Bootleg XP

S

sandi08079

New Member
Someone reformatted my son's hard drive in lieu of finding the problem. Although my son has his own copy of XP, he didn't know the man was gonna reformat. The man put his bootleg copy on my son's computer without discussing it. (all his games were lost) Now I would like to put his real copy of XP on his computer with out losing all the things he has redownloaded and I don't want it reformatted. How can I do this I already called Microsoft, but they were no help.
 
You are going to have to back up that stuff, buy a new XP, and then reformat. With a bootleg copy, you dont have a choice.
 
Depending on how much stuff you want to save, you could use a flash drive (if you don't have one, you can always borrow one), burn the stuff onto Cd's or borrow an external hard drive. After you have the files backed up, just insert the CD and it'll take you through the steps to reformat.
 
No you can change the CD Key from within Windows. If you can find the "activate windows" program from the system tools menu, there is an option to change the cd key and activate it again, making it legit.

Of course this will only work if the CD Key and the bootleg are the same version of Windows.
 
[-0MEGA-];533561 said:
No you can change the CD Key from within Windows. If you can find the "activate windows" program from the system tools menu, there is an option to change the cd key and activate it again, making it legit.

Of course this will only work if the CD Key and the bootleg are the same version of Windows.
Click to expand...

so my SP1 key wouldn't work with SP2?
 
[-0MEGA-];533617 said:
I believe they wont, because they're different builds.
Click to expand...

Wish someone whould have told me an answer to my XP problem when I had it, I didn't say anything bad or anything but I still got an infraction for asking just what this guy did and no one answered my question...
 
If the versions are the same, search for and download Magic Jelly Bean. Run it and you have an option to change the key. I do not know if you are going to be prompted to reactivate but you have a legit key so it should not be a problem.
 
Change the key, make it legit (aka just use the cd key on the real xp) and yeah... I know thats a repeat of like a thousand times other people saying it but I wanted to feel special knowing the answer too.
 
That still does not change info imbeded into the registry, you can't use different release cd keys on different copies because the numbers are batched, you're only safe bet both for legal and stability reasons is format and reload with the valid copy of xp.

you can find the key in the registry under HK_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/microsoft/windows/current version however that info changes when you run the activation.
 
Don't worry about the numbers in the registry. You are about to change them anyway. Do as I suggested earlier. Find your CD key using Magic Jelly bean and change it to the legit key you have If the versions are the same. If you are prompted to reactivate that should not be a problem as you have a legit key. No need to buy another legit key when you already own one.
 
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