Windows XP Product Key! HELP!!! how can i check?

  • Thread starter Thread starter j-rutigliano
  • Start date Start date
J

j-rutigliano

Hi, i just bought a Microsoft Windows XP program for one
of my other computers... heres the catch, i got it at a
estate sale, so im not sure if its been installed or if
the product key still works etc.. i havent tried it yet.

is there any way i can test if the product key is still
good, or if it has already been registered, or if i can
get a new or diff one...?

and if it has been installed on someone elses computer,
can i still install it on mine with that product key, or
do i need a new one?

Thank you for your help in advance! i really appreciated
it!

(e-mail address removed)
 
Hi

You can't check the PK before you install XP. You'll have to hope that it
hasn't already been used. If it has been used, you can install XP from the
CD, but you won't be able to activate, and hence will only have 30 days use
of it. Is the package still unopened? Can you see the PK through the
packaging?

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups


in message | Hi, i just bought a Microsoft Windows XP program for one
| of my other computers... heres the catch, i got it at a
| estate sale, so im not sure if its been installed or if
| the product key still works etc.. i havent tried it yet.
|
| is there any way i can test if the product key is still
| good, or if it has already been registered, or if i can
| get a new or diff one...?
|
| and if it has been installed on someone elses computer,
| can i still install it on mine with that product key, or
| do i need a new one?
|
| Thank you for your help in advance! i really appreciated
| it!
|
| (e-mail address removed)
 
The clock gets "reset" after something like 120 days after activation, so
chances are you can probably install without any problem - or wait 4 months
to be sure.
 
That's what I hate about Microsoft, I had a system that I ended up trashing
because it was expensive to repair than buying a new one and had to trash XP
along with it, that's a total waste of money if you ask me, I wonder why
people pirate their copies of XP.
Running Windows Me, upgraded the memory and CPU and brought XP to find I can
not use it again as it has been registered once before.
 
Greetings --

Don't hate Microsoft because _you_ discarded a perfectly good and
reusable license.

If you'd purchased a retail Upgrade license for WinXP, you most
certainly could have reused it on a new computer. Who told you
otherwise? It's only OEM licenses that are permanently bound to the
first computer on which they're installed.

Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH


That's what I hate about Microsoft, I had a system that I ended up
trashing
because it was expensive to repair than buying a new one and had to
trash XP
along with it, that's a total waste of money if you ask me, I wonder
why
people pirate their copies of XP.
Running Windows Me, upgraded the memory and CPU and brought XP to find
I can
not use it again as it has been registered once before.
 
In
Clayton said:
That's what I hate about Microsoft, I had a system that I ended up
trashing because it was expensive to repair than buying a new one and
had to trash XP along with it, that's a total waste of money if you
ask me, I wonder why people pirate their copies of XP.
Click to expand...


If yours was a retail copy, you trashed a perfectly good and
usable copy of Windows XP. It can be moved to as many other
machines as you want. The only restriction is that it can't be on
two machines at once.

If it was an OEM copy, however, then its license ties it to the
first computer it's installed on. But don't blame Microsoft for
that; blame the OEM you got it from, who chose the restricted OEM
copy to give you, or blame yourself, who chose to buy such a
restricted product.
 
Clayton said:
That's what I hate about Microsoft, I had a system that I ended up trashing
because it was expensive to repair than buying a new one and had to trash XP
along with it, that's a total waste of money if you ask me, I wonder why
people pirate their copies of XP.
Click to expand...

If you bought it as a component of the system, or as an OEM one, you
paid a substantially discounted price in exchange for giving up the
right to transfer it. IMO that is a bad deal, but your choice
Running Windows Me, upgraded the memory and CPU and brought XP to find I can
not use it again as it has been registered once before.
Click to expand...

Not clear if that is a separate incident, and if so where the XP came
from. You can reinstall on the same or substantially the same hardware:
if it then comes back on something you upgraded saying you have
installed it too many times it is because it looks like a different
machine and hence that you may be trying to install on two at once. So
you do it by phoning in to declare that it is *not* going on two
machines at once
 
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