XP Home questions

[mcseguy9]

A couple of easy questions for you. First, can I use any XP Home CD to reinstall XP Home on a PC provided I have my own unique CD Key? Second, if I use a tool to acquire the CD Key for an XP Home installation on a hard drive that CD Key will work upon reinstall, correct?

I have a friend who has XP Home on his PC. He cannot find his CD and doesn't have his CD Key, either. I know there are tools out there to get the CD Key off the computer, but I'm mostly concerned about the XP Home CD and the use of that CD Key from off the computer. I have a copy of XP Home that came with my wife's laptop, so I plan to use that CD and the CD Key off of my friends PC to rework his PC. This will work, won't it?

[bruceb]

As long as the key Retrieved from his pc is for the same Type of Windows as the
CD you are reinstalling from, it will be no problem

But if his home pc has XP Home & you try to reinstall or repair it with XP Pro
or if the Key on the pc is an OEM & you try to use with a Retail Copy then it
will not work

Just go to My Computer, Properties it will bring up a bunch of screeens ... the first
one is the General Tab & your XP install code should be right there along with
the Version of Windows & what Service Pack is installed

A side note, almost forgot: You must use a copy of XP which has the SAME or Later
version of whatever Service Pack is currently installed .... XP will not let you repair
an install which had SP2 on it with a copy of XP without SP2 on it

Get Autostreamer and SP1 or SP2 on CD & make slipstreamed Windows XP CD's
one with SP1 & one with SP2

[mcseguy9]

That's some great info, bruceb. Thanks for the help and guidance.

[bruceb]

Let us know how it works out

[mcseguy9]

Well, since I'm unsure about some things I'm going to tell him that unless he can provide the CD and CD Key he's out of luck and I've done all I can do.

[bruceb]

See this image ... of necessity I blanked out my actual serial number
but you would find it in that area of the image

[mcseguy9]

My concern is with the CD that I have. It came with my wife's laptop and says on it that it is an HP/Compaq Home Edition CD. I know it's an operating system CD because as soon as her laptop arrived I wiped the hard drive and installed XP from that CD. However, from what you've said it might not work on another PC. Thanks for the help.

[Baxdaddy]

there is a way to find that CD key on his hard drive provided XP will boot. You can google it as I don't want to break any rules here. I did this just today on an old HP Pavillion before running the recovery CD. Those key finders want to charge you for something that can be done manually.

[Baxdaddy]

brain (pass of gas) ....I am thinking of 98SE what a goob!

[Ted.Wiggins]

I Don't Know that How to Search this Bulletin Board with similar words instead of exact words.
I searched for similar words in http://www.google.com and
http://www.boardexplorer.com and I found this Bulletin Board.
However inside the site I could not find any smart search. you have to know exact words to find similar topics
any Idea?