Extra Discs / Reclaim Or Deactivate The Product Keys
Nov 30, 2009
I was recently cleaning out my office and found 2 old XP Pro edition discs as well as the product keys. I remembered that one is from an old laptop that was stolen a few years ago, and the other is from a old and busted dell that no longer works.
Is there a way to reclaim or deactivate the product keys on the old machines so that I may use these discs on other machines?
My son moved out of town and now wants his copy of Windows XP Pro that he left behind. I have two copies that are idententical except for the product keys. Is there somewhere in Windows that would tell me which copy to send and which to keep? will he be able to reuse this disk to put on a new HD in a new computer? Can he put his old HD in a new computer?
I'm wondering about something thats been bugging me for a bit? What are the extra keys on the keyboard for, or more to the point how does one configure them. The KB I use right now only has three extra keys, a sun, a moon, and another(?) I think for power, or stand bye?? But my sisters KB has mega, hers is a MSN 'netboard'. Is there somewhere I can learn how to utilize the extra keys. When I press any of them now they don't do anything?? Help is appreciated, but this is not a pressing,(pretty punny eh), matter, so please help those who really have a problem first! This is just something I have always wanted to know?? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one?? So Thanks again, Graiskye PS just to be clear I have done a pretty good search of archives before posting question, something I encourage ALL posters to do, saves redundant posts, and you will ALWAYS learn something. I browse the posts all the time just reading the titles and checking threads that interest?
I have to reinstall my XP Pro OS on my work PC. The XP CD for that is fairly old and only has SP1. I recently got a laptop with XP Pro SP2. Can I Install the OS using the laptop XP CD that has SP2 and type in the product Key for the older XP machine so I don't have to spend hours updating the SP1 install to SP2. I've done this with MS Office in the past when the silver coating on the CD got scraped off and I just installed with an Office CD from another machine and used the Product Key from the broken CD license. These are DELL machines if that makes any difference. The last time I reinstalled the laptop OS using the CD, I can't remember typing in the product key and I don't want to have any issues with licensing and activation.
I got a HP Vectra420 with P4 with 512MB RAM and XP license on it. Whats confusing me is the sticker "Windows XP Proffessional 1-2 CPU"?. It also syas "One Time Choice Only". Whats does this mean?.
I have been told that instead of having to buy another retail version of an operating system as long as I have the install disk all I have to do is get a product key through Microsoft for like 50 bucks. How Do I go at doing this I am looking at getting a product key for Windows Xp Pro 32bit.
I just bought a win xp product key. I have successfully installed in on my desktop but when i installed the same product key on my laptop it let you a 30 day usage install only. The store who sold me the product keys told me that Microsoft let you install it on 1 desktop plus 1 laptop. Anyone of you have contacted Microsoft about this before?
I thought that Windows XP (I think it is XP Pro, SP3) had one folder that stored all of your software product key/registration/license numbers? If so, which folder is it and where is it located?
I'm getting ready to reinstall XP Home on a Dell Dimension 2400 and when I run SIW, Everest and Belarc they all come up with the same Windows 25 character product key. But when I look at the sticker on the side of the tower there's a different product key. Why are the keys different and which one should I use?
After my neighbour updated his computer with all the latest updates from Microsoft every time he switches his computer on a set of keys appear in the desktop taskbar prompting him to register windows. As he had no product key sticker anywhere on the computer case I downloaded keyfinder from Download.com it found the product key in seconds. but I tried to register windows but it keeps telling me on the windows registration page that this copy is already registered.He only has six days left to register, what happens if after the six days past he still cannot get a product key.
I recently installed SP3 on my Dell Dimension 2400, and it screwed things up. It won't let me uninstall it, so it would appear my only option at this point is to do a complete reformatting.I have a Dell reinstall XP +SP1 CD. From what I've gathered, this works for ALL Dell PCs, not sure if it came with mine, or my mother's Dimension 2350. Supposedly, it'll check the BIOS to see if it is a Dell computer, and then it will work. Regardless of model. (No model or BIOS version is listed on the CD its self.)However, I have some questions I'd like to have answered before I proceed.1. I've seen some instructions on how to make your own XP reinstall CD. Would doing that, or using the Dell reinstall CD be preferable? 2. If the Dell CD, there is..... something on the CD. I tried wiping it with a damp cloth, but it wouldn't come off. I've heard coating a CD in toothpaste is a good way to clean it. Is it really such a good idea?3. I've heard that as of 2006, Microsoft no longer honors product keys from OEMs. Does this mean I'm screwed if it asks me for a product key? (The key it came with is still on the sticker on the PC.)
Today I went and bought a new hard to install xp clean but only to find out Microsoft wouldn't accept my product keys which for some reason they have blocked . I never thought a retail version could be block . I call Microsoft to find out why my keys are being blocked . I was told that I was trying to activated it to many times in one day , or something like that , which really wasn't the case . I really never got a straight answer as to why . So now my retail version is no good to use .
I'm getting very nervous that I haven't made these impt system recovery discs.I bought 10 CDs at the time I bought PC and was assured they were the right type.When I got ready to create the discs, my PC said I would need 18 CDs.I backed out at that point so don't know if the ones I have are the right kind.I'm going out this week to buy some more, but still have doubts I'm getting the right kind.My HP guide says I need: CD-R.What I have is: SONY CD-R AUDIO (compact disc digital audio recordable.
i have an acer desktop and i would like to re-install my xp . I was given two discs with my system with the first being titled " system cd " and the second labeled " recovery cd " The system cd is tagged as disc 1 and the other as disc 2 . Am i correct in saying i install the first , then the second for a complete re-installation of XP ?
My Norton AntiVirus just upgraded from v2008 to v2009.Several weirdnesses ensued: 1. At the Windows Welcome screen, arrow keys could move the user selection up & down, but no alphanumeric keys made any visible entry (dot) in password field. Clicking Shut Down and restarting corrected this (for now, anyway). 2. The [Start] > [Log Off] > [Switch Users] button is missing. This would be a straightforward fix, except that 3. In Control Panel, User Accounts lacks "Change the way users log on or off"! [Is XP SP3's REAL purpose to hose up a nicely-running XP SP2 box, so the owner will FINALLY spring for a Vista system?] 4. Clicking any of the "Learn About." links opens the help page in IE7, but with its contents crowded to the left and the yellow bar at the top. Clicking to allow blocked content (Are you sure? YES!) results in yet another dialog about an ActiveX control that "might be unsafe" but the only new ActiveX control on this PC is one from Symantec, installed during the NAV 2009 upgrade. NAV 2009 was the FIRST product I've run into that did NOT permit its EULA to be selected, printed or saved. I like to keep a record of things I've agreed to, but that text was out of reach! Sixteen screenshots later.
I just deleted a partition and created a new one because I wanted to do a clean install of Windows Xp. Well everything installed fine except I'm supposed to have about 160 GB in my C: drive but now I have 130 GB. How do I get those 30 GB back Did I delete the partition wrong or something
How do I delete the partition between my drives C and D to reclaim the hard drive space? I am running XP Home on the computer. I have already formatted my drives C and D. I have also made my Recovery CDs and my Recovery Tools CD. Therefore I don't need the data on the hidden partition that HP created
Since I installed a new printer, my computer (Windows XP Home, SP2), while booting, displays a welcome page on which I have to click on my name (I don't have to type in a password since I don't have one) in order to access Windows. I find it a nuisance and would like to deactivate it so that the computer boots and loads Windows without me having to click first. How do I do so? Also, I am afraid of getting locked out of my computer if I fumble around with the user account settings. I am the only user of the computer.
My Dell desktop runs XP Pro. My Dell laptop also runs XP Pro. For some reason my laptop hard drive got corrupted and/or wiped virtually clean, and the computer will not boot. Unfortunately, I don't have a reinstallation disk for the laptop. I was thinking of using the desktop's reinstallation CD to load Windows onto the laptop. But then I remembered reading something about the activation process for XP, and am worried that if I then have 2 computers with XP loaded from the same disk, Microsoft will somehow pick up on this and deactivate one or both.Technically, I'll have 2 XP installations after having paid for 2 separate versions and licenses, but I don't know if Microsoft would buy this, especially since I don't have the receipt for the laptop (it's 6 yrs old).Is my concern justified, or just unnecessary worry? I'd hate to be sitting with 2 unusable computers?
Nopdb was using too much resources (90%++.)Using services, I set speed disk services to disabled.Problem DCOM caused BSoD because it could not launch speed disk. Setting speed disk to manual - I find that speed disk is automatically started in spite of the MANUAL setting.
I have 3 displays attached to my WINXP home system. The windows will de-activate randomly. By deactivate, I mean the active bar at the top of the window will dim and the task block at the bottom of the window will dim also. I have to mouse click the window to make it active again. This happens randomly. even if I am keying into an application such as EMAIL or my word processor. This also happened when I had only ONE display attached.I have automatic updates enabled so I believe my software is up to date.
I just noticed my start menu is acting a way I've never seen before. Instead of automatically unfold as usual, I see a partial vue (only a few programs) and I have to click on an arrow to make it unfold completely. Is that supposed to be this way (because I'm using XP Pro SP2 for the first time and SP1 was different)? Is there a function you have to deactivate or activate?
Computer upstairs every time i start it up after 2 mins i get the blue screen of death tells me something about deactivating bios chaching and shaowing or something and this is the STOP msg.*** STOP: 0x0000008E. I managed to get Registry Fix and i scanned my pc and cleaned it that but the problem is still happening.
Windows XP Interface, but dislike the screen-hogging window title bars and the ridiculously large window close, minimize, and maximize controls?To set the window title bar and controls back to a more reasonable size, go to the Appearance tab of the Display control panel and click Advanced. Then click on the title bar of the sample window, and you can reduce the size from 25 pixels to as low as 20 pixels. By reducing the title bar font size, you can shrink the title bar even smaller.This change makes the screen fell less cramped, and restores the correct (in my opinion) proportions to the title bars. Now if someone could do something about the bigger taskbar
My daughters viao crashed and would not reboot. It has xp home loaded.She had no back-up discs to reload.I loaded ubuntu into the computer. It works and looks great.Now the problem is, when I bring up the computer, it gives me the choice of ubuntu or windows. When I choose windows it takes me to factory restore and says part 1 and 2 of restore and it will shut down and restart and finish part 3 and 4. Problem is, it restarts in umbutu, because that is the first choice on the startup menu.
For the past week, when I try to load certain discs on my CD-Rom, I get a 16 bit subsystem error. Usually games that have previously worked fine. C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32AUTOEXEC.NT.