Replacing Win XP by itself

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Jun 14th, 2003, 06:31 AM
dcronje

Replacing Win XP by itself

I bought a PC from somebody who admiited that the Win XP Pro on it is illegal. (It runs with a patch which makes registering unnecessary, I think). I got hold of a new (legal) copy of Win XP Pro, but before I install it over the existing version, I want to make sure if I will then have to reinstall my other software like Office, Visual Studio, Internet connection, graphics card software, etc? With the older versions of Windows (e.g. when I replaced Windows ME with Windows ME), this was not necessary.
Jun 14th, 2003, 06:58 AM
parksie

It was not necessary because reinstalling the 9x series over the top didn't do a full reinstall.

I would recommend doing a fresh install into a different directory, and reinstalling all your programs. It's the only real way to get a stable system out of it.
Jun 14th, 2003, 10:22 AM
siyan

From a legal standpoint, you may indeed be able to just change the cd key and reauthorize.
Jun 14th, 2003, 02:53 PM
dcronje

I took a chance and reinstalled the new Windows. Fortunately almost all my programs still work as it did before.
Except for my screen saver which says: "Could not find any compatible Direct3D devices". (???)
Jun 14th, 2003, 04:13 PM
siyan

Quote:

Originally posted by dcronje
I took a chance and reinstalled the new Windows. Fortunately almost all my programs still work as it did before.
Except for my screen saver which says: "Could not find any compatible Direct3D devices". (???)

Did you install proper video drivers?
Jun 16th, 2003, 02:15 PM
dcronje

Thanks, I didn't think of that, since the colors looked quite OK after reinstalling Win XP. With older versions of Windows one could immediately recognise the 16 colors.