Windows XP Serial

[Anonymous]

Hi!

Can anyone advice me how can I change my serial Number as at the moment I am using the \"General\" serial and it does not allow me to apply SP1 for WinXP. I had just bought the Originial Copy and would appricate if someone could teach me how to apply the new Serial Number without formatting my whole harddisk..

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

There was actually a little program to do that, I had it, but then once you get a new key, you must activate it thru microsoft, and it\'ll work.  But that programs link is gone, sorry.

[Josetann]

Probably the easiest no-hassle way to change it, would be to upgrade WinXP over top of itself.  Just pop the new CD in, tell it to do the upgrade, it will ask for the new key, go ahead and enter it in.  Once the install is complete it may want activation right away or it may give you the grace period (I would bet on the grace period, but haven\'t tried it myself so I\'m not sure), just activate it and that\'s it.

[MuffinAss]

Change Product Key without Reinstall:
1. Run regedit and go to: HKey_Local_MachineSoftwareMicrosoft
WindowsNTCurrent VersionWPAEvents, on the right double click on
\"oobetimer\" and change at least one digit of this value to deactivate
windows.

2. Choose run from start menu and type in this command:
%systemroot%system32oobemsoobe.exe /a to get the activation screen
and go to the second option which is activate by phone
.
3. In the new screen choose the option to change product key, and type
in the new product key (Corporate one only).

4. Close that window, reboot your system and enter the command in step 2
for the second time to verify your activation , you should see \"windows
is already activated\".

[Josetann]

Yes I believe that would work, if he had one version of windows installed, and wants to use a serial from that same version (ie he had an oem version installed, and wants to use another oem key).  But since he probably has a corporate version installed and more than likely has a diff kind of key (oem, retail, upgrade) he will need to do the upgrade so it will accept a diff kind of key.

[MuffinAss]

Yes, you are correct, my mistake, I should have payed closer attention to the post. Most, actually all, posts regarding this that I have seen so far are referring to the Corp. version.

I do wonder if this works on the home version, though.