cleethorpes101

I purchased my computer direct from a manufacturer, it came with the instruction that it did not include a recovery or Windows disk but had been loaded with a new system recovery procedure, pressing F10 when the system boots leads to the option of a destructive or non destructive choice, but as they have now gone out of buiseness I took it for repair to a local shop. They fitted a new motherboard & installed a pirate copy of Windows XP Pro. Can I upgrade from my present state to Vista without first paying for a Gen Windows validation ?

thanks for your help, I have now installed Firefox & this has got round the problem

I have NTL cable connected by a modem ethernet connection, I just get a blank white screen with the address bar across the top, the egg timer symbol appears & stays on, I have done scans with AVG Ad Aware Spybot search & destroy Registry Mechanic Xoftspy they all came up OK

No matter wich homepage I set i cannot access the internet via internet Explorer, the homepage address is given at the bottom of the screen (NTL) but it fails to connect to NTL & I cannot connect via 'My Favorites' I can recieve NTL mail & connect via MSN any help to a newbie would be greatly appriciated this problem started a few days ago. Many Thanks