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Windows XP Retail to OEM Licensing

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by prsprague

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I have a question that I hope has a simple answer. Currently we receive new IBM laptops with factory loaded images of Windows XP with all the right drivers and utilities. Until now we have always wiped the drive and applied our own in-house developed image using Ghost. The version of Windows XP we use is a volume license version that does not require activation. Correct me if I am wrong but I beleive the version of XP that comes loaded on the laptops from IBM is the retail version which requires activation or it ceases to function after a grace period. Also the activation ties that copy of the OS to that particular harware preventing disk imaging using products like Ghost. Having the ability to image disks is a huge time saver and it would be nice if we did not have to keep wiping perfectly good factory images off of new systems. Is it possible to take the retail verion of XP already loaded and change it to the volume licensed version by using Sysprep and then upon reboot enter our volume license key? Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

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by hal 9000

The copy of Windows that you get on the new LT's is an OEM version but it still requires activation as well as any other MS software that is installed. The current period is 30 days of use without activation and it gets even better though not much of an issue with LT's but if you change 3 parts out you need to reactivate again and that is all the MS software not just the copy of Windows. Which incidental you are paying for anyway when you buy the LT's.

About the only thing that you actually need to look out for when Bulk loading Volume License copies is the fact that IBM has some really cool software included on the T40 and upward which will park the heads if the LT gets rocked around or dropped there is a movement sensor on the M'Board that is used to work this and Windows doesn't cover this option so if you are finding a few HDD failing it might be worth your while to investigate loading this software and making it constantly run in the background. The newer IBM LT's also have a Security Chip built into them as well which can encode the data and make it unreadable by anyone else if the LT is stolen or the backup copy is stolen but it also has a few potential problems as if you do not backup the Keys stored in that chip as well as the data it will just be rubbish if the LT goes walkabout and you will be unable to read any backed up data. Currently I'm of two minds about that feature on the one hand it is a great idea for any sensitive company data but on the other hand unless everything is backed up properly the data is useless and I for one don't trust my end users that much. While it is a good idea I would like to see some better way of recovering the data when something goes wrong and not just have a drive full of rubbish as a backup without the Keys in the chip being backed up as well.

Col ]:)

by pip22

Volume Licencing keys will not work with retail or OEM versions of XP. There are a different range of key codes for retail, OEM, and Corporate editions of xp, and they are not interchangeable.

by elvis035

i just formatted my HP PC model A305W desktop and did a restore from the CD and now it says i have a certain amount of days to activate depending on what day it is and when i click on the keys on the taskbar it says that it is already activated i need to know how to fix this i know one way is to change the Registry using REGEDIT to activate xp or i can use this to DeActivate XP and then reactivate it i have a valid CD key and Registration Key and OEM key can u kelp with this? thanks

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