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Revoting previous upgrade to upgrade to Windows 7

Last response: in Windows 7
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Hi all,
I have searched through the internet but could not find an answer to my question. I hope you can help.

What I have is the following:

I have a pc with Windows XP pro 32bit retail version. First I have made an image, just in case. Then I have upgraded it to windows 8, 64bit by using the retail upgrade DVD and clean install.
However, I found out that my motherboard is so old (5 years old) that there are no drivers for win8 and after asking ASUS they said that the motherboard is not supported any more and that there will be no new drivers for it. I tried using win7 drivers but it did not work and without correct drivers a lot of things does not work (in particularly hdmi port).

What I want to do now is to revert to my image (windows xp), buy a Windows 7, 64bit upgrade retail DVD and upgrade windows xp to windows 7 for which there are drivers for my motherboard.

My questions are:
1) Can I use windows xp retail (whose product key has already been used to upgrade to win8) image to upgrade to windows 7 retail? will the activation of windows 7 succeed? I want to use clean install again since i upgrade from 32bit to 64bit

2) If the answer to question 1 is a yes, how does microsoft prevent users from using the same windows image file to upgrade different pc's? I mean, theoretically, I can make an image of pc1, copy it to a hard drive of pc2 (even if it will result in erroneous installation due to different specs) and upgrade both systems by using two VUP product keys which are cheaper than one VUP + one retail product keys

3) Can I use windows 8 upgrade DVD which is not used any more to upgrade another PC?

Thanks in advance

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Windows 7 Authority
Driver Expert

First, you can't upgrade from any version of 32-bit Windows to 64-bit Windows. That requires a clean install.

Yes, you can use your original XP product key to install XP back on the system.

Your second question is one of activation, and that is how MS keeps keys from getting re-used improperly.
Windows 7 Expert

3) Yes You can reuse the windows 8 disk on another system - ONLY stipulation is that it can ONLY be installed on one machine. So if Un-installed on machine 1 then can be used on machine #2.
1) You DO NOT have to re-install the win XP before using the Upgrade Windows 7 Installation Disk!!.
.. Just pop Upgrade disk in and select CUSTOM Install - DO NOT enter key when prompted. Follow Instruction from:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/how_use_your_wi...

Thanks for your answers.

Eventhough my first question has not been fully answered, I will buy the upgrade DVD of win7 and will try installing it with clean install above the WinXP version.

Fingers crossed since i am still unsure this will work since the same WinXP installation has been previously used to upgrade to Win8 and then revoked.
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