Installing Windows 7, wrong brand discs

[JohnF]

I have discs for Windows 7 professional. My son found them in a bin. My HP mini has windows 7 starter, but these Professional are for a Lenovo computer.

So as I am thinking of installing these to get windows 7 professional on my HP Mini, will I have any problems, or loss of preformance, etc., if I do this.

[shorty943]

You could try, but, going by past experience I had with branded disks for XP, I doubt they will like your HP machine, more likely will refuse to install.

[abaddonxi]

It used to be that the model specific disks were packaged with drivers and system specific software.

You could either save all your drivers - there are programs that will do this - and then reinstall them.

You could make a custom install disk with the OS from the disk and your drivers - there is software that does this.

You could borrow a copy of the OS from a friend and use the serial number that came with the disk.

[Ferret]

Frankly, I not sure what you would gain by doing this with hardware like an HP Mini.

Check the comparison table and ask yourself what, if anything, you really need from Win Professional that you don't already have - you might be really be no better off.

Win 7 Comparison (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/compare?T1=tab02)

[shorty943]

Only real diference is the better domain networking I think, more in line with Win server OS for corporate networking. Other than that, it's Win7.

[Steve-O]

Shorty943 is right, professional will allow you to join a domain (a network with a server that all other networked computers and associated domain user accounts can connect to). If you're a home user there will be no added value in it :-(

[JohnF]

thanks guys.