that is taking even more memory (shared memory) from your available pool, and your cousin has a dedicated gpu so he has total access to the entire 256mb of ram, but in both cases you would notice a significant boost in performance by adding more ram
     
    gerryf19, Jan 27, 2009
    #9