How many times can u install XP

[bunyip]

G'day

My computer is full of bugs which I cannot get rid of (have no patience left) and I want to change a few things as well. I think the best plan is to start from scratch and reinstall windows XP again.

My question is :how many times will microsoft let you reinstall ,activate and register windows XP. I read somewhere 3 times was the limit . I also read that you could copy a file from XP and insert it back when you reinstall is this true .

Any help willbe appreciated.

Thanx muchly

[jdgordon]

u can reinstall 3 or 4 times iirc, but if you are not changeing any hardware (or only 1 item is changed) then u can copy the wpa.dbl from the windows\system32 directory from 1 install to the next... i think u need to copy it in safemode or even from a boot disk

[gamehead200]

u can reinstall 3 or 4 times iirc, but if you are not changeing any hardware (or only 1 item is changed) then u can copy the wpa.dbl from the windows\system32 directory from 1 install to the next... i think u need to copy it in safemode or even from a boot disk

Ditto that. Or you can also call up Microsoft and tell them you are reinstalling it because you got a virus or something...

[bunyip]

Thanks for the info puts my mind at rest

cheers

[eeark]

As long as you are using the same hardware you can install and activate as many times as you want. The problems come when you change hardware. One copy of Windows will activate on two or three DIFFERENT hardware configurations, or it will activate on the SAME hardware configuration any number of times.

[nolookingca]

that's good info to remember..thanks

[dandragonrage]

Note about changing hardware, my uncle bought XP (home) and we installed it on his POS Duron ONE time, then I built him a new computer and it would not activate w/o calling MS. Though they gave us a key to activate it (not a CD key but another one) once we explained on the phone that we're only using it on 1 computer.

[macgyvr]

That is exactly what should have happened. There isn't a specific number of times you can install. It is dependent upon the hardware. Think about it this way. As far as that license key is concerned, you changed ALL the hardware. If only one or two components change, you don't have to call, but if the motherboard or certain other combinations change, you do. In this case, EVERYTHING changed, so you had to call.