changing product key

[asteroid]

anyone recommend methods of changing product keys on XP,

for say, if hard disk has been cloned, and put into another identical machine, the product key can be stripped out and the correct one entered?

[Danno]

there is a tool hiden away on windows xp cd's to do this.

browse to D:\support\tools

in here is a deploy.cab file. extract this to your hard drive using winzip or winrar. one of the files you get is sysprep.exe. you can use this to factory reset windows.

have a read through the deploy.chm help file for more info.

[Big Beere]

I have had quite a lot of problems with my computer in the past, and there for I have formatted it about 6-7 times..

I have also used the same OS disk to install on another machine i have at home (about 3-4 times)

I done it again, but now its saying I have exceeded the amount of times i can activate windows ! :cry:

Is there any way of getting round this??

Cheerzz,

BIG B 8)

[asteroid]

Yes use the phone up feature (it goes through to India)

just tell them you are reinstalling and you only use one Windows licence on the one PC and they wont ask any more questions, and you will get your 42 digit code, and you are up and running.



I have been doing sysprep a few times, but MS's instructions on this are confusing, and I never seem to do it right to strip out the code from the machine :/

I thought N's repairs team may have another easier less fiddly method

[Coops]

Well if you clone the drive and its one that needs activating again you can change the product key on the activation screen. On the activation screen if you slect activate by phone, on the screen that comes up there is a button at the bottom that says "Change Product Key" This will then allow you to change the product key currently installed. Delete the box's of the current code and enter your new one, confirm this change and then activate. Job Done.

Sysprep although is a very powerful tool is designed for OEM system builds to preload systems with windows and reseal ready for shipping to end customers. Using the incorrect version or not setting correct options depending on your system setup and OS version could lead to OS being corrupted during reseal thus leaving you with a non bootable system and having to start all over again.