Possible to download *just* media for Windows XP Home?

[Teacher213]

I am teaching a class and a couple of students need *only* the Windows XP
media, is there a link that I could download just the ISO?

**They have keys, I have verfied, these are home users bringing their
desktops in for a computer class who don't have the original cd's that came
with their computers. I have verfied the keys stickered to the back of the
computer**

Thanks for your help.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Every copy of Windows is different - you can't just "paste" in any old "key" into any
copy of Windows - no, each key is unique to that copy (cd-rom) it was made for.

The only copy of WinXP you can download for free is going to be an illegal "cracked"
one.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Teacher213]

I am teaching a class and a couple of students need *only* the Windows XP
media, is there a link that I could download just the ISO?

**They have keys, I have verfied, these are home users bringing their
desktops in for a computer class who don't have the original cd's that came
with their computers. I have verfied the keys stickered to the back of the
computer**

Thanks for your help.

edit: Looks like I can start here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/326246?p=1

If anyone knows of a Microsoft download sight (not 3rd party), please post,
otherwise I will have them try the link. Thanks

 

[Teacher213]

Thank you for your reply.

I have recieved an answer from Microsoft over the phone, thank you everyone
for taking the time to read. This thread can be closed now.

 

[LVTravel]

edit: Looks like I can start here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/326246?p=1

If anyone knows of a Microsoft download sight (not 3rd party), please
post,
otherwise I will have them try the link. Thanks

This site will normally only work for retail products or for those OEM
systems where the computer company has gone out of business. You normally
pay a $30 fee + shipping and possible sales tax if successful in getting the
product shipped.

If you have a generic OEM CD for the version of XP (home or pro) the student
has it "may" be useable by the student to rebuild the computer using the key
on the bottom of their laptop or back of their desktop. A branded (Dell,
Gateway, HP) type of OEM disk probably won't work as most of them are bios
locked to a specific computer manufacturer's bios.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Every copy of Windows is different - you can't just "paste" in any old "key" into any
copy of Windows - no, each key is unique to that copy (cd-rom) it was made for.

Sorry, but that's *not* correct. Keys are not made for each CD. Each
key is unique, but the CDs are not, so any key will work with a CD
that it matches with respect to Home vs. Professional, Retail vs
Generic OEM, Full vs Upgrade).

 

[Unknown]

Wrong again---------Why do you post if you don't know what you're talking
about?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Well done: that's what I was trying to say, but you managed to say it in
far fewer words (and thus much easier to understand)!

I suspect Tim actually meant that anyway, too.

Perhaps that's what Tim meant, but I didn't read it way, so I thought
I'd clarify it.

 

[Tim Meddick]

(To others who generously thought I meant something else - I didn't - sorry)

Well, I tried entering a valid key into (all non-OEM) copies of Win98, WinME and
WinNT4 and none of those ever worked!!

What makes XP so different that it will accept unique keys from any similar XP
version?

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Tim Meddick]

That IS what I'm saying - I can't be any clearer.

I had [have] copies of WinME, Win98se and WinNT4 and they come with keys (that work).

On entering other keys that I know work with other [respective] versions of each,
they simply do not work.

Why is this, if, as you two keep saying, XP can use *any* valid key for any
[sub-version] copy of Windows?

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

(To others who generously thought I meant something else - I didn't - sorry)

Well, I tried entering a valid key into (all non-OEM) copies of Win98,
WinME and WinNT4 and none of those ever worked!!

In what sense was it "a valid key"? For what? (Though I do remember - a _long_ time
ago - finding that a key from one Microsoft product worked with another: I think
that might have been Windows 95 and Office 95. But as I say, that was a long time
ago. Almost certainly not now.)

What makes XP so different that it will accept unique keys from any similar XP
version?

[]
I think what Ken and I mean is this: the CDs are not made individually - they're
mass-produced, much like audio CDs. (For a long time I've wondered why they _don't_
make a CD with a tiny writable part, but they don't.) [XP isn't different in this
respect.] If you were to obtain two CDs for the same product - two retail copies of
XP, 98, Office, or probably even Vista or 7 - then as long as they were _exactly_
the same product (Home or Pro, retail or OEM, if OEM for the same batch of
hardware), then the same key would work with both - until you went online to
register the second one, at least. But it _would_ get you through the installation
process.
--
J. P. Gilliver. 27 years experience in the electronics industry - seeking
employment (also computer, tester, trainer ...); email for details: CV at
http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/CV2010-3.tif (2-sheet TIFF)!

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(1842-1914)