Find windows xp product activation code

Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. Answered by:. Archived Forums. Sign in to vote. If you have a computer that came with Windows pre-installed, the "original equipment manufacturer" OEM almost certainly used a special generic product key that Microsoft allows the big OEMs to use in order to make and "pre-activate" their thousands of machines.

That key is what will be shown by a keyfinder utility The specific machine you bought has its own individual license, and that's what's on the sticker. If you reinstall Windows using a special "hidden partition" on the hard drive, you don't need to activate the computer at all. That method of restoring gets the computer back to the way it was when it first left the factory, i.

On the other hand, if you reinstall Windows using a "generic OEM" CD one not specifically for your brand of computer , you need the product key from the sticker in order to activate. The CD must be for the same version of Windows e.

If you bought a new version of Windows, it will have come with its own product key, and that's what you should use, not the one of the sticker or the one used by the original manufacturer.

If necessary, the installation process itself will do that. Actually, you wouldn't be able to format the system drive from within Windows; you'd have to use a different tool to do that think of sitting on a tree limb while wanting to saw it off. Before you get yourself in trouble, perhaps you'd care to explain a why you think you need to reinstall Windows and b what method and what media you plan to use to do this. In reply to LemP's post on December 3, I thought by re-installing XP the computer might run faster.

Would this disk contain drivers for the hardware in my computer? In reply to jsknight's post on December 4, A "Windows XP disk created from a Dell machine" is a bit vague and it's also not clear to me if the old machine where you want to reinstall Windows is the same as the Dell that you used to create the CD. In general, a system restore disk created for a Dell computer won't work on a non-Dell computer.

I'm far from a Dell expert, but it's my understanding that Dell provided a mechanism for creating system restore disks, but only starting with computers sold in These cookies do not store any personal information. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies.

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