need help... computer crashed and now i have to reinstall everything, i dont have my product key for xp any more can anyone help me where can i go to find one?
If you don't have your cd key that's kind of tough, you can find some on the internet from certain less than legal websites, but they won't allow you to use windows update.
you could get in touch with microsoft (or the vendor of your Computer i.e (HP, Dell whatnot) and get a replacement key(disk).
If you have a legal copy of windows then Microsoft will give you a product key. If you decide to go with the not so legal ways then windows update WILL work, but you wont be able to install WMP11 without some fiddling around.
well i found my product key but this da*m computer is a new computer and it had vista which i cant stand so i decided to put xp on it, so i got xp to install but the drivers for it doesnt work, its a toshiba satellite.... anyone have any answers for that?? thanks guys for all the help
Well, there's a bit of a problem there. You just have to hope the same model was produced with xp some time ago, otherwise there won't be any drivers for xp. Try the toshiba website. If no luck, we'll have to identify all the components it uses.
how would i go about locating the drivers that i need... cause im not sure if this system does support xp... (not sure why it wouldnt)
Go to the Toshiba website downloads section and find your model. The reason why there may not be XP drivers is because a lot of computers use hardware that was only used in that model of computer, odd OEM brand stuff, consequently, if that hardware was only ever used on computers that carried Vista, there'd be no point making an XP driver as hardly anyone would use it.
Yeah, they don't want you to use XP. If they wont make drivers for it, it will keep people from switching back to XP, and they will have a larger user base for Vista.
If your computer is new enough that there are no XP drivers available, then it's very likely to be returnable. Vista's only been out for 8 months now. Hopefully your machine is within return and/or warranty period. Failing that, try to find out the motherboard maker, who is likely to have the chipset, CPU, BIOS, LAN and audio drivers, and perhaps the video drivers as well (if your mobo has integrated video). Even finding the chipset maker (if the mobo maker doesn't support XP for that board) might be enough although you'll also have to track down the support sites of each component like the LAN chip maker, the audio manufacturer, etc. A lot of pre-built system manufacturers simply don't offer XP drivers even though they may exist. But, if at all possible, return your system, spend an extra $99, and get a Dell with XPSP2 preinstalled.
