Matching Product Key to Windows XP media

[Guest]

I am going to be doing a reinstallation of Windows XP on about 30 PC's as my
company will be taking over management and support of those PC's adn a
prerequisite is we reload all OS to standardise the environments we support.

The majority of the PC's I'm reinstalling have Windows XP OEM product keys
on them which we want to re-use.

The problem I have is I've created 2 versions of a windows boot CD to
install a customised OS, using two versions of XP media they had and have
found that a number of the product keys they have are being rejected as
invalid keys during installation.

I have tried using a Dell OEM XP SP1a as well adn that worked for some of
their dell laptops but I still have several product keys I can't use, is
there any way around this, perhaps somewhere on the MS site I can enter a XP
Product Key to see what version of XP media I need to install to use that
key? or anything else I can do to save buying over a dozen XP licences for
PC's already legally licensed for XP?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

OEM Product Keys are only valid with the installation CD
they came with. There is no way around this.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

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:

| I am going to be doing a reinstallation of Windows XP on about 30 PC's as my
| company will be taking over management and support of those PC's adn a
| prerequisite is we reload all OS to standardise the environments we support.
|
| The majority of the PC's I'm reinstalling have Windows XP OEM product keys
| on them which we want to re-use.
|
| The problem I have is I've created 2 versions of a windows boot CD to
| install a customised OS, using two versions of XP media they had and have
| found that a number of the product keys they have are being rejected as
| invalid keys during installation.
|
| I have tried using a Dell OEM XP SP1a as well adn that worked for some of
| their dell laptops but I still have several product keys I can't use, is
| there any way around this, perhaps somewhere on the MS site I can enter a XP
| Product Key to see what version of XP media I need to install to use that
| key? or anything else I can do to save buying over a dozen XP licences for
| PC's already legally licensed for XP?

 

[Ron Martell]

I am going to be doing a reinstallation of Windows XP on about 30 PC's as my
company will be taking over management and support of those PC's adn a
prerequisite is we reload all OS to standardise the environments we support.

The majority of the PC's I'm reinstalling have Windows XP OEM product keys
on them which we want to re-use.

The problem I have is I've created 2 versions of a windows boot CD to
install a customised OS, using two versions of XP media they had and have
found that a number of the product keys they have are being rejected as
invalid keys during installation.

I have tried using a Dell OEM XP SP1a as well adn that worked for some of
their dell laptops but I still have several product keys I can't use, is
there any way around this, perhaps somewhere on the MS site I can enter a XP
Product Key to see what version of XP media I need to install to use that
key? or anything else I can do to save buying over a dozen XP licences for
PC's already legally licensed for XP?

A generic Microsoft OEM installation CD should work with any OEM
product key, but may not have the specific drivers needed for some
machines.

An OEM CD from a specific computer manufacturer (e.g. Dell) may be
"BIOS Locked" to that it will only work on their brand of computers.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."