Windows XP Pro upgrade

[azmetals]

I have a copy of Win98 that I upgraded to XP Home on my old pc. If I buy XP Pro upgrade can I use the same Win98 disk or will MS know the difference? If I can it'll save a few bucks.

 

[rmrf]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/upgrading/matrix.mspx

btw, what you are doing is called piracy. not well looked upon at this forum. just buy the oem w/key at newegg for $139.95

 

[programmer]

rmrf -- can you explain how this is piracy?

I'd just like to know because on the surface it sounds ok to me. He says he has a [ presumably legally licensed ] copy of Win98 and is asking if he can use that to upgrade to a [ legally purchased ] copy of winxp pro. According to the link you provided, yes he can use the win98 disk to upgrade to win xp pro.

[edit] perhaps the original question is more specifically stated as "when I activate my win xp pro upgrade, will it matter to MS that I used the same win98 disk as when I activated my win xp home upgrade?" -- don't know that answer, but I don't think MS would care. I think the upgrade simply says you must have a legal copy of a previous OS, not that you have to have a unique copy of a previous OS.

 

[Smilin]

I'll explain.

You can use the 98 to upgrade to Home OR you can use it to upgrade to pro.
You can do one after the other if you would like too.

If at the end of the day you have only Home OR Pro installed you are fine.

If at the end of the day you have Home AND Pro installed, you'll need two copies of 98 to upgrade off of to stay legal.


Keep in mind that upgrading a SINGLE machine to Home then putting pro on over the top of it does not count as "home and pro". It's just Pro.

***If you have only a single PC then there is not a scenario here that will get you in trouble.

If you have two PCs, you'll need two 98s if you want to end up with pro on one and home on the other

 

[RebateMonger]

^^^^^
These guys are correctly describing Microsoft's licensing rules.