XP product activation question

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Guest

Hello,

I work for a public school system and have 2 labs ( 50 PCs) running
Windows XP Pro. These were ordered as individual licenses. Because of this
I have been using Sysprep and Ghost to make an image of the PC. I re-image
once a year to clean house and sometimes during the year.

My question is how many times can I re-image the PC (using same
hardware). I thought it was unlimited as long as the H/W stays the same. I
then read somewhere you could only re-image the PC 5 times. If this is true
about the limited PC re-imaging how do I get around this.

Thanks,
Kurt ....
 
I've been doing that to my systems fairly often and i've not gotten any
problems so far ... well i guess the 5 times is just a myth ...
 
MorinK said:
Hello,

I work for a public school system and have 2 labs ( 50 PCs) running
Windows XP Pro. These were ordered as individual licenses. Because of this
I have been using Sysprep and Ghost to make an image of the PC. I re-image
once a year to clean house and sometimes during the year.

My question is how many times can I re-image the PC (using same
hardware). I thought it was unlimited as long as the H/W stays the same. I
then read somewhere you could only re-image the PC 5 times. If this is true
about the limited PC re-imaging how do I get around this.

Thanks,
Kurt ....
Click to expand...

There is no fixed limit as to the number of times that Windows XP may
be reactivated on the same computer. However if the activation is
done multiple times within a relatively short period (a few weeks or
so) then you may be asked to activate by telephone instead of over the
Internet.

Activation records are purged by Microsoft after 180 days so your
yearly re-image should never be a problem.

See the late MVP Alex Nichol's explanation of WPA:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
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