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upgraded the Dell to Win XP Pro, want to use Win XP Home on another machine - serial # problem

Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Here's the situation: I bought a Dell Dimension 4600 a few months ago as my workstation. It came with Windows XP Home edition. I prefer using Windows XP Professional, which I had on my old computer, and so I installed that onto the 4600. Now it is running Windows XP Professional.

Then I had a leftover copy of Windows XP Home from the 4600 that wasn't being used. I wanted to install it on an old 866mhz box I have. So I did. Everything went fine. It didn't ask me for an serial #, however. I left it alone for to install, came back and punched in the time and date and all that and let it finish. Does it automatically pass by the serial # screen if it's left alone for a period of time? I either missed it, or the Dell XP Home CD doesn't ask you for one.

Anyway, so it installed just fine. It recognized all my devices and goes pretty quick. But it wants me to activate, which is fine considering it didn't ask me for the serial # when I was installing it (or it timed out and finished installing when I was away). So, I call up the number, put in my activation code, and it says it can't find it in the database. So I try again, no luck. I can't get ahold of a human operator, either.

I did some searching in some old posts and found a couple interesting things. First, the Dell Windows CD is supposed to do a BIOS check or something...mine didn't. Mine installed perfectly fine. Second, some of the old posts said that the license to use the Windows CD was tied to that specific hardware, making it illegal to use that serial # on any other computer (or maybe just non-Dell computers), even if the original Dell computer was wiped. Anyone know if that's true? If that's the case, then I've got a useless copy of Windows XP Home edition.

Basically I want to get my copy of Windows XP Home edition activated, and it's not letting me. I wiped the Dell, installed Windows XP Pro on it, and took its old copy of Windows XP Home edition and installed it on another computer. Now it's not letting me activate it. I have the original CD as well as the original serial #. I know it'd be easier just to hack it or get a corporate serial # or something, but I'd kind of picky about keeping all of my stuff legit.

Any ideas?
 
pretty sure that the copy is linked to your old dell and that it will not activate on any machine but that dell (possibly on another 4600 but could be only that machine) so the copy is probably worthless. Admitidly this is from something read more then a year ago and not from experience so i could be mistaken.
 
Dell OEM windows xp will recognize the dell system config and this bypasses the need for activation. However, if config not found, then it will ask for activation, and the OEM Dell key you received with your dell system will not work. Sorry, but MS feels you are a pirate at this point.
 
Originally posted by: vegetation
Dell OEM windows xp will recognize the dell system config and this bypasses the need for activation. However, if config not found, then it will ask for activation, and the OEM Dell key you received with your dell system will not work. Sorry, but MS feels you are a pirate at this point.
Click to expand...

crud! so my XP Home CD is completely worthless at this point?
 
You could use a Key Changer to change to another key.
There are Keys and Key Gens out there for XP

Or optionally, why not just install your XP Pro on the
second machine ?

It should let you without any trouble.
 
You could use a Key Changer and a Key Gen to
change from the OEM Key to a Regular Key

Or just install XP Pro on the second machine.
 
No, legally under the OEM License Agreement that you agreed to for the Dell XP home, you can only use that OS on the computer that the OS was bundled with. This is Microsoft's OEM license agreement policy (not a Dell thing, although Dell's install CD enforces the policy).

More info
 
Originally posted by: MrChad
No, legally under the OEM License Agreement that you agreed to for the Dell XP home, you can only use that OS on the computer that the OS was bundled with. This is Microsoft's OEM license agreement policy (not a Dell thing, although Dell's install CD enforces the policy).

More info
Click to expand...

ahh, thanks MrChad. I want to keep everything legitimate. I'll have to save the XP Pro I already installed for another machine. Oh well, such is life 😉
 
Originally posted by: bruceb
You could use a Key Changer to change to another key.
There are Keys and Key Gens out there for XP

Or optionally, why not just install your XP Pro on the
second machine ?

It should let you without any trouble.
Click to expand...

Hey welcome to Anandtech, @ssmonkey. At the rate you are going you'll be banned by your third post, congratulations!
 
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