# Windows XP product activation & laptop theft

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-product-activation-laptop-theft/217069>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 5, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-product-activation-laptop-theft/217069 "2003-12-05T02:20:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-product-activation-laptop-theft/217069/1 "2003-12-05T02:20:34Z")

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Being the resident computer geek a friend asked if XP can somehow be used to find his (he thinks) stolen laptop. I’ve done a bunch of searches on Google and [microsoft.com](http://microsoft.com) and found absolutey nothing.

I would assume Microsoft isn’t going to get involved in anything like this (i.e. tracking it thru PA) but assuming you bought the retail version and still have your install CD can you call them and ask to have your currently activated laptop ‘de-activated’ so that it won’t accept updates or at least so you can re-install (and re-activate) your copy onto another notebook?