So I lost my authentification # to win/98.

Hmmm, I still don’t get it. I’m looking at it right now and the version on the laptop is 98 se and the key is also 98 se. The second key I used, and eventually got to take, is 98 se too.

Don’t get it. But, since it’s working and I haven’t had problems with it, I’m not going to complain. Maybe it was a glitch with the key, the OS, or the laptop… don’t know.

You cleared up what I thought was the issue, thanks.

It would be unworkable for MS to produce unique licence keys on each CD because they are pressed, not burnt, but there would be nothing to stop them producing batches of CDs which correspond with batches of licence keys (I don’t know if this is actually done though).