[chickmazta]

Hello to all good people! I need help from you guys. I recently purchased a laptop with a windows vista home premium OS. But sadly I am not satisfied with Vista Home Premium (sorry for those people who are concern just had a hard time dealing with questions) So I bought an Xp Professional SP2 CD. The question is Can I preserve my Vista licensed activation? This is just to keep it so that if I decided to use Vista I would be easy to load it again. Im not pointing anything illegal here, just asking if its possible to just stop my Vista. It's still be loaded in the same machine. I'll use my XP for now instead. Can anyone help me. TNx in advance.

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If Vista came with the laptop, and you have a reinstallation CD from the manufacturer, you will be able to reinstall Vista on that laptop. You can just install XP, and reinstall Vista if you need to. The reinstallation CD for Vista will not require a key as long as it is used in the laptop on which it was bought.

[The Admiral]

If Vista came with the laptop, and you have a reinstallation CD from the manufacturer, you will be able to reinstall Vista on that laptop. You can just install XP, and reinstall Vista if you need to. The reinstallation CD for Vista will not require a key as long as it is used in the laptop on which it was bought.

[chickmazta]

Thanks for the reply Admiral, What do you mean by reinstallation cd? I only have the Installation cd and I also have a cd labeled recovery disc, what is that for? So if I used that reinstallation cd, I can reformat my laptop and install XP on it without messing with my vista activation? I hope it works. I'll try it out. Thanks for the help.

[Neil Jones]

The recovery CD will wipe the machine to put back whatever the machine came with originally.
Typically branded systems will use what's called a Volume Licence Key which is basically Vista pre-activated. You wouldn't need to activate it online or anywhere, however the VLK would be deactivated if you change enough of the hardware, forcing you to use the one stuck to the case of the machine.

[chickmazta]

So if I used the recovery cd, everything in my laptop is removed? even my programs and softwares? And how would I know if my Vista is a pre-activate one? sorry for all of these questions hope you guys don't get frustrated of me ^_^

[Neil Jones]

Most if not all recovery CDs hold a pre-activated copy of Windows. They're tied to a unique system.
Microsoft did provide an option for manufacturers to have a normal activation but I dare say having a pre-activated situation cuts down on support calls especially where no internet connection was ever going to be available.

[chickmazta]

Well thanks for all the help!!! I really appreciate it ^_^ I did try the installation cd, I formatted my laptop and used a 30 day trial of windows xp pro 1st, then I reinstalled my Vista and its still activated!!! Thank god and still there. Now Im using my newly purchased XP Pro. SP2 and upgrading to sp3. Tnx again ciao^^