Finch

hmm, interesting... I slipstreamed over a SP1a CD. But I said it was retail and that might be wrong. It is actually a "system builder" version - but it was NOT preinstalled and not bundled with any specific hardware and what I have is NOT a "system restore" disk of any kind - it's a regular CD (with MS holographs) and I can install it on any machine. Due to the legal situation here in Germany, nobody ever ever buys "full retail" *g*. I actually forgot that "full retail" exists and is different ;-) Does that make a difference for the license key? I hope not...

Windows doesn't need to tell the future. XP OEM, retail and corp have different media. If you install with retail, you can only enter a retail cd key, either during setup or after. If you install with OEM, you can only enter a OEM cd key, either during setup or after. If you install with volume license, you can only enter a volume license cd key and has to be done during setup. ok... as it happens so often, you have deleted the important part of the quote."user_hidden" said: "... OEM keys ... don't work.... VLK keys ... should still work ... unless blacklisted" ... and this assumes that the key is rejected / doesn't work - which is not what the OP asked... Yes, the type of media might make a difference but unless stated otherwise, I assume it's retail. FWIW: Mine is retail and it does require a key even after slipstreaming SP3. We'll probably just have to wait for a couple of days for somebody to take a look at it.

During my experiments with nLite, I noticed that several settings don't seem to be restored when I load a configuration. This includes settings for disabling Windows File Protection, the tcpip-Tweak, several "unattended" settings and maybe even more... Several of the languages and keyboard layouts I had selected (for removal) were deselected... I have not "investigated" this thoroughly... I just noticed that I wanted to make a minor change to a previous session and ended up with a very different image... Can anybody tell me which settings are not restored? Thanks, Finch P.S.: This happened when the language was set to "German". Don't know if this makes a difference...

ok, this is incredible.It would be a good idea to read at least the first and the last post before posting a reply... Where did he say his key wasn't working? He even clarified his problem in post #9 OK, I won't repeat my explanation from the last post ... *sigh*

Wrong Just to shed some light on this misunderstanding: "Neowinian" ist *not* his name, it's a "member level" on neowin.net just like "Newbie", "Member", "Advanced Member" etc. are on msfn.org. So what you thought was his name was NOT AT ALL his name... and for him of course, it "obviously" just meant "some member from neowin.net" and he can not be expected to see what you thought... Honest mistake, I'd say, but still on your part... I don't know the spec but if some mechanism is "documented" that is not at all the same as some working patch. Now you're being unreasonably unfriendly IMHO...

Could you please PLEASE take the time to read the question and the other posts before posting something that is not at all relevant to the problem? The problem is: You are prompted and required to enter a key. With SP3, you should be able to skip (!) the key section and enter it "later", e.g. during or before activation. => This CAN NOT be related to the type of key because Windows cannot tell the future and cannot know what type of key you intend to enter "later on" (!). OK, I've also run into this problem... looking forward to a solution... :-) Unfortunately, I don't have one either and I was looking forward to this "feature" because it would allow me to create Virtual machines and give them to a friend who could then enter his own CD key...