[esksfan]

I read through the pinned topic, but couldn't find anything pertaining to the topic I've posted.

I have a friend who's PC I wish to do a Windows XP repair. He has an OEM Version and I was able to gather the activation info using the traditional methods. Can I repair his XP Home OEM installation using my legal XP Home Upgrade disk? He doesn't have a copy of the OEM disk when he had the PC built a couple of years ago?

Thanks

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Yes, you can perform a repair using an XP disc that wasn't supplied with that PC -- but only if your version of XP is the same as the version you want to repair (whether or not it's an upgrade CD doesn't matter though). So, it's the version that's the critical factor here:
If both are XP Home, that's okay.
But if your XP CD includes SP2 (all recent copies did), and the PC you want to repair doesn't have SP2 (or vice versa), that may also be no-no but I do stress MAY -- I don't know.

However, since what you propose to try is all perfectly legal, just give it a go and see if your CD is accepted.

[pip22]

Yes, you can perform a repair using an XP disc that wasn't supplied with that PC -- but only if your version of XP is the same as the version you want to repair (whether or not it's an upgrade CD doesn't matter though). So, it's the version that's the critical factor here:
If both are XP Home, that's okay.
But if your XP CD includes SP2 (all recent copies did), and the PC you want to repair doesn't have SP2 (or vice versa), that may also be no-no but I do stress MAY -- I don't know.

However, since what you propose to try is all perfectly legal, just give it a go and see if your CD is accepted.

[Neil Jones]

You can repair an OEM installation with a Retail CD, but the Retail CD won't accept the OEM licence key. Likewise you can repair a Retail installation with an OEM CD but that won't accept a Retail key.