Installing Windows 2000 Pro over an XP OS

is this advisable or will I have the M$ police after me.

[subway]

I have found a really good deal for a notebook, that I desperately need, the big catch being that it comes with XP Home installed. When I asked the 16 year old part time customer care guy at the suppliers whether or not I could install 2000 professional over it he replied:

"Uuurrmmmmm, I think Arrrrrrrr, Why would you want to do that?"

Could any of you techno gurus out the answer the question any better?
Is it safe, possible, advisable, easy, hard, all of the above?

Thanks.

[The Contractor]

Go to the manufacturers site and see if W2K drivers are available for the particular model. If they are download them and have them handy. I would format the disk and boot from the W2K CD myself as I don't think you will have any luck trying to install over it. In the beginning of the install process, when you see Press F6 for SCSI drivers, etc, hit F5 instead. USE THE ARROW KEYS to scroll up to ACPI machine. Not the uniprocessor choice. The one that spells out ACPI hardware in words. This forces an ACPI install. You cannot hesitate too long when you get the F6 prompt, or it will just run on automatically, so watch for this near the beginning of the installation.

[subway]

OK, thanks.

[The Contractor]

If there are not W2K drivers don't attempt it ;)

[subway]

It's just that I have a friend that has a friend and his sisters boyfriends cousins uncle gave him a copy of a well known application which he said I could borrow. The only problem is will that work on an XP OS or will it call into M$ and have them send a lazer beem down my adsl line and destroy my machine?

I heard that XP lets M$ know what you're up to all the time.

[ScottM]

I heard that XP lets M$ know what you're up to all the time.

How come I never received a 'get well soon' card from them when my computer crashes, then?

[sun818]

Microsoft knows exactly how many times Office or Windows has been installed. Try it, call support on a pirated serial number. The distinction with XP (Windows or Office) is that they are doing something about it now. Installing MS software won't "destroy" your machine, but also asking for pirating advice in a public forum is not advisable. You never know who will be made an example of.

[Mardi_Gras]

Pirating issues aside (and I do agree with sun818 on that issue), changing the OS on a notebook is not the same as on a desktop. Notebooks usually require a little more customization to run properly. Leave the OS alone and buy any productivity software you need.

[electro]

XP is better than 2000 anyway.

There is a small freeware app called XP AntiSpy that will shut off/up most of the windows 'features'.

No matter what OS you use, it will be the app that needs to call MS and be registered/unlocked. This is your problem, not the OS.

If it is MS Office, just use OpenOffice.org instead, its free, works great, and is fully compatable with microsoft stuff - [openoffice.org...]

[sun818]

Then why is that on cracked copies of Windows XP, service pack 1 can't be applied?

[subway]

I wasn't insinuating that I was not prepared to pay for office XP, simply that it doesn't stop at Office and I have a huge amount of software on my current machine that I will have to replace all because of a new M$ OS. Is it really worth the hassle? I work on my own, I don't have an open ended budget to spend spend spend on all types of software.

I think I'll stick to 2000 for now.

[electro]

Hmmm, well, I don't understand. Do you not have the instalation discs with all your software? Or was your system one of those 'pre installed' things and the manufacturer didn't supply any of the instalation discs? I that case, you should contact the manufacturer and ask them to send you ALL of the software instalation discs that you PAYED FOR!

I must say I really don't understand how people can work with computers, but not have the instalation discs for their software... what happens if your computer hard disc breaks?

[electro]

sun818 - SP1 checks the registery for the serial number of the 'leaked' version(s) of XP, and refuses to install if you have them. Nothing to do with phoning home to Microsoft.

Windows XP wasn't 'cracked', a corporate version was leaked.