HP 15-ay053nr Laptop, install and use with windows 8 pro oem (never used) instead of Windows 10

[clevhpuser]

Before buying - to use some existing programs need to know if I can install Windows 8 Pro OEM (never opened) so I can run in WINDOWS XP MODE and replace Windows 10 of HP 15-ay053nr Laptop, 15.6" Touchscreen, Intel® Core™ i5, 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive, Windows® 10

[Huffer]

As I understand, true Microsoft XP Mode as downloaded direct from Microsoft is only supported on Windows 7 Professional, not Windows 8. On Windows 10 you can run Windows XP as a virtual machine using a variety of different platforms. I use Oracle Virtualbox, for example to run Linux under Windows 10 and could easily do Windows XP. So Windows 8 does not do you much good. Maybe somebody else has some ideas?

[clevhpuser]

Does the Windows 10 have to be the PRO version to also run XP

[Huffer]

No you can use Virtualbox on the Home version. You will need a copy of Windows XP. I have seen some posts that explain how you can download the XP mode files from Microsoft and use them in Virtualbox. 

It does require that you recreate the virtual machine every 30 days:

http://www.download3k.com/articles/How-to-add-an-XP-Mode-Virtual-Machine-to-Windows-10-or-8-using-Hy...

The above shows how to do it in Hyper-V which is another virtual machine app. 

Virtualbox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgOugfLxEdU

If you have a copy of Windows XP with a Key Code you can use that disk with Virtualbox. There is a lot of help on the Virtualbox website and it is very easy to install and configure. I understand that the Microsoft XP Mode implementation is just a variation of software like Virtualbox. 

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