freckles

YAY!! It works!!!!! You were right! Somehow I had the Pro's OEM files getting on the disk instead... Thanks so much for all the help!! /me bighugs Za & Bel

Ugh. Unfortunately, that did not work. Not only did the OEM bypass not work, it did not activate after installation, also it had problems with the key during installation. Oh well. I will try it again with just all the retail stuff in there. Hopefully, activation will go through afterwards .

Wow. I wasn't even sure that I had the option to use that method. That would really rock! I guess that makes sense though... Yay! Now I can continue working on my nLite CD. Thanks so much!

The HP disc says "Operating System CD" I would say that it's an installation CD since it's setup just like a normal Windows disc, i.e. with the I386 folder, instead of a big image file. It also says "For software reinstallation and repair only" There's a separate disc for drivers and programs. But I guess regardless, you're saying that even though I can produce those files it won't work for pre-activating, right? How about the WPA method, will that even work? Thanks for all the replies!!

OK! Finally posting after many, many hours of research Thanks so much for this forum and all the info and helpful people here I'd like to create an unattended XP Pro SP2 CD. I've installed and looked through most of the nLite options. I've downloaded, but have not tried using VMWare Workstation 5.5 - yet. I've got a retail upgrade XP Pro SP1 CD that I had slipstreamed with SP2 like 2 years ago. The last time I installed Windows was about 9 months ago and it consisted of a fresh install of an HP OS CD with XP Home SP2 that I immediately upgraded with the previously mentioned Pro SP2 CD. For the last month or so, Windows has been giving my laptop lots of runtime and hung app errors - it's time for a fresh install anyway. In particular, I read the thread about using files from existing installations to build a pre-activated CD and the MSFN Guide page about activating Windows. My computer's C:\WINDOWS\system32 directory has those OEM files, I guess from the original installation, and the WPA file. The Jellybean Key thing shows the retail key. Is it possible for me to build a pre-activated CD with my files?? Also, is it true that the WPA method no longer works with SP2 installs? Since my Pro disc is retail, I don't mind using the WINNT.SIF method and even calling in if I have to. I just figured it would be pretty nifty if one of the pre-activation methods would work for me. Looking forward to reading the replies and any other helpful advice for my first unattended CD...