If you purchased a retail license and copy of XP (if it came in a pretty retail box 
from the store or mail order), it is licensed to you, and you can install it on as 
many computers as you want, AS LONG AS it's installed on only one computer at a time.

If you plan to keep the license (the Certificate of Authenticity that was pasted 
to the retail box) and the CD key (which was printed on the inside disc carrier), 
and the CD itself, then you should format the computer you are selling, thereby removing 
your copy of XP from the computer.  You are doing this to protect your CD key---which 
can be retrieved very easily from an installed copy of XP.

Presumably your new laptop came with XP Preinstalled, and came with some sort of 
Recovery or Reinstallation CD.

Only a tiny percentage of laptops are shipped by manufacturers without an operating 
system, and its likely that your old laptop had an older version of Windows preinstalled 
on it.  Look on the bottom for the Certificate of Authenticity...that's the version 
of Windows licensed to that computer itself, and that's the version you should install 
and sell the computer with, rather than your personal copy of XP you bought at retail. 
 If you don't have the recovery or OS CDs that came with the computer, check the 
manufacturer's website (or check E-Bay) to see if they can be ordered....if they 
are available, they are usually priced at less than $20-25.

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