Folks, I need your help! I've used Windows XP Home since its introduction but recently I obtained a version of Windows XP Professional with SP2 integrated via my University and the MSDN 'Academic Alliance' as I'm an eligible candidate. To my point, I always thought that the MSDN CD's of the Operating Systems were pretty much like the Manufacturer Royalty OEM CD's, that they required no activation. Great, I thought, the migration to Professional would be painless as there seems to be the OEMBIOS files. However, when I installed with my key, the system asked me to re-activate, what a killjoy, although I can't complain as it cost me nothing and Professional is better. So, although the OEMBIOS files are present, it needs activating, is there anything I might be doing wrong? Such as using a different key hidden in a different file or something? This was the case with my royalty XP Home, when I first got into creating unattended CDs, I used the CD key on the back of the computer and found I needed to activate, however, looking into the CD files, I found the WINNT.sif file had the manufacturer key, which allowed the pre-activated state upon XP install. Although, the MSDN CD does not have a WINNT.sif file! So, how do I create a CD from the MSDNAA CD that will install pre-activated? Or am I wrong in my assumptions that the MSDN CD's allow OEM-style pre-activation? I only ask as I would like to move to XP Professional but have got used to not activating after a format and reinstall! All comments and suggestions would be very much appreciated, thanks.
