BigDaddy Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 (edited) Hello!Thus far I have been using a pirated version of Win2003 SP2 enterprise edition. So now finally our school admin has set up MSDNAA so I am now able to receive a student free of charge license for almost all of Microsofts products.But when I tried to change the serial number in Win2k3 with the one I got through MSDN Academic Alliance, Windows 2003 said the serial is invalid. This is the guide I used for changing serials:http://www.petri.co.il/change_the_serial_in_windows_xp.htmI also called at MS support center and they said that this is impossible. But an in-place upgrade would change the serial. Unfortunately she couldn't be more specific about it because that would require a paid support and then she would redirect my phone call to england where they are experts. But she did say that I should check on web for this.Is the in-place upgrade the same thing as a repair install and would thus erase all my drivers and such? Edited March 12, 2008 by BigDaddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeball Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 there is a key update tool available from microsoft, i cannot verify if it works with 2003 but its worth a try Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDaddy Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 key update tool is only for WinXP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Your pirated copy is OEM, likely, or VLK. MSDNAA/MSDN/etc are actually technically retail, and keys for OEM, VLK, and Retail don't work across each other (retail only works with retail keys, OEM only works with OEM keys, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDaddy Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 It's VLK. What can I do about it? I do not intend to reinstall might as well continue using the pirated license. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Well, while I understand that you need to continue running the OS, an in-place upgrade isn't foolproof and some applications may not work (they should, but one cannot assume they will). I'm going to close this down, as discussing warez software is against the forum rules, but you can look at a kb article that's pretty straight forward. You might want to consider making a VM out of the machine and doing a test upgrade in a VM before you do the real thing, though.Topic closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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