Cygnus

Thanks for the reply. The 25th letter in the product key is a D. I don't know what you mean by the name of the OEM!!!! The CD did not come with any hardware part, I bought it from the ebay seller as an OEM version of XP PRO. I don't know about EU, but in the US you could LEGALLY buy the OEM version of Windows, the only caveat I know of is that you do not get any support from Microsoft for installation...etc. + you coud only install it on one PC. Thanks.

bump. Anyone? Anything?

No it's not for a certain brand. It is the Microsoft Windows XP Pro for a new PC, and not an upgrade either. The ones for a specific brand are usually sold much cheaper, I paid almost retail price for this one. I thought to call Microsoft phone support, but what would I tell them? They will probably say my copy is not original and make me buy it again from them or something? I don't know, I'm shooting in the dark here. Thanks any way for the reply.

Hi everyone...I have recently used nLite to do a clean install of Windows XP PRO SP2 2002 OEM version on a new PC with Vista home basic preinstalled, and there is an issue I'd like to discuss, so please bear with me. - The problem I'm facing right now is that The Microsoft "Genuine" product utility failed my system authentication process and deemed it a pirated/not authentic and hence not eligible for updates. - This copy of OEM Windows I puchased from a certain ebay store that had like 1000's of feedbacks with close to a 100% rating, and the guy seems to, almost exclusively, sell Microsoft software. Cost me $87 by the way. - The package looked authentic to me, the holographic CD, the COA, but again I'm no expert. - I did open a PayPal case to try and get the seller to help or get my money back. But this is not the issue here. - When I first copied the contents of the Windows CD to a folder on my laptop, started nLite for the first time and right there at the Unattended setup, there was an existing product key that was different than the one on the COA. So: Question 1: Is this a proof that this copy of Windows is not original? - I copied this number, then erased it and entered the one on the COA. When Microsoft authentication failed, I downloaded a Microsoft utility to retype/change the product key. So, I retyped the same number on the COA, and still the same. But then I thought of entering the number that nLite extracted at the begining. Then the authentication utility gave a message saying that this is an authentic key, but is already registered to another machine!!!!?!?? Question 2: So, now what? Could this situation be fixed without having to resetup Windows again? Question 3: Is there a possibility that this copy is indeed authentic but the fact that I used nLite, caused this problem? I know I sound ridiculous here, but I don't really know. Your help and feedback is greatly appriciated. Thanks.

Hi everyone , I bought a new PC and it came with Vista. I wanted to keep using my XP Pro, but I encountered lots of problems, that when I saw nLite and tried it, setting up Windows was never so much fun. So a very BIG THANK YOU. I still have a few hanging questions but these are for another topic. Best.