i bougth a xp home upgrade but i have since lost the disk but i have my key so i got my friends retail xp home and used my key but it wont activate is there a way to change the full install to a upgrade to it will activate like a registry change or program?

Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on.

--Zxian

Edited December 15, 200520 yr by Zxian

you can activate by call microsoft and you say you have just make the updgrade ... if the key is valid during the setup no problem ... activation can't be passed with registry/tool/cr*ck ...

Activation can be passed off quite easily, as i have to do it everytime i re-install windows on my PC. I had a similar problem to this, and when i phoned microsoft they did give me a key, but then 30 days later we got a letter through about how our key was invalid, and we had to pay a £50 fee towards it.

So you dont need to phone microsoft, i can help you and provide the knowlage to get arround your problem (which is perfectly legal if you o own a legal copy of windows)

Activation can be passed off quite easily, as i have to do it everytime i re-install windows on my PC. I had a similar problem to this, and when i phoned microsoft they did give me a key, but then 30 days later we got a letter through about how our key was invalid, and we had to pay a £50 fee towards it.

So you dont need to phone microsoft, i can help you and provide the knowlage to get arround your problem (which is perfectly legal if you o own a legal copy of windows)

hmm, how can you pass activation if you're key doesn't okay by internet activation ?! you must call to micro$oft ... no ??

your answer lies within this KB article

Edit the Winnt32.msi package

after following that pages instruction rename your current winnt.sif

to unattend.txt and execute the command 'winnt32.exe /unattend'

shark

I went that extra step, and edited the WINNT32.MSI

from Windows XP Pro SP2 for you.

I have no idea if this file is different in XP home.

The attached file also contains an UPGRADE.EXE

with goes in the root of the CD. Executing UPGRADE.EXE

automatically starts the upgrade proccess without any further prompts for input.

Of course, for all this to work properly, UNATTEND.TXT in the I386 dir

needs to contain the proper format and CD KEY for your version of windows.

This is different from the way its listed in WINNT.SIF

[userData]

ProductKey = xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

shark

XPCD.7z

Edited December 18, 200520 yr by Shark007