question regarding re-use of license key

U

unreconstructed1

New Member
I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I've searched and haven't found anything.

a friend asked me to fix his PC for him, which is a Toshiba laptop running XP Pro. Now I will have an XP Pro CD in a few days, which I'm going to use to do a repair with, but if that doesn't work, I'll probably need to reformat the OS. Is there any way to, and is it legal to, recover the license key of the current install and re-use that since it is already registered to that machine, or will I need to use the license key of my CD, which will essentially make my CD worthless to me, since you can legally only use each license with one machine?

I've done plenty of work on my own machines, but not much on other peoples, so I would really just like to make sure to stay on the right side of the EULA and all applicable copyright laws. Thanks in advance for any help.

To be quite honest, I plan on working on the side doing PC repair, which is another reason that I'd like to make sure that I'm following all laws and terms.
 
It all depends if the laptop came preinstalled with xp pro, if it did then its an OEM version and in order to reuse his key,(technically OEM's are preactivated and Microsoft has disabled all pc manufacturers keys), you would have to have a copy of XP pro OEM version and would have to cal microsoft to reactivate it.

Is there a recovery partition on the drive? If so, you should use that to recover the OS.
 
no, actually the laptop came OEM with Vista Home Premium. XP was installed after a previous Hard drive replacement. that OS worked for a couple of weeks, and then crashed. now it'll load to the splash screen and then it goes into a BSOD.

edit: as for the recovery partition, there isn't one.
 
If it is not an OEM copy then yes you are able to reinstall windows and use the same key. AS LONG as that serial is used on only one computer at a time then you are able to use it again.
 
brian said:
If it is not an OEM copy then yes you are able to reinstall windows and use the same key. AS LONG as that serial is used on only one computer at a time then you are able to use it again.
Click to expand...

so how can I extract the license key from the currently installed copy of the OS?
 
thanks for the link John. One last question if I may. considering the state of the computer, would it be possible to run this program from a bootable environment like BART PE, or Windows PE? there wasn't a whole lot in the way of system requirements etc. posted on the download site, and I can't get to the vendors site.
 
Honestly ive never heard of BART PE, or Windows PE.

A few things though. i went to start and right click my computer then properties and my key was there.

Other was make sure you can get all the drivers from the site for the upgrade for the laptop.

Ive also used the keyfinder in the past and works well.
 
tremmor said:
Honestly ive never heard of BART PE, or Windows PE.
Click to expand...

the "PE" stands for Pre-installed environment. it is basically a mini operating system installed on a CD-ROM. This method is preferential for virus scans and such as your installed OS isn't active, and all files can be checked.

you can also use this setup if ( as in my case) the installed OS is critically corrupted.
 
tremmor said:
Honestly ive never heard of BART PE, or Windows PE.

A few things though. i went to start and right click my computer then properties and my key was there.

Other was make sure you can get all the drivers from the site for the upgrade for the laptop.

Ive also used the keyfinder in the past and works well.
Click to expand...

That's not the CD key. That's the Product ID number or something like that. The product key has to be extracted from the registry.
 
lucasbytegenius said:
That's not the CD key. That's the Product ID number or something like that. The product key has to be extracted from the registry.
Click to expand...

Ive noticed in the past with XP the key was not the same.
I said that because i have windows 7 Pro installed. I did check like mentioned above and the key was the same as whats on the box. I don't understand it. but it is for me.

Sorry............checked again. i wrote down the key that i found after checking as mentioned. I wrote a note to try this key if i ever needed to reinstall. I was just curious about what it was though. the key finder gets the right one though. Actually that key finder has been around a long time.
 
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