Any way to change Product IDs (win XP) from the registry?

[beer]

OK, I admit it. I'm an evil, evil person. I used the FCKGW key from Dell.

Now that I am at UT I just bought my copy for $15 from the campus store. I don't want to reformat/reinstall just to update myself to a legitimate CD Key, is there a way to do it in the registry?

 

[Rand]

You can deactivate WPA through the registry, and then re-enter a different product key through MSOOBE.exe


I'll assume your being honest and really have purcahsed a genuine copy of WinXP as you stated.

Instructions-

RegEdit:
HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents

Double click on OOBETimer and remove the "CA" digits on the top line.

Exit the registry and your copy of Windows will no longer be registered.

Run MSOOBE.exe, which should be located at
%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe

Go to the second option that says "Telephone Customer Service to Activate Windows".
Click on "Next".

On the botton of the applet will be a button that says "Change Product Key", enter in your new product key and click "Update" then reboot the sysem and your done.
Remeber it must be the appropriate Key for your version of Windows.



If you've ever disabled WPA functionality in the past then you will have to re-enable it before MSOOBE.exe will operate.
To do so you can download a piece of software such as XP-Antispy and re-enable licdll.dll


As always if your not familiar with the operation of the Windows Registry and WindowsXP's WPA software then I stringly recommend you contact Microsoft Technical Support. After confirming your valid purchased Windows Product key they can walk you through the procedure step-by-step.

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: Rand
You can deactivate WPA through the registry, and then re-enter a different product key through MSOOBE.exe


I'll assume your being honest and really have purcahsed a genuine copy of WinXP as you stated.

Instructions-

RegEdit:
HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents

Double click on OOBETimer and remove the "CA" digits on the top line.

Exit the registry and your copy of Windows will no longer be registered.

Run MSOOBE.exe, which should be located at
%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe

Go to the second option that says "Telephone Customer Service to Activate Windows".
Click on "Next".

On the botton of the applet will be a button that says "Change Product Key", enter in your new product key and click "Update" then reboot the sysem and your done.
Remeber it must be the appropriate Key for your version of Windows.



If you've ever disabled WPA functionality in the past then you will have to re-enable it before MSOOBE.exe will operate.
To do so you can download a piece of software such as XP-Antispy and re-enable licdll.dll


As always if your not familiar with the operation of the Windows Registry and WindowsXP's WPA software then I stringly recommend you contact Microsoft Technical Support. After confirming your valid purchased Windows Product key they can walk you through the procedure step-by-step.

Wow, I appreciate it.

Yeah, for fifteen bucks I'm not going to fight WPA. It's a restricted license install but I don't see any clauses which I'd break.

I can also get Visual Studio for like twenty bucks or some other rediculously low price.

 

[corkyg]

What you have is a legitimate academic edition copy - and another way to change the ID key is to just do an "upgrade" and install the new XP over the old one. All settings, links and drivers will be preserved.