thnx red... plus mr. mod i think i have seen something about changing the last 3 digits or whatever somewhere here before but i just couldnt find it, and nobody said anything about that. i will try to look for that, even though to me im not trying to rat out anybody but ****.... be fair, especially since i dont believe i was doing anything wrong by asking the question since i have legal copies of MCE and since i lost my recovery disks its not like i can get my slp key from it. the stupid key that is on top of my dell doesnt even work when i try to change the key after installation.... go figure.