Upgrading from pirated

[goofy1771]

I built my computer and my friend put a copy of windows xp pro on my computer. It has screwed up my computer and I want to put the real version on my comp. If I upgrade will I lose all of my files? What other problems will it cause for me? I want to upgrade my comp but my version of XP will not allow me to update any drivers and is causing a lot of problems. Thanks for any help.

[jayb1234]

You can use this to change the key to the one from your legal version of XP Pro.

You shouldn't have any problems getting updates after you change the key.

Note that you can only use the key on 1 machine at a time, so if you are already using that copy on another machine, you will have to uninstall it or get another one.

If the copy your friend installed is buggy, a repair install with the legal copy should correct that, and should not cause you to loose your files. See this for how to do a repair install

After the repair install you need to go to microsoft and get the updates and service packs. Make sure that you have a firewall running before you do.