MCE 2005 on new laptop clean install

[csci1000]

Hi all,

I bought brand new HP laptop last week and it came with MCE2005 w/o OS CDs. so I been surfing web on how to create OS cd from i386 folder. after searching several forums, finally I made CD by following these steps.

-dumpted ALL files from both retail MCE2005 CDs into C:\MCECD.

-replaced i386 folder in C:\MCECD with i386 folder from my HP Laptop.

-using NLITE created bootable DVD about 900MB without any adding or removing of components/programs.

-burned that ISO to DVD

-installed MCE2005 successfully using newly created DVD.

-product key from label attached on bottom of my laptop worked during installation. (SO HAPPY)

now comes my question...would product activation work? It's not illegal key that I am using so it should work but what's your thought on this?

thank you very much for any input.

[neo]

may be Ur Product key has been stolen and activated by someone before ur purchasing date.

[Bezalel]

now comes my question...would product activation work? It's not illegal key that I am using so it should work but what's your thought on this?

Phone activation should work but online activation will be blocked. For a better method see Building a Pre-activated CD from an existing installation and OEMBIOS Repository.