Have to re-install XP - what about apps?

[mhl]

eddds40

With a mobo based on an nVidia chipset, you will find under Add/Remove Programs an entry for "nVidia drivers". When you click on Remove, it offers a full list of the drivers it has installed and you can uninstall either completely or selectively. Other chipsets may differ of course.

[stevejr]

You didn't have to re-register with M$ or anything like that? This seems like an easy way to change boards, as long as both are nvidia chipsets, and not have to go thru the re-format/re-register process. I had never heard of this procedure ...it almost sounds too easy.

[mhl]

You didn't have to re-register with M$ or anything like that? This seems like an easy way to change boards, as long as both are nvidia chipsets, and not have to go thru the re-format/re-register process. I had never heard of this procedure ...it almost sounds too easy.

stevejr

You raise two points here. Let's take the one about nVidia chipsets first. I'm not sure that both old and new boards have to be nVidia-based: I have now undertaken this upgrade from Gigabyte/nVidia to Gigabyte/nvidia and to Asus/Intel.

The second point concerns product re-activation. In the normal course of events, I would expect that changing a mobo would cause XP to require a re-activation key from M$. In fact, in my case, this has not happened Indeed, my original XP installation never required product activation either - I think this must be because I arrived at XP Pro via an upgrade from Win2K (using a genuine M$ upgrade): when I finished this upgrade I was never prompted for product activation. Now, if I wanted to get the regular critical and security updates from the M$ web site, I would need Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) and this in turn would require that I get product activation. But, since I don't want M$ spying on me with WGA, I get my updates from WindizUpdate instead. But normally you can expect to be require to re-activate XP if you change a mobo.