Windows XP upgrade refuses to activate

[CalculatinGenius]

is anyone familiar with upgrading windows XP home/MC to XP pro? while upgrading i noticed that literally no product key entered would work. ive activated multiple copies of XP with one key, but this is not the case here.

 

for context, the computer originally had windows xp Media Center edition on it. I heard that you can upgrade a home copy to a pro copy with the pro cd. i tried that and while the operating system installs, it seems as if no product key i have will work! none i've found online either.

 

id prefer to keep the files and programs on the drive and not reformat it if possible. I would really like to just get to the desktop and use windows xp. 

[TheDelphiDude]

Are you using an upgrade product key, or a regular, ie, full version product key for XP Pro? I'm pretty sure you need an upgrade key for this to work.

[Guest]

Does the activation even still work ?

[GoodBytes]

14 hours ago, CalculatinGenius said:

is anyone familiar with upgrading windows XP home/MC to XP pro? while upgrading i noticed that literally no product key entered would work. ive activated multiple copies of XP with one key, but this is not the case here.

Sorry, but Windows license agreement clearly states that 1 product key is for per computer. Unless you have a a valid volume license plan with Microsoft, it is considered piracy. It is against forum community standard to talk about how to piracy of any software, Windows included.

 

Quote

for context, the computer originally had windows xp Media Center edition on it. I heard that you can upgrade a home copy to a pro copy with the pro cd. i tried that and while the operating system installs, it seems as if no product key i have will work! none i've found online either.

You need to purchase an upgrade license key. You will lose Media Center once you upgrade to Pro edition. Do you really need the Pro edition?

[TheDelphiDude]

14 hours ago, NeuesTestament said:

Does the activation even still work ?

Yes. Although internet activation requires you to temporarily disable the check for server side certificate revokation as it'll otherwise prevent you from connecting to Microsoft's activation servers.

[CalculatinGenius]

18 hours ago, TheDelphiDude said:

Are you using an upgrade product key, or a regular, ie, full version product key for XP Pro? I'm pretty sure you need an upgrade key for this to work.

i have not found much information online concerning upgrade keys. in fact, i only found one tutorial on how to upgrade from home to pro. it seems like not many people take the time to do it

where can i get an upgrade key? i cant find where to get/buy one anywhere

12 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Sorry, but Windows license agreement clearly states that 1 product key is for per computer. Unless you have a a valid volume license plan with Microsoft, it is considered piracy. It is against forum community standard to talk about how to piracy of any software, Windows included.

 

You need to purchase an upgrade license key. You will lose Media Center once you upgrade to Pro edition. Do you really need the Pro edition?

i have multiple authentic keys at home with me. i dont know why one key would work on multiple computers anyways. sorry about that. 

also concerning the upgrade itself, it seems as if i cant "cancel" it per se, i dont really need pro i suppose, but if i could get it, i might as well. right now my main priority is just getting to windows.

[demonix00]

Windows XP MCE is just XP Pro with all the media extensions (as XP MCE comes on two discs with one being the Pro install and the other having the extra bells and whistles for the media centre stuff and only letting the first disc finish and not continue with what is on the second disc gives you a full pro install) from what I've read.

[CalculatinGenius]

1 minute ago, demonix00 said:

Windows XP MCE is just XP Pro with all the media extensions (as XP MCE comes on two discs with one being the Pro install and the other having the extra bells and whistles for the media centre stuff and only letting the first disc finish and not continue with what is on the second disc gives you a full pro install) from what I've read.

yeah, but media center was preinstalled on this computer, ive never installed media center myself

[TheDelphiDude]

19 hours ago, CalculatinGenius said:

where can i get an upgrade key?

Your guess is as good as mine. Support for XP ended 5+ years ago, and it stopped being for sale well before then.

So unless you find something on eBay and the likes I fear you're out of luck.