Reactivation following theft

[Jerry Paquette]

Last week my laptop was stolen at work. It was a scheduled item on my
household insurance and the insurer is replacing it--with a machine two
or three generations more recent than the lost machine. I am a rather
high-end user and want to try to restore that system from my most recent
ghost image rather than use the OEM XP copy that ships with the
replacement laptop. I envision something like the follwoing process:

Make a backup image of the HD as shipped from the manufacturer (unless
it ships with a restore CD), restore my ghost image from about two
months ago, use the hardware upgrade provision on the XP installation CD
(assuming, of course, that the system won't work directly after
restoring the ghost image which seems unlikely given the hardware
differences), deal with the new hardware (internal wireless, DVD-CD-RW,
and--shudder, shudder after my recent experience with installing the
Radeon 8900 on another machine--then the Radeon 9000 video adapter), and
finally backfill recent work files.

That raises the reactivation question. Presumably the thief (thieves)
and his/her/their customer(s) will continue to use the original XP
installation (separately purchased XP license, not OEM--an OEM version
ships with the replacement computer, of course) and I presume eventally
MS will detect this double license usage.

What happens then? Does the thief, front, or consumer of a stolen
laptop get to continue using a license I paid for while I am denied use
of that license? Somehow that doesn't seem right!

 

[Nicholas]

If someone stole your vehicle, and it was never recovered, can you use
the vehicle's keys anymore? You will need a new Product Key (license).

How to Change the Product ID in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321636

--
Nicholas

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


| Last week my laptop was stolen at work. It was a scheduled item on my
| household insurance and the insurer is replacing it--with a machine two
| or three generations more recent than the lost machine. I am a rather
| high-end user and want to try to restore that system from my most recent
| ghost image rather than use the OEM XP copy that ships with the
| replacement laptop. I envision something like the follwoing process:
|
| Make a backup image of the HD as shipped from the manufacturer (unless
| it ships with a restore CD), restore my ghost image from about two
| months ago, use the hardware upgrade provision on the XP installation CD
| (assuming, of course, that the system won't work directly after
| restoring the ghost image which seems unlikely given the hardware
| differences), deal with the new hardware (internal wireless, DVD-CD-RW,
| and--shudder, shudder after my recent experience with installing the
| Radeon 8900 on another machine--then the Radeon 9000 video adapter), and
| finally backfill recent work files.
|
| That raises the reactivation question. Presumably the thief (thieves)
| and his/her/their customer(s) will continue to use the original XP
| installation (separately purchased XP license, not OEM--an OEM version
| ships with the replacement computer, of course) and I presume eventally
| MS will detect this double license usage.
|
| What happens then? Does the thief, front, or consumer of a stolen
| laptop get to continue using a license I paid for while I am denied use
| of that license? Somehow that doesn't seem right!
|

 

[Jerry Paquette]

But surely this is not an apropos analogy. In proportion to the cost of
a car, the cost of the keys are trivial and keys are automatically
supplied with the purchase of the purchase of the new car. There is
really no equivalent of an "operating system" in the case of a car.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Jerry;
If the thief also got the Certificate of Authenticity as well as the
Windows XP CD, then you can not use it as it was also stolen.
On the other hand, if you still possess the CD and COA, they are
yours.
Since they are retail, you can install it on a computer of your
choice.
Worst case is a 5 minute toll free call to Microsoft.

 

[Jerry Paquette]

I still have everything related to XP--except the computer that is.

 

[Jerry Paquette]

Right, but I don't want to have to spend a couple of days reinstalling
and reconfiguring everything. I'll just ghost a copy of the OEM system
if there isn't a restore CD so I could put it back if I ever wanted to
sell the machine or something.