Not posting a link until i have a good reply or two but…
If a person has an a install of xp but is missing the CD, I found several items of instructions out there to convert a copy of xp installed from another XP disk (say mine) and then edit the registry to convert it to their authenticaion code for activation purposes. I would only do this if they had an xp registration code already for fear of invoking the wrath of Bill & Co (since I do tech work).
I ask to conforim if a shop could do this to replace or repair a windows xp install without the customers disks on hand.
Upon re-reading your post, it seems like you’re talking about copying an entire Windows XP installation between computers, and modifying the registry to change whose activation code is stored in it (or something).
I don’t know if this is legal, but regardless it’s not good idea from a technical perspective. Windows doesn’t like being copied between computers running different hardware.
As long as you have any Windows XP cd available (which all repair shops will), you can extract your product key from your registration, do a normal install, and just enter it when prompted.
This is what I was asking for, i was misinformed that product keys were keyed to the copy of xp they came with. If that is not the case then I can easily fix the problem in question, thank you.
The registration keys may be tied to the release of XP (so if you try installing one bundled with SP1 with a product key supplied with a later disk, bundled with SP2, you might have problems - I know you do if you try a repair install using the wrong version, but that might be an entirely unrelated issue), but they are certainly tied to the version; try installing Pro with a Home key or vice versa and it’s no-go.
I was assuming that xp pro and home would be considered separate products for product key purposes but I appreciate the clarification since me saying win XP could mean one of several products. Hadn’t considered the SP issue, hopefully it won’t matter for this.
Yeah, OEM and retail keys aren’t interchangable… according to Microsoft there are different keys for retail, volume, OEM, and full or upgrade versions.
This is not always true. Major manufacturers now modify their CDs to only accept their own product keys. Dell and HP / Compaq come to mind. CDs are also modified to accept or reject volume license keys. We have Dell and HP computers at work and you cannot use XP for one with the other.
I’ve never been able to figure out MS’s activation scheme. I thought for sure I’d have problems when I installed my copy of XP on my new homebrewed computer (replacing my old Dell) because it was a different motherboard, different CPU, and different RAM (also including some different onboard stuff). Whether I haven’t made enough changes to trigger the activation problem yet or what I have no clue. (HDDs are the same, as is the sound card and TV card which were present before the upgrade to XP and the FireWire card which was added after.) You might have seen a thread over the weekend with my troubles with a new video card and a reinstall after that was added and I still had no problems with activation.
I can confirm this, at least in the case of the original XP and XP with SP2. I had to reinstall, but couldn’t find my disk, and I had to find a friend with an original XP disc after the SP2 disk refused to accept my reg code.
Oddly (and somewhat counter to everything above, including my own comment), sometimes, OEM installations and regular install CDs are compatible.
I recently wiped/reinstalled a branded XP home machine that had a COA with the license key on it, but only had a ‘factory restore CD’ - i.e. a disk image restorer. I didn’t particularly want to use this, so I installed from a regular XP Home (with SP1a) CD. Only when I got to activation did I realise there might be a problem and my heart sank. But there wasn’t a problem - the full install of XP Home accepted the license key just fine.
This might only mean that the original system builder (Acer, I think) built this line of machine on non-OEM licenses, although that seems pretty unlikely.
I installed XP-Pro from an OED disk over a home version with no problem.
The OED disk came with what is now a defunct LT purchased for my grand son.
MSN upgrades whatever is needed as needed.
And now I know how the registration code works. Pretty slick trick.
I bought an OEM copy of ZP Pro with service pack 2. However, the CD was scratched upon arrival and would not install. I called up MS and got a replacement CD, with a brand new CD key. Just to make sure, I tried the old CD key on the new CD and it was a no go, so at least some of the time, a CD key can be tied to a specific CD.
I think it’s far more likely that the key would be tied to a production batch of CDs; otherwise, the manufacturing process would be tedious or at least rather sensitive to packing errors.
Another possibility is that MS retired or blocked your original key when you asked for the replacement (this is assuming you had to divulge the key when you requested it) - as the activation process requires authorisation from MS, they can deactivate specific individual keys.
No, the key was rejected BEFORE activation. It was rejected when you first enter it, before it ever connects to the internet. The only thing I can think of might be either what you said, it was tied to a production batch of CDs, or the replacement CD is a special case that will only allow it’s own CD key to work with it.
Got it. Yes; one of those possibilities, I would imagine.
Certainly I think MS would find it too cumbersome to tie individual keys to their respective individual CDs on their main production; if they were doing this, we’d have already seen a news item detailing the angry mob of customers who got mismatched keys due to a cock up at the factory.
