Will Emachines XP home cd key work....

[Booshanky]

The title should be pretty explanitory.

My girlfriend has an emachines PC with xp home on it, but it's completely messed up and I told her I'd just reinstall her OS for her. Only problem is she cant find her recovery CD.

I've got a copy of XP home I can get from a friend, and her cd key is legit. Will that CD key work with a regular retail version of XP home or will I have all kinds of trouble when I do the install?

Thanks.

 

[firewall]

No. The OS on the rig will be an OEM version while the one on the other PC would be a retail one. Unless you have the same versions, don't try it.

 

[firewall]

It will cause CD key/serial no. issues and later on activation issues if you go along with it. Best search for the OEM recovery disc.

 

[Booshanky]

So lets say that I found another OEM version, would that work out?

 

[skyking]

yes, that works.

 

[firewall]

It should work fine though any optimizations by eMachines for that particular OS won't be installed/applied if there are any.

 

[scottws]

Originally posted by: asadasif
It should work fine though any optimizations by eMachines for that particular OS won't be installed/applied if there are any.

If by "optimaztions" you mean on-desktop advertisements for a variety of other products and services and various pre-installed, bloated, mostly useless software, then you are correct. 😛

 

[firewall]

Originally posted by: scottws

Originally posted by: asadasif
It should work fine though any optimizations by eMachines for that particular OS won't be installed/applied if there are any.

If by "optimaztions" you mean on-desktop advertisements for a variety of other products and services and various pre-installed, bloated, mostly useless software, then you are correct. 😛

The OEMs call it optimizations so I used that word. I would much prefer bloatware.

 

[cubby1223]

I would think a retail oem copy (i.e. oem but not Dell, e-Machines, HP, etc.) will reject the e-machines key. But there's only one way to find out.

On the other hand, if you can ghost a copy to another hard drive, you can start playing around cleaning up the machine. Clean up the spyware & trojans, then running a repair install from the XP cd you currently have. Should work out great. And if not, you've got the ghost image to put back in. No harm, no foul.

 

[oynaz]

Alternatively, download a copy from a file sharing service. This would be legal in most European countries, and I guess in USA as well.