XP product key

Rob-hin · Post by **Rob-hin** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 2:47 pm

Here's the deal.

Recently, the company where my father works decided to buy new PC's and sell their old ones. I ordered two of them and recieved one so far.
On the PC, XP is pre-installed, the product key sticker is on the PC. I didn't get any software CD's though.

What if I want to reset the PC in the future, what are my options?
I mean, I have the product key and thus legally own XP, but no CD containing XP. What can I legally do at that time?

There is no chance of getting the software on CD from the company.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 2:52 pm

Check the various directories on the harddrive. It is possible that a pre-installed version of XP has a directory with the CD-files located. (I know a friend of mines did, but that was fresh from the shop).

Otherwise - I'd suggest writing to Microsoft, and asking them what your options are (if you can get ahold of them).

Psi_RedEye22 · Post by **Psi_RedEye22** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:33 pm

There should be a secondary partition with all backup files on it, or recovery disks by the pre-built manufacturer. Of course you can't put it on another computer, but you can put it back to the way it was.

Hope this helps.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:05 pm

I guess legally speaking, if you got your hands on a copy of a Windows XP disk, you could install from that and as long as you use the product key that came with your computer and don't use someone else's, and you'd be in the clear.

The license agreement allows you to make copies of the disk for your own personal use and since you legitimately purchased the computer and all of the software licenses that came with it, using a copy of someone else's CD with your own product key would fall into the gray area of legality, but I wouldn't have any problems doing that.

Rob-hin · Post by **Rob-hin** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 3:54 am

I checked it to see if the software was put on it somewhere, but no such luck.

I do have a XP CD myself from another PC though, so I could use that one with the other code... this will work without problems and this would (mostly

) be legal then.

Alrighty, that's clear. Thanks you all.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:11 am

[QUOTE=Rob-hin]I checked it to see if the software was put on it somewhere, but no such luck.

I do have a XP CD myself from another PC though, so I could use that one with the other code... this will work without problems and this would (mostly

) be legal then.

Alrighty, that's clear. Thanks you all.

[/QUOTE]
Remeber that they have to be the same version (dutch/english home/pro).
Also in windows XP you can make system points. If you PC is running fine now, make a systempoint and then you can return to that later when something is screwed up.

Rob-hin · Post by **Rob-hin** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:35 am

[QUOTE=Stilgar]Remeber that they have to be the same version (dutch/english home/pro).
Also in windows XP you can make system points. If you PC is running fine now, make a systempoint and then you can return to that later when something is screwed up.[/QUOTE]

I had that in mind too, thanks.

Didn't think about what you said about the version though...