Windows XP OEM Keys. With these instructions you can change your Windows XP installation media to allow OEM, Retail, or Volume License product keys. Unlocking WinXP s. WinXP s controls how the CD acts. IE is it an OEM version or retail? First, find your file in the i386 directory on your WinXP CD. Open it up, it ll look something like this. The Pid value is what we re interested in. What s there now looks like a standard default. There are special numbers that determine if it s a retail, oem, or volume license edition. First, we break down that number into two parts. The first five digits determines how the CD will behave, ie is it a retail cd that lets you clean install or upgrade, or an oem cd that only lets you perform a clean install? The last three digits determines what CD key it will accept. You are able to mix and match these values. For example you could make a WinXP cd that acted like a retail cd, yet accepted OEM keys. Now, for the actual values. Remember the first and last values are interchangable, but usually you d keep them as a pair. Volume License = 51883 270. So if you wanted a retail CD that took retail keys, the last line of your file would read. And if you wanted a retail CD that took OEM keys, you d use. Note that this does NOT get rid of WinXP s activation. Changing the Pid to a Volume License will not bypass activation. You must have a volume license (corporate) key to do so. A Windows product ID [currently, as of the XP Home/Pro/Server 2003 era] has the following format: xxxxx-yyy-zzzzzzz-zzzzz. The xxxxx component. The xxxxx section, which I will now call the OS type , from what I understand, determines the flavor of Windows version. Here is my current list of OS type IDs. 55274. XP Professional (Corporate/Academic. 55285. XP Professional. 51873. 2000 Professional. 76487. Media Center Edition 2005 (or XP Professional Royalty OEM. 76477. XP Home (Royalty OEM. The current OS ID can be gotten by various methods. * If the destination computer s operating system works well enough [even in safe mode], you can get it by right-clicking My Computer, clicking Properties, and reading the long ID number that appears under Registered to. * You can use the command reg query hklmsoftwaremicrosoftwindows ntcurrentversion /v ProductID if you re at a command prompt. * If the destination computer does not work very well, you can get it by attaching the hard drive to a working machine, and mount the hive by highlighting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in regedit, and choosing File ; Load Hive. Then you can surf your way to the machine s system32configSOFTWARE hive. It will ask you what key to mount; you then give it any name you like, and it will appear under your own HKLM. You then click your way to SoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersion (then you will see ProductID on the right). Don t forget to highlight the top key of the mounted hive, and go to File; Unload Hive when you re done. * Finally, you can actually find the ID you need [sometimes] if you check for the presence of either or. Below is a list of OEM CD keys. Use the keys to create a Dell, Compaq, IBM, restore cd that skips product registration. You will need to replace the BIOS files in the I386 and change the file to match the key used. For example the Dell WIndows XP Home cd uses 55277OEM. List of OEM CD Keys. Shanghai version VOL integrates SP2. Interesting article from technet about how to re-install Windows XP on and OEM computer using the keys below to preserver OEM activation. updated: April 20, 2005. 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. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Windows XP Professional x64 bit. For any of the solutions outlined below, you can verify that the OEM pre-activation has been preserved by clicking Start - Run and typing /A and then click OK. If the procedure was successful, a message indicating that Windows has already been activated will be displayed. 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. I. Using “sysprep –reseal –mini” Command. OEM pre-activation can be preserved when 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: and These files can be found in the which can be downloaded from the Microsoft® download center available at this location. * Create a file named using a text editor such as Notepad that contains the information shown below substituting the appropriate product key. * Save the file in the c:\sysprep\ folder. * Run c:\sysprep –reseal –mini. For more information on the sysprep process, please visit. II. Making changes to the file. OEM pre-activation can be preserved if changes are made to the file by ensuring that the file contains the information shown below but substituting the appropriate product key. III. Manual Install. OEM pre-activation can be preserved when doing a manual installation by inserting the appropriate product key listed above when prompted for a product key by Windows setup. If you run sysprep –reseal –mini following the manual install, you will need to follow the steps outlined in Section I. IV. Unattended Install. OEM pre-activation can be preserved if you use an unattended answer file or to automate installation by including the information shown below in the answer file substituting the appropriate product key listed above. If you run sysprep –reseal –mini following an unattended install, you will need to follow the steps outlined in Section I. For more information on sysprep process, please visit.
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