Windows XP & RIS

[Andy Altenburger]

Our hospital has about 400 Dell PCs that all have Win XP Pro licenses. I'm
setting up RIS to use XP and have entered a product key within the SIF file.
After RIS'ing the PC, I still get the product activation box. Can I use a
standard key, does RIS require a volume license key to avoid this, or do I
have to manually enter each CD key after the RIS install is done? It'll be
a pain to have to enter the key for each install... Thanks.

 

[Matthew Jones]

Andy - I went through this with 2000 workstations:

In the SIF file under the [UserData] section please let me know what you
entered to define the ProductKey field.

I had: ProductKey = "xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx"

and yes I would still be prompted for the key.

Try changing the PRODUCTKEY keyword to PRODUCTID

Now, RIS boots - Installs - Reboots and runs mini-setup without stopping to
ask for anything.
It's a wonderful life!!

I hope this solves your issue.

 

[Jeremy Church]

From my experience, you need to purchase Software Assurance to RIS XP. XP
OEM version requires activation so if you RIS, you still have to go to each
machine and type in each individual product key for each machine. I went
round and round on the phone with a Microsoft Licensing expert about this.
When you get a volume license (ie software assurance), you then have the
ability to purchase media that does not require activation and you get one
key (to put in your SIF file). This is a pretty stinky scenario (not for
Microsoft), but it's the only one I know of. If anyone else has better
advice, I would like to hear it as much as Andy would.

Jeremy