Installing XP Professional - Downgrade rights

Voltjunkie · 19 Oct 2010 at 20:53

We have recently been donated three laptops at work with no copies of Windows installed. I was previously aware that Windows XP Professional licences were now unavailable so read into downgrade rights.

We have since bought three copies of Windows 7 Professional in order to use the downgrade rights to install XP Professional.

How does one go about installing XP Professional in such a situation? I have an OEM XP Professional disc from one of our other PCs however it is now asking for the licence key during installation and as expected the Windows 7 keys do not work.

Any help would be much appreciated.

SiriusB · 19 Oct 2010 at 23:25

I don't know the ins and outs of this, but a Windows XP Retail disc is more likely to work than OEM I think. Not sure!

Why do you want to downgrade them all to XP?

Voltjunkie · 19 Oct 2010 at 23:39

We're looking to install XP simply because that is what the users are familiar with and knowing the spec of the laptops it's probably wiser than running Windows 7.

SiriusB · 19 Oct 2010 at 23:41

Windows 7 has been designed to run very well on lower-spec hardware as you might find in laptops. Obviously if they're really crappy then XP is the way to go. To give you an idea, my brother's PC is an old AMD Athlon 64 3700 with 1GB RAM and W7 runs just fine.

Burnsy2023 · 20 Oct 2010 at 08:07

Windows Vista/7 keys will not work with XP. It's your responsibility to source media and product keys.

Voltjunkie · 20 Oct 2010 at 11:48

Burnsy2023 said:
Windows Vista/7 keys will not work with XP. It's your responsibility to source media and product keys.

I'd gathered that much but was asking where it expects a product key from? Is it a case of using a product key from one of our other XP workstations to get through the installation then activate on the phone with the Windows 7 key claiming downgrade rights?

Burnsy2023 · 20 Oct 2010 at 11:50

Voltjunkie said:
I'd gathered that much but was asking where it expects a product key from? Is it a case of using a product key from one of our other XP workstations to get through the installation then activate on the phone with the Windows 7 key claiming downgrade rights?

That's what I would do.

SiriusB · 20 Oct 2010 at 11:52

You can usually skip entering the Product Key altogether - it will moan but should let you. At least on Vista and 7 this works. Haven't installed XP for a while so cannae remember!