We have about 50 Windows XP Pro SP2 workstations in production that have a
"questionable" origin license key/product ID. We've purchased that number of
licenses from our MSFT reseller and would like to update them with the newly
purchased keys without having to reinstall the OS (and everything else that's
already being used like Office, propietary software, etc..).

Is there a way to do this?
--
Alexander Sanabia
Network Administrator
http://www.carico.com/

Assuming the installs were done with Volume License media:

How to change the Volume Licensing product key on a Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q328874

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Caricomaster" wrote:

| We have about 50 Windows XP Pro SP2 workstations in production that have a
| "questionable" origin license key/product ID. We've purchased that number of
| licenses from our MSFT reseller and would like to update them with the newly
| purchased keys without having to reinstall the OS (and everything else that's
| already being used like Office, propietary software, etc..).
|
| Is there a way to do this?
| --
| Alexander Sanabia
| Network Administrator
| http://www.carico.com/
|

Hi Carey and thanks for your response. However, I tried the registry fix you
referred me to, and when I try to run the "msoobe.exe /a" command, it says it
is not found. I believe this command is eliminated by the application of SP2
and all these workstations are already at the SP2 level.
--
Alexander Sanabia
Network Administrator
http://www.carico.com/



"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

> Assuming the installs were done with Volume License media:
>
> How to change the Volume Licensing product key on a Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q328874
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows - Shell/User
> Microsoft Community Newsgroups
> news://msnews.microsoft.com/
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Caricomaster" wrote:
>
> | We have about 50 Windows XP Pro SP2 workstations in production that have a
> | "questionable" origin license key/product ID. We've purchased that number of
> | licenses from our MSFT reseller and would like to update them with the newly
> | purchased keys without having to reinstall the OS (and everything else that's
> | already being used like Office, propietary software, etc..).
> |
> | Is there a way to do this?
> | --
> | Alexander Sanabia
> | Network Administrator
> | http://www.carico.com/
> |
>

cd \windows\system32\oobe
msoobe /a

Reason: msoobe.exe is in the 'oobe' folder, which is not part of the path so
it will not run from outside the folder.

Hi Ian,

I am aware of the right path to the executable (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\OOBE\)
but there is no executable in there called "msoobe.exe". I've tried from the
Run window, from the command prompt, from within Windows Explorer. unhidden
attribute on all folders and no dice. The executable is simply not in the
computers. Wondering if this had something to do with the validation process
before you can run Windows/Microsoft Update... at any rate, the registry fix
is simply not an option at this point without being able to run "msoobe.exe".
This executable is probably only found on SP1 machines.
--
Alexander Sanabia
Network Administrator
http://www.carico.com/



"Ian" wrote:

> cd \windows\system32\oobe
> msoobe /a
>
> Reason: msoobe.exe is in the 'oobe' folder, which is not part of the path so
> it will not run from outside the folder.
>
>