TR Forums

Hiya-
First up: I am _not_ looking for warez or keygens or any such thing. I need a legitimately obtained Windows XP key.

I am reinstalling Windows XP Pro on a friend's computer. She no longer has the original disks or anything. Before I nuked her drive (the WinXP install was kludged up in a big way), I (A) cloned it to an external drive just in case, and (B) ran Keyfinder to get the installed WinXP product key. But now I'm attempting to reinstall Windows, the found key is not being seen as valid. The computer was built by a friend of hers she used to know that worked at a computer repair shop, so I don't think it's an OEM key.

I need a legitimate Windows XP Pro product key. If anyone has one that is no longer being used they would like to sell, or if there is any legitimate place to buy a legal key online, please let me know. The hurry is that I gotta deliver this thing tip-top tomorrow after work, so I'm in a bit of a pickle.

Again, no shenanigans, please. Everything above board. I can pay for an unused, legitimate key via Paypal, but would prefer to deal with established, respected members of the TR community.

I don't have a lot of posts (58 or so), so I'm not even sure if I fall into the category of established or respected. I know there are a lot of shady dealings when it comes to WinXp keys. Moderators, if this even hints of any violation of ethics or board rules, my sincere apologies. I'm just in a jam, and thought I would ask.

Thanks,
Drewstre

I can't help you, but I do feel your pain. I found myself in exactly the same boat about a month ago. Tried to re-use the key I recovered from the borked machine's registry, and it would not work with any of the install images I tried (OEM, retail, upgrade). Finally ended up just fixing the borked install as best I could, and leaving it at that. Really a non-optimal solution.

BS like this is one of the factors which has pushed me to switch to an alternative OS for most of my own systems...

Yeah, I got a few licences off ebay for VM usage a couple of months ago. About $45 each. Not perfectly legit as they didn't include the COA, but the keys passed Activation & WGA fin.e

Thanks, brew. It is a serious pain in the tuchus. There were some hardware issues as well (tried two DVD drives before I figured that the 80 pin IDE cable was faulty, all hail the might-never-need-it-but-don't-throw-it-out box), so once I had it all straight I thought I was smooth sailing. "Invalid key". CURSES!

Axeman- thanks. But I just don't trust eBay for such things as Windows keys. Intake manifold? Sure.

Anyone else, please, dig into your heart (and closet). It's worth a few bones your way.

Just curious, is it possible the key that was used to do the install initially wasn't legit to begin with?

Yeah I have a win xp pro cd key I can sell to you or whatever. PM me.

It is possible, but it was legitimized at some point, and it still leaves me in a lurch, regardless. If I'm on the hook for a new key, as it appears, the cost will be passed on, in some form (she makes a mean shrimp curry). As it stands, I need to deliver a working XP Pro box tomorrow. I said I'd deliver it tomorrow. I gotta make that happen.

i have two no-longer used xp pro keys - which you could have for free... the catch being that they're 150 miles away and i wont' be back home til friday :S IF you wanna wait i'd be more than happy to send you one.

Do you need XP Home, XP Pro or XP x64 (2003 sever based)?

I have all 3 collecting dust.

Have you tried activating the key over the phone? There have been a few times I've had to reinstall Windows on a machine where the online activation failed but the phone activation worked flawlessly.

Don't forget to hit up the college/university kids too.. They get XP keys like candy or at an extreme discount ($5-10 sometimes)... I've been there!

Can't activate by phone, I'm hung up on the Product Key entry screen during install. Can't get past it.

Drewstre wrote:

Can't activate by phone, I'm hung up on the Product Key entry screen during install. Can't get past it.

You should be able to skip the activation screen and finish the install, although I can't remember exactly how you do this (maybe by not typing a key and clicking the "next" button?).

MixedPower wrote:

Drewstre wrote:

Can't activate by phone, I'm hung up on the Product Key entry screen during install. Can't get past it.

You should be able to skip the activation screen and finish the install, although I can't remember exactly how you do this (maybe by not typing a key and clicking the "next" button?).

It explains the entire process here: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the ... de/1055658

thegleek wrote:

MixedPower wrote:

Drewstre wrote:

Can't activate by phone, I'm hung up on the Product Key entry screen during install. Can't get past it.

You should be able to skip the activation screen and finish the install, although I can't remember exactly how you do this (maybe by not typing a key and clicking the "next" button?).

It explains the entire process here: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the ... de/1055658

Guys, it's rejecting his product key up front. He's not even getting to the activation screen.

Sounds like the product key he pulled from the registry is not valid for use with normal retail/OEM install media. I've been around this block myself recently. The only option is to get another key, or the media/image which was used to install it originally.

Thanks folks, got it sorted out. I appreciate all your help and suggestions, and thanks to the TR forums (and a TR forum member), I should be able to deliver on time. It was the wee hours by the time I got it all installed and updated... literally fell asleep waiting for updates to download.

Thanks again for everybody's help.

Drewstre

I have an XP Pro license that I no longer use. PM me.

just brew it! wrote:

Guys, it's rejecting his product key up front. He's not even getting to the activation screen.

Right, but you should be able to skip the product key screen entirely and run XP in trial mode until it's activated, which you can do by phone once in the OS. Regardless, this discussion is academic now that the OP has resolved the issue.

MixedPower wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Guys, it's rejecting his product key up front. He's not even getting to the activation screen.

Right, but you should be able to skip the product key screen entirely and run XP in trial mode until it's activated,

And how exactly does one do that? The link thegleek posted assumes you've already made it past the product key entry screen. When I had this issue recently, I could not get past the product key entry screen. No trial mode, no opportunity to activate. The key pulled from the registry was not accepted, and it was not possible to progress further with the installation.

MixedPower wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Guys, it's rejecting his product key up front. He's not even getting to the activation screen.

Right, but you should be able to skip the product key screen entirely and run XP in trial mode until it's activated, which you can do by phone once in the OS. Regardless, this discussion is academic now that the OP has resolved the issue.

^ this. exactly.

thegleek wrote:

MixedPower wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Guys, it's rejecting his product key up front. He's not even getting to the activation screen.

Right, but you should be able to skip the product key screen entirely and run XP in trial mode until it's activated, which you can do by phone once in the OS. Regardless, this discussion is academic now that the OP has resolved the issue.

^ this. exactly.

How so? I explained in my previous post how I wasn't able to get past the product key screen when I hit this same issue, and if two people here have had this problem in the past month someone will certainly hit it again. If there's really a way to finesse this legally, then what you and MixedPower are saying is useful information. If there isn't, then it is useless misinformation. I don't see how that is purely "academic".

just brew it! wrote:

How so? I explained in my previous post how I wasn't able to get past the product key screen when I hit this same issue, and if two people here have had this problem in the past month someone will certainly hit it again. If there's really a way to finesse this legally, then what you and MixedPower are saying is useful information. If there isn't, then it is useless misinformation. I don't see how that is purely "academic".

Even though it may seem argumentative. But over 50-100 Win XP Installations (all of them legal), I have NEVER seen an incident where you couldn't get to that screen. Prove to me (with a link) otherwise. Cuz I'm just not believing it.

just brew it! wrote:

And how exactly does one do that? The link thegleek posted assumes you've already made it past the product key entry screen. When I had this issue recently, I could not get past the product key entry screen. No trial mode, no opportunity to activate. The key pulled from the registry was not accepted, and it was not possible to progress further with the installation.

If you leave the key field blank and click 'next' it will continue the installation. This definitely works with Win 7 (I just tried it in a virtual machine to make sure I wasn't crazy), and I'm sure I've done the very same method with XP a few times in the past.

just brew it! wrote:

I don't see how that is purely "academic".

I should have clarified that it is academic as far as the original issue posed by the OP is concerned, seeing as it has been resolved.

just brew it! wrote:

thegleek wrote:

MixedPower wrote:

Right, but you should be able to skip the product key screen entirely and run XP in trial mode until it's activated, which you can do by phone once in the OS. Regardless, this discussion is academic now that the OP has resolved the issue.

^ this. exactly.

How so? I explained in my previous post how I wasn't able to get past the product key screen when I hit this same issue, and if two people here have had this problem in the past month someone will certainly hit it again. If there's really a way to finesse this legally, then what you and MixedPower are saying is useful information. If there isn't, then it is useless misinformation. I don't see how that is purely "academic".

Only read the first half and skipped ahead to post.

Skipping product key entry is only possible in SP3+. You need SP3 slipstreamed media to do that.

It's also possible to have a key which won't work. SP3B and SP3C added new keyspaces. SP3A and below will not accept them.

Forge wrote:

Only read the first half and skipped ahead to post.

Skipping product key entry is only possible in SP3+. You need SP3 slipstreamed media to do that.

It's also possible to have a key which won't work. SP3B and SP3C added new keyspaces. SP3A and below will not accept them.

Thanks, Forge!

This explains the issue I had a month ago.