By Stephanie Ybarra Large PC Manufacturers known as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have the ability to pre-activate Microsoft® Windows XP software installed on new PCs. As a result, end users are typically not required to activate the software during the set up process by typing in the product key found on the Certificate of Authenticity attached to the PC (COA Key). In order to reduce a significant source of piracy, Microsoft has disabled online activation for COA Keys that are attached to PCs that have been pre-activated by OEMs. This change should have a minimal impact on licensed users who generally do not use their COA Key to activate the software because it has been pre-activated by the OEM.

However, if a licensed end user needs to activate because the OEM pre-activation does not work as expected (e.g., after the replacement of a defective motherboard) they can do so via phone-based activation. To help minimize the potential impact on licensed users, this whitepaper provides steps licensed end users can take to preserve OEM pre-activation when reinstalling the operating system using any of the four scenarios outlined below (sysprep, OOBEinfo, manual and unattended). The following product keys should be substituted for XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX in the solutions discussed below. Windows XP Professional 32 bit MVF4D-W774K-MC4VM-QY6XY-R38TB Windows XP Tablet PC Edition XT67V-GY7FW-GR6FR-WDK2C-8T97J Windows XP Professional x64 bit FM634-HJ3QK-6QVTY-RJY4R-XCR9J For any of the solutions outlined below, you can verify that the OEM pre-activation has been preserved by clicking Start ->Run and typing%SYSTEMROOT% system32 oobe msoobe.exe /A and then click OK. If the procedure was successful, a message indicating that Windows has already been activated will be displayed.

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Evette Schaeffer Serial Numbers Saxophone Family. Note: Instead of implementing any of the solutions outlined below, Volume License customers can use Volume License media to install the same operating system that was licensed from an OEM without acquiring a volume license for a PC being re-imaged. More information about this option is available here under “Re-Imaging Rights”:.

Because Volume License agreements do not provide a full operating system license, Windows licenses should be acquired as part of the PC purchase from the PC manufacturer. Using “sysprep –reseal –mini” Command OEM pre-activation can be preserved when Sysprep.exe is run to reseal the system using the –reseal – mini switches by following these steps. • Ensure the following three files are present in the C: Sysprep folder: sysprep.exe, setupcl.exe, and factory.exe.

These files can be found in the deploy.cab which can be downloaded from the Microsoft® download center available at this location: • Create a file named sysprep.inf using a text editor such as Notepad that contains the information shown below substituting the appropriate product key. [UserData] ProductKey =”XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX” • Save the sysprep.inf file in the c: sysprep folder. • Run c: sysprep –reseal –mini For more information on the sysprep process, please visit.

I don't have a problem with SP3 itself, Guowen. This machine has been running MCE 2005 SP3 for some time. The owner had reported a problem with messages indicating certain.dlls were missing or corrupt, so I ran sfc /scannow. Naturally, it calls for a disc, so I inserted an XP Pro SP3 cd, which it happily accepted, for a while. When it called for disc 2 I realized it wanted MCE, and I do have a copy of MCE 2005. I inserted disc 2, but the machine responded that the disc was not correct. That's why I wondered if there was ever a cd set produced that included SP3 for MCE, just like there are cds for XP Pro that have SP2 or SP3 included.