A couple of things to throw in here, part depends on you laptop drive, if it uses a standard sata connection then it can 'probably' go into the desktop - many laptops use plugin drives that plug into a slot and don't have a standard SATA connector, others use a film like connection. Also, can depend on your OS, if it's say Win7 (preferably fully updated) and has a SATA connector chances aren't bad, you fire it up and give it some time, Win will hopefully start, then look at your hardware on the desktop and try to load appropriate or generic drivers for the CPU/mobo/components/etc (so have your drivers disk(s) avaialble, it may ask for them. Will also have to re-authenticate your copy of Windows (hope it's a version not tied to the mobo, if it is, will have to call in and try)