[diggeryo]

I just bought a laptop that had XP Home preinstalled with a bunch of other crap programs. When I try to uninstall these "crap programs," I constantly get error messages. Unfortunately, as is the norm nowadays, I did not get an XP Home CD, but rather a "all-in-one recovery CD" that will also reinstall all the crap programs if I used it.

My question is...Can I use a normal legit XP Home CD to reinstall, and then use the product key that came with my computer? Would I still be able to update Windows, etc.? I just want to get a normal XP installation without all this other software in there.

thanks for any advice,
mike.

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There is no problem with that as long as you have a valid product key there is no restriction on what CD you use to install it.

[warriorscot]

There is no problem with that as long as you have a valid product key there is no restriction on what CD you use to install it.

[Retired Tech]

Just to add that some PC's list the product code with OEM in, which won't let you install, check you have a 25 digit alpha numerical product key

[diggeryo]

sweet...that's exactly the answer I was looking for. Thanks for the advice!