Computer help please!!!

[Tru2Blu]

Story line, My mom bought a new computer that came with vista, and also a cd to intall vista, so i decided to upgrade her other computer with vista. Worked fine for like a month.

Problem. Now I cant get to my desk top, and there is a message saying this version of windows may not be genuine. Im trying to go back to windows xp. Can anyone help me do this?

[05GT]

Well, the reason you are getting it's not Genuine is most likely because you used a disk that came with her new PC. They are meant only for OEM PC's and usually they look for those license keys.

As far as going back to XP, that's fairly simple. Just boot to a XP cd, and tell it to delete the partition, and then just recreate the partition and install XP. Optionally, you don't have to delete the partition, you could just format it.

Anyway, you need anymore help let me know. Alternatively, there are ways to get around the issue of not having a genuine copy.......

[lagos]

when you install vista or XP, you need to activate them. vista gives you a grace period of 30days before it needs to be activated, while XP asks for the activation right away.
you can only activate one computer with the activation key. so if your mom already has vista running and activated on her computer, you cant activate it on yours. the same thing applies to XP.

[Intercooled T]

If your mom's PC came with a Vista DVD, its only meant to be installed on the PC it came with. Vista/XP both have 30-day trials that will expire if not activated within that time period.

[05GT]

His problem is all taken care of now.

Intercooled is correctamundo...Vista and XP both have the 30 day grace period. Not just Vista. That wasn't his only issue though. He's good now.