Windows Validation - How to update product key

[Bob]

Have 5 WinXP systems and licenses (all valid) here in the office and just
learned that my CAD workstation has an illegal copy of WinXP Pro (Corporate)
installed. Since I didn't purchase a corporate license, I found that rather
odd.... But we did find out what happened.

Last year, the CAD station went belly-up and the motherboard and a hard
drive were toast. Luckily, it happened on a Friday afternoon and I was able
to drop it off at my friends computer store so it could be fixed over the
weekend. Picked it up the following Monday and "all was fixed" says my
friend "I even loaded you a fresh copy of Windows with SP2 to save you some
time....". Thanks buddy and sure enough, within a couple hours of loading
all my CAD software, Adobe products and restoring the ton's of files from
backups - we were up and running. I even did some Windows update on the
system at that time and it has worked well since...

The CAD station is seldom ever used for surfing, there is no email account
setup on that system and I honestly don't recall doing many updates since
last year. But after hearing about the new validation process and seeing it
being done on the other workstations, I decided to update the CAD station as
well. Nope, no good and MS now thinks I'm a stinking, no good software
pirate......

Well, my friend did me a favor and for over a year we were unknowingly using
an illegal copy. Unfortunately, my friend has since passed away (Lupus) so
I can't ask him for advice and so I'm turning to the guru's here for the
"How-to- do it". I have a legit license and Product Key for the workstation
but how do I go about getting the "real" product key into this version?
More importantly - can it be done or must I reload everything from scratch?

I've been reading about doing an in-place upgrade and you then enter the
product key but I'll be updating a Corporate version, which is the
illegitimate child and using a WinXP Pro retail version - can you even do
that?

Appreciate your help and hopefully I can do this without having to do a
total reinstall of everything.

Thanks,

bob

 

[David]

I have not personally done this, but a repair re install should work fine.
( Not repair console,,,,,) Use a legal full version XP pro.
It will ask you for the key and you enter the Full version Pro key and use
that CD.
`d

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You need to perform a "Repair Install" using your new
Product Key and the Windows XP CD that came with it.

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

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

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

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

:

| Have 5 WinXP systems and licenses (all valid) here in the office and just
| learned that my CAD workstation has an illegal copy of WinXP Pro (Corporate)
| installed. Since I didn't purchase a corporate license, I found that rather
| odd.... But we did find out what happened.
|
| Last year, the CAD station went belly-up and the motherboard and a hard
| drive were toast. Luckily, it happened on a Friday afternoon and I was able
| to drop it off at my friends computer store so it could be fixed over the
| weekend. Picked it up the following Monday and "all was fixed" says my
| friend "I even loaded you a fresh copy of Windows with SP2 to save you some
| time....". Thanks buddy and sure enough, within a couple hours of loading
| all my CAD software, Adobe products and restoring the ton's of files from
| backups - we were up and running. I even did some Windows update on the
| system at that time and it has worked well since...
|
| The CAD station is seldom ever used for surfing, there is no email account
| setup on that system and I honestly don't recall doing many updates since
| last year. But after hearing about the new validation process and seeing it
| being done on the other workstations, I decided to update the CAD station as
| well. Nope, no good and MS now thinks I'm a stinking, no good software
| pirate......
|
| Well, my friend did me a favor and for over a year we were unknowingly using
| an illegal copy. Unfortunately, my friend has since passed away (Lupus) so
| I can't ask him for advice and so I'm turning to the guru's here for the
| "How-to- do it". I have a legit license and Product Key for the workstation
| but how do I go about getting the "real" product key into this version?
| More importantly - can it be done or must I reload everything from scratch?
|
| I've been reading about doing an in-place upgrade and you then enter the
| product key but I'll be updating a Corporate version, which is the
| illegitimate child and using a WinXP Pro retail version - can you even do
| that?
|
| Appreciate your help and hopefully I can do this without having to do a
| total reinstall of everything.
|
| Thanks,
|
| bob

 

[Bob]

Carey,

Thanks for confirming that. I've been reading the KB articles on MS site but
nothing really said it would work (corp version versus retail) but seeing as
how you believe it will work - we'll give it a shot next weekend. Worst
case, I'll have a very long weekend - you should see the updates you have to
reinstall for some of these CAD programs....

Appreciate your time,

bob

 

[Bob]

David,

Your assumption is apparently correct - Carey Frisch (MVP) say's it's so and
we will either buy 'em a brew or send the no-neck fella from Buffalo to
visit him if he's wrong........;-)

Thanks for your input,

bob

 

[kurttrail]

Have 5 WinXP systems and licenses (all valid) here in the office and
just learned that my CAD workstation has an illegal copy of WinXP Pro
(Corporate) installed. Since I didn't purchase a corporate license,
I found that rather odd.... But we did find out what happened.

Last year, the CAD station went belly-up and the motherboard and a
hard drive were toast. Luckily, it happened on a Friday afternoon and
I was able to drop it off at my friends computer store so it could be
fixed over the weekend. Picked it up the following Monday and "all
was fixed" says my friend "I even loaded you a fresh copy of Windows
with SP2 to save you some time....". Thanks buddy and sure enough,
within a couple hours of loading all my CAD software, Adobe products
and restoring the ton's of files from backups - we were up and
running. I even did some Windows update on the system at that time
and it has worked well since...
The CAD station is seldom ever used for surfing, there is no email
account setup on that system and I honestly don't recall doing many
updates since last year. But after hearing about the new validation
process and seeing it being done on the other workstations, I decided
to update the CAD station as well. Nope, no good and MS now thinks
I'm a stinking, no good software pirate......

Well, my friend did me a favor and for over a year we were
unknowingly using an illegal copy. Unfortunately, my friend has
since passed away (Lupus) so I can't ask him for advice and so I'm
turning to the guru's here for the "How-to- do it". I have a legit
license and Product Key for the workstation but how do I go about
getting the "real" product key into this version? More importantly -
can it be done or must I reload everything from scratch?
I've been reading about doing an in-place upgrade and you then enter
the product key but I'll be updating a Corporate version, which is the
illegitimate child and using a WinXP Pro retail version - can you
even do that?

Appreciate your help and hopefully I can do this without having to do
a total reinstall of everything.

Thanks,

bob

I'd try using Mike's instructions on changing the Product Key first.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaqnojs.htm#18

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Bob]

Thank you and there are a couple of helpful programs there as well that I
can try that supposedly will do all the heavy lifting. We'll try the easy
solutions first and see how that works. Don't dare try anything until after
next weekend since I'm working on a project and it would be a major hassle
if that workstation goes belly up - for any reason, much less me mucking
around with it.

Thank you for link,

bob

 

[Greg Ro]

I'd try using Mike's instructions on changing the Product Key first.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaqnojs.htm#18

Now you tell someone to change the product key Kurt?
You got on me for giving similar advice.


Greg Ro

 

[kurttrail]

Now you tell someone to change the product key Kurt?
You got on me for giving similar advice.

No. You are telling people to change the product key on an already
legitimate OEM installation.

The OP is trying to change his illegit install to a legitimate one. Not
the same situation at all.

If MS is having a problem with validating legitimate OEM installs, then
it is up to them to find a way to get their WGA code to work with them,
and people shouldn't have to go mucking around fixing what ain't broken.

When it is a matter of illegit installs, then it is up to the computer
owner to find a way to be seen as legit to WGA, if they want to
validate.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"