I recently encountered problems with registering and activating legit Windows XP copies that I have.  Some computers come with Windows XP OEM, some with have the Retail version installed.  For companies there is also the Volume License edition.  Each of these versions have a specific CD and keys from other versions are not accepted.  Having some official self-burned CDR disks of Windows XP disks in my possession which were downloaded from MSDN, but badly labeled (not indicating OEM, Retail or Volume License) this caused some problems for me not accepting the correct serial when I tried to reinstall Windows XP.  If you have the same problem, here are 2 tricks how to change a live version, and how to change your installation files.

Change the version of your existing XP installation:

1. Boot your computer using the CD of the Windows XP edition you want to upgrade your current edition to
   
2. When Windows Setup asks you to setup Windows XP, press enter (Do not choose the option To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R)
3. Accept the License Agreement
4. Now select the Windows XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair
5. Next setup will copy some files and reboot
6. Voila, your active Windows XP installation is changed from OEM/Retail?Volume License
   

Change the version of your existing XP CD

1. Copy the content of your Windows XP CD to your harddrive
2. Open the file \i386\setupp.ini in your favorite text editor (mine being Notepad++)
3. The Pid variable is the parameter that needs to be modified next. The variable consists out of 2 parts.  The first 5 digits determine the verion of Windows XP that will be installed, the last 3 digits determine which CD-keys the installation wizard will accept.
4. The following are the standard combinations:

Retail = 51882 335   (Retail edition accepting Retail keys)

Volume License = 51883 270 (Volume License edition accepting Volume License keys)

OEM = 82503 OEM (OEM edition accepting OEM keys)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 8:44 pm and is filed under IT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.