Changing XP PRO serial number

[Guest]

Hello,

I went in a new job where we have about 110 laptops.
The users are getting illegal windows copy licence messages when they start
the computer. What i believe hapened is that they bought the OEM licence with
each laptop, but made a deployment CD using an 'internet' serial number to
avoid typing the SN for each computer. Each computer has SP2.
What i would like is to change the SN from the fake one, to the one on the
sticker figuring on each laptop. I found articles and utils to do it, but
from an non OEM to an non OEM release. I need to go from an non OEM to an OEM
number and cant find a way to do it, except of course formating all the
laptops ..........

Anyone know a way to do this please ?

Thanks

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

If the genuine Product Key affixed to the computers is for
Windows XP Professional, use the following:

Change your Product Key without a reinstall to match your
genuine Product Key or COA:

First, please verify if your COA sticker or product key (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/coa.mspx)
matches your Product Key being used on your system. You can
view your product key with the Genuine Advantage diagnostics tool
(at least the last 15 digits) located here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012

The Genuine Advantage Product Key Update Tool is only valid for
users attempting to change their current non-genuine Product Key
to a genuine COA sticker or genuine Product Key - all without a reinstall! http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=50346&clcid=0x409

Please note that if the genuine Product Key affixed to the computers
is for Windows XP Home Edition, then you'll have to use the
computer manufacturer's recovery CD to reformat and reinstall
Windows XP Home Edition.


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

Enjoy all the benefits of genuine Microsoft software:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/default.mspx

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

:

| Hello,
|
| I went in a new job where we have about 110 laptops.
| The users are getting illegal windows copy licence messages when they start
| the computer. What i believe hapened is that they bought the OEM licence with
| each laptop, but made a deployment CD using an 'internet' serial number to
| avoid typing the SN for each computer. Each computer has SP2.
| What i would like is to change the SN from the fake one, to the one on the
| sticker figuring on each laptop. I found articles and utils to do it, but
| from an non OEM to an non OEM release. I need to go from an non OEM to an OEM
| number and cant find a way to do it, except of course formating all the
| laptops ..........
|
| Anyone know a way to do this please ?
|
| Thanks

 

[Kerry Brown]

Hello,

I went in a new job where we have about 110 laptops.
The users are getting illegal windows copy licence messages when they
start the computer. What i believe hapened is that they bought the
OEM licence with each laptop, but made a deployment CD using an
'internet' serial number to avoid typing the SN for each computer.
Each computer has SP2.
What i would like is to change the SN from the fake one, to the one
on the sticker figuring on each laptop. I found articles and utils to
do it, but from an non OEM to an non OEM release. I need to go from
an non OEM to an OEM number and cant find a way to do it, except of
course formating all the laptops ..........

Anyone know a way to do this please ?

Thanks

You can try Carey's suggestion of using the Product Key Update Tool. It
probably won't work in this case but it's worth a try. It's very likely you
will have to at least perform a repair install on each machine using the OEM
Windows disk. As these are laptops it is unlikely that they came with OEM
Windows disks but rather they probably came with some sort of "restore to
factory" option. If this is the case you will need to backup all the user
data, restore to factory setup, then restore the user data. If the laptops
are all the same model you could speed things up a bit by restoring one,
install programs, use sysprep, then create an image for deployment to the
rest. You would need to use options in sysprep to run the minisetup on first
boot so the proper keys for Windows and installed programs could be input. I
don't envy you. Whoever made the desicion to use a pirate key was an idiot.
If sysprep would have been used from the beginning you would not be in this
situation.

 

[Guest]

First, let me start by thanking you for your quick answer.

The number on the computer's sticker (i think its what you call COA) is
different than the key number used to install windows.
But what is sure is that win xp pro is installed on the laptops, and the
COAs on the stickers are for winxp pro. So we can forget about the home
edition possible problem.

I went ahead and used the tool you provided me to change the key
(keyupdatetool.exe) and to my plaisure i noticed it did replace the illegal
key by the one i typed (which is the one located on the laptop sticker). At
the end of the wizard, i got a message stating that the process couldnt
activate my windows copy and that i needed to reboot. After reboot, im still
unable to activate windows. Error message says that the key product is
incorrect. I tried on 2 different laptop, each with its own sticker, and get
the same result on both.

Thanks

 

[Harry Ohrn MS MVP]

Easily changing from a non-OEM key to an OEM key is not possible AFAIK. It
might be possible to run a Repair Install to do this however that will be
time consuming on 110 systems. It may not be possible either as some OEM
version won't recognize the current windows setup and allow you to run the
repair. You can check this out by booting the laptop with one of your
legitimate OEM CDs and at the first screen select the option to setup
Windows. After you see the License Agreement and press F8 you should see a
screen telling you that a previous install of Windows has been found and
asks if you want to attempt to repair it by pressing R. If you see that
screen then you should be able to run a successful Repair Install during
which you will be prompted for a Product Key. You can enter the Legit Key
and hopefully the install will progress to completion. However if you don't
get the Repair option AFTER the License Agreement is accepted then you will
need to do a fresh install.

Here is another option which is much faster and easier. It is highly likely
that the version of XP currently on your laptops is a Volume Licensed
version of XP that was pirated. If your company purchases a Volume Licence
from Microsoft you should be able to easily change the illegal product keys
to the legitimate Volume License key with a simple Key Changer like this one
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml . While the Keyfinder won't
allow you to substitute a Volume License Key with an OEM key it will allow
you to replace a Volume License Key with another Volume License Key. You
just run the Keyfinder from the Desktop, select the option to Change key and
after the new key is entered reboot.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Very good point. My method of reimaging would take a lot of time. Time is
money. Purchasing a volume license would likely be much cheaper once you
factor in the time spent deploying the images and the down time for each
laptop.