Windows Product Activation

Since this is a production situation, this is entirely up to you, but heres my experiences with microsoft product activation...

I`m assuming this is xp home or pro we are dealing with and not a server version of the software?

If the product has not been activated more than once, you can usually get another 2-3 activations out of a license via internet before they make you talk to someone on the phone.

Once you have to do the phone activation, it takes several long sequences of 8 characters spoken or typed into the phone to get to talk to a representative...

The key here, is when they ask you how many other computers is this copy of windows running on, of course you tell them "just this one" and they also ask you if this copy of windows came with the computer, *aka dell, hp, compaq etc, or if its oem-retail. I always say it came with the computer, then they give you another god awful long character string to reactivate the copy of windows...

Legal? Not in microsofts eyes, but its a "loophole" if you want to call it that, thats been around just as long as XP has been around, if not longer...

Hope this helps...

E.

The new PC Workstation came with an HP OEM version of Windows XP (licensed downgrade from Vista, pre-installed and activated) and I have the HP WinXP operating system CD that came with this system. Can I install this over top after the Acronis image restore as sort of an in-place upgrade of the OS only without destroying the installed applications restored from the old computer to get around the reactivation that way?

Steve

OEM is licensed only on the original hardware it was installed on to.

Technically, if you have a retail (box) or corporate version, then you can move the license around as much as you want.

Realistically, as mentioned above, you can normally activate using the same key a few times. This cuts lots of calls to MS when people reinstall their OS legitimately.

I've reloaded the OEM Windows XP via the HP restore CD so I can copy off the original OEM pre-activated C:\Windows\System32\wpa.dba files that ties the hardware installed to the BIOS. Then I hope to do the Acronis image restore and copy the WPA files back to see if that will work. Since the hardware will be identical as far as that file sees things I hope it will make the restored hard drive image pre-activated again with Microsoft. I'll let you know after I do the test restore again.

While probably too late to help you now, with XP you CAN use the OEM install disk to do a repair/install to repair systems that have a problem booting into Windows. If you can boot into Safe Mode (on XP Pro/Media Edition, but not Home Edition), you can use the System File Checker (sfc.exe in the Windows\System32 folder) from a command prompt to check and repair the Windows system files. You need to be logged in as an Administrator or it can be ran as an Administrator (Start\All Programs\Accessories\System Tools and right-click on Command Prompt, then choose "Run as Administrator" and enter the Admin password) The command is C:> sfc /scannow. Don't forget to put a space between the command and the forward slash!

If you do the XP repair/install, XP will revert back to whatever service pack the OEM CD is, so you will then need to install any later service packs and then I recommend doing a manual Windows Update and choosing what critical/optional updates you want installed. It takes about two-three rounds of updates to get everything current. I support a non-profit community computer lab with 20 seats of dissimilar systems. I'm looking forward to trying out Acronis True Image Home Edition 2010 with the Plus Pack I recently acquired to see if that will make my life a bit easier.