Nedreplan

Just a question: I am about to buy a new HDD.
Will I have to get a new "code" from MS to re-activate Windows XP?
Or is the hardware changes "not enough", so to speak, to force me to contact them?

XP Abuser

you should get away with it as you havent removed any components youve just added one still XP allows moderate config changes

but if you reinstall xp on the new drive then you will have to

Jahya

In theory, I believe it is only supposed to make you reregister if you change 3 or more pieces of harware. Not 100% sure on that.... I seem to recall browsing over that in the manual and seeing/hearing it from other sources as well.

I guess I'll be finding out soon, I recently switched video and soundcard w/ no problem and I just bought a new hd over the weekend. I'll be slapping that in tonight. But if so, I have no intention of reregistering it. I paid my $200 for XP Pro, I registered it once and I shouldn't have to waste time reregistering, so I found a "program" (which I'm sure is not legal -- sorry!) to assist me in taking care of the problem. If it is required for me to reregister, I'll use the "program" to take care of it for me.

JohnnyGreb

XP Pro (AKA Corp) technically doesn't require activation. If you select "contct by phone" the next reboot will activate it.
This is because imagine if you had several hundred XP Pro installs in a corporate enviroment, can you image having to activate every single copy? Mind you, this doesn't necessarily defeat illegal keys, so I wouldn't recommend that.

-Ryandor

yoyo

All you want to know about Windows Product Activation (ok maybe not really everything )

http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm

Jahya I would thoroughly think about using this program. In many cases (as example more than 120 days since last activation) you can just use the automated procedure over the net again. On the other side you can't be sure what side effect this "program" may have.

Electronic Punk

I think Tweak-XP -- totalidea.de - has a utility that will backup your actvation or something.

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Kush

yup ure right punky they do have it in tweak xp but i dont really undresstand how it works. i know that it exports a file to wherever u want it
and then imports it back when u want it. but how does it do this i think it with the registry i think the exported file has the structure of a .reg file but just renamed to a different file extension.:happy:

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yoyo

That is the long known tweak to backup the file wpa.dbl before reinstalling Windows. This will only work if there are no hardware changes.

Ultrabeamer

I didn't have to reactivate Windows when I bought a new HDD. Even if you have to do so - it's not so complicated...

Hipster Doofus

I've never been able to get that one to work although for others it does. Reactivating is a painless procedure anyway. I should know I've done it enough times.

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