question about XP Home keys

[Niku-Sama]

ok so a friend of mine are going to whip together a few of the computers hes recived over the years, P4 and A-XP era Windows XP pre bulit machines, and run them over LAN to play UT or something, mabe wow on med/low. they all have AGP and are atleast DDR400 and the smallest has a 80 gig drive. enough

we figured we'd format and re install XP home the thing is we dont have any of the origonal install discs.

i do have an XP Home OEM with i think SP1 on it. will i be able to use those keys and this disc together?

 

[Weeman]

Lifehacker has an incredible walkthrough for setting up a server (all operating systems). I don't have the http, but you should be able to google it. Hope it helps, I don't really know too much about the LAN Gaming world.

 

[OnDborder]

I've found it necessary to have the same version of XP of the key in order for it work.
Like the key for XP home sp1 will not work for pro,oem, xp home, etc. It has to match.
But that could just be me and my luck.
Go ahead and give it a try.

 

[RollingThunder]

I've found it necessary to have the same version of XP of the key in order for it work.
Like the key for XP home sp1 will not work for pro,oem, xp home, etc. It has to match.
But that could just be me and my luck.
Go ahead and give it a try.

ODB,

I have found the same. The key recognizes an OEM or retail, XP Pro, Home, etc.

 

[Niku-Sama]

so in theroy i might have to aquire some how xp versions of the manufacturers?

 

[Neuromancer]

In theory no, in practice yes

Vanilla/Sp1/2/3 does not matter unless its a pirated key (will work to install previous versions but blacklisted in a future SP), just OEM, RETAIL, UPGRADE and flavor of XP (home, Pro Media-center or 'N' or whatever that version was they released in Europe without mediaplayer )LOL


You can try it with a system builders OEM copy... technically it should work. I usually just find a copy of the OS for Dell, HP/Compaq etc. Pretty easy to track down. That way I do not even have to worry about mistyping the key.

 

[stool]

You can usually find manufacturer-specific install disks on pricewatch. As far as I know, it's 100% legit using them. I've done so myself on rigs I was given with screwed up installations and the original key missing. As was mentioned by ODb, though, it has to be the same version.

 

[4GHZ_or_bust]

oem key usually will not work unless you have the matching cd from the same company that issued the key. retail version usually will work anywhere unless it's been blacklisted.

If you have many retail keys, you should be able to use just 1 xp cd and install all of the PC as long as each has its own key number.