Hi there,

Went to CompUSA and ran ViewKeyXP from a floppy. Funny thing I don't understand. On all the Compaq's, the key was the same. Same for the HP's, each HP key was the same. Ditto on the Sony Vaio's.

I was under the impression that each PC you buy with XP home had a different key for WPA purposes. I know they come pre-activated, but what about if you reformat? Do you think they're using blanket keys that will activate on different machines from the same company or is there a different one in the box when you bring it home? I'm trying to get a copy of XP Home to try it out.

(Mods: Move this if it's in the wrong section. My apologies...)



Last edited by MinnesotaKid at Aug 2 2002, 05:43 AM

Apologie accepted. And moved to the right section. This somehow doesn't seem to have any connection to the "Windows XP SP1 Beta".

I guess you'll need to use the restore CD provided by the manufacturer to restore your version of Windows. I suppose you'll get an actived install again, with the same number.
I guess the productnumer that is on the label on each machine is just to proof your license and to do a clean install without the rstore CD.

But I might be completely wrong. My question is if the productkey that ViewKeyXP revealed was the same as the ones label on the computers.

Cheers!

I imagine these are OEM copies. As such, the key is only needed for installation and therfore the OEM uses one key for all installs. Ther's no need to protect the key since the software is already tied to each manufacturer's BIOS.

Epyx

OEM does not always mean the same key for every PC.

I work for C####q. A while back I snagged a restore XP Pro CD for one of the desktop PCs. Took it home and looked at it real close. So I took the i386 folder and made a bootable CD from it... vey easy. Then, since COA labels are fairly easy to 'aquire' from work a XP Pro COA serial number... and all are different on the COAs... works perfect. I have used the serials from five different COAs to install XP Pro on five different homebuilt PCs and they all worked fine. Since no one else has ever used the COAs you can activate XP just like a store bought copy... but no one registered it, just activated it.

I have done the same thing. But I only retreaved one key from one machine. Question did anyone do an install
using a retrived key? And did it work?

Hang on, now we are talking about two different things. If you had XP Pro keys that required activation, then we are effectively talking Retail copies, aren't we?

OEM (in XP's lingo) should mean a copy this is BIOS-locked to that particular hardware manufacturer's BIOS string.

Epyx

Hang on, now we are talking about two different things. If you had XP Pro keys that required activation, then we are effectively talking Retail copies, aren't we?

OEM (in XP's lingo) should mean a copy this is BIOS-locked to that particular hardware manufacturer's BIOS string.

Epyx[/b][/quote]
OEM doesnt necessarily mean that the software is locked by bios info. I shop bought a copy of WinXP PRO oem and have installed it on 3 different motherboards- its not locked to any particular bios vendor or shop.

The oem Pro or Home are Bios locked for the big pc companys and the small oems like myself have to still active xp.
If I sold 10,000 pc a year then MS would let me Bios lock the install by changing a bios check file supplyed to me by MS after I supply them with my own bios for each system type I build.
If you can rip a bios and remove the manufacture string from a say dell the put the string into your bios it would not require activation if you loaded the dell oem.

Apples
:rolleyes: