I purchased many copies of XP when it was first available. I have what I
believe is an uninstalled boxed retail copy of XP Pro with its Product Key.
How can I check without installing it to verify that it has not been
previously installed?

If it has been installed on one of the computers I recycled (not donated)
can I use the software again? If I can, do I need to contact Microsoft?

Thanks in advance.

Bill-R wrote:
> I purchased many copies of XP when it was first available. I have
> what I believe is an uninstalled boxed retail copy of XP Pro with
> its Product Key. How can I check without installing it to verify
> that it has not been previously installed?
>
> If it has been installed on one of the computers I recycled (not
> donated) can I use the software again? If I can, do I need to
> contact Microsoft?

Why do you 'believe' it is a boxed retail copy? Or do you just believe it
is not being used anywhere?

You cannot - other than checking machines around you - see if it is in use
right now - nor will it liklely make any difference in the end.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

"Bill-R" wrote:

> I purchased many copies of XP when it was first available. I have what I
> believe is an uninstalled boxed retail copy of XP Pro with its Product Key.
> How can I check without installing it to verify that it has not been
> previously installed?
>
> If it has been installed on one of the computers I recycled (not donated)
> can I use the software again? If I can, do I need to contact Microsoft?
>
> Thanks in advance.

Boxed retail copies of XP whether they be Upgrade or Full may be moved from
computer to computer an unlimited number of times, so long as they are
installed on only ONE computer at a time. Use a keyfinder program to extract
the product key from the working installs on the machines that you have. If
any of the extracted keys match the keys that belong to your install disks;
then that key is already in use and can't be used again.

A retail key from any machine that you scrapped is not in use and can be
used again on another machine, providing that someone else has not extracted
that key from the scrapped machine and is using it on yet another machine.
The only way you will be able to find this out is when an install you make
fails activation or validation because that PK is in use on another machine.

As for machines that you donated, the same situation applies. You are
supposed to include the software and PK with the donated (or sold for that
matter) working machine.

On 12/2/2009 3:06 PM, Bill-R wrote:
> I purchased many copies of XP when it was first available. I have what I
> believe is an uninstalled boxed retail copy of XP Pro with its Product Key.
> How can I check without installing it to verify that it has not been
> previously installed?
>
> If it has been installed on one of the computers I recycled (not donated)
> can I use the software again? If I can, do I need to contact Microsoft?

Just go ahead and use it. If the activation doesn't go through then
just call Microsoft. Though it is my understanding that you can
activate a particular product key once every 6 months or something like
that. So if you know it's been longer than that since you last used it,
you should be ok.

--

Roy Smith
Windows XP Pro SP3

[OT @Shenan: You're being spoofed in OE6 newsgroup]

Shenan Stanley wrote:
....

How much did you pay for it and from whom did you buy it?

Bill-R wrote:
> I purchased many copies of XP when it was first available. I have what I
> believe is an uninstalled boxed retail copy of XP Pro with its Product
> Key.
> How can I check without installing it to verify that it has not been
> previously installed?
>
> If it has been installed on one of the computers I recycled (not donated)
> can I use the software again? If I can, do I need to contact Microsoft?
>
> Thanks in advance.