XP activation on Dell. Needed?

[Bluefront]

I read on a different board that XP(home or pro) does not require avtivation if installed on a Dell computer. One guy tried it on several Dells and swears it's true. He speculates the word "Dell" in the BIOS has something to do with it. Sounds like crap to me. Anybody know for sure? Actually tried it?

 

[Abzstrak]

sounds like crap to me too... maybe possible if he's using a Dell winxp CD on Dell pc's.... but I still doubt it

 

[bacillus]

dell's own OEM windows version doesn't need activation on a dell.
a non dell windows copy will need activation
folk over at delltalk suggest it's somehow tied in to dell's bios but can't confirm that!

 

[Bluefront]

I'll be damned!!!! Does this mean you can install one copy of a DellXP CD on multiple Dell computers? Highly illegal I guess. The guy's post I read suggested that. He was in the process of hacking the BIOS of a different computer, trying to find the correct key in the Dell BIOS to enable this non-activation thing. Heh. I've got a Dell restore cd right here....no extra Dell computers however! Note: This is ILLEGAL.

 

[Bluefront]

Well I just poked around on the Delltalk forums. Apparently this is possible with a DellXP cdrom. You have to boot to the cd to do this. After the install or reinstall you then need no activation. According to Dell, if I'm reading it correctly, you can install this copy of XP on another Dell computer without activation. It is legal for "home use" only. They said nothing about multiple installs on more Dell computers. Maybe not so illegal afterall.

 

[Derango]

From what I gather, if the manufacturer reported by the BIOS is dell...the cd will install. Otherwise it won't. It could be much more technical than that though

 

[mcveigh]

I setup some new dell's about 5 moths ago, I had to activate them :frown: