Laptop stolen - What to do with my copy of XP Pro?

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Fraktul

836 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#17826 13-Dec-2007 18:23

Recently I had the misfortune of having my laptop stolen out of may car (luckly not my work laptop!). Thing is I still have the XP pro cd this came with at home which has the serial/product code on it - this wasnt on the laptop. In fact I had installed a different OS on the laptop so the product code is not in use anymore, nor can it be in use again since I removed the copy of XP from the laptop when I installed the new OS.

Can I request MS deactivate this copy, surrender the CD with product code holographic sticker on it and request a replacement product code or something along these lines?

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

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#99823 13-Dec-2007 19:39

A similar thing recently happened to me. In our case, my wife's laptop died and was uneconomic to fix. So, I figured I could re-use the XP Pro licence on my Dad's PC as an upgrade from Win 2k.

Unfortunately, not so because nearly every laptop uses an OEM copy of Windows XP which is locked to that particular brand of hardware (using a BIOS lock I believe) which means that when you sell your Windows CD to another unsuspecting buyer, they will be unable to Activate any copy of Windows using the Product Key which was locked to your laptop's motherboard.

I know -- I've tried it

And, to clarify your final point about surrendering the original CD to MS and requesting a replacement product -- unfortunately NO. OEM software is sold on the basis that it is locked to the particular PC it was installed upon and cannot be upgraded or re-sold

Fraktul

836 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#99850 13-Dec-2007 21:56

Hmm, oh well not so much of an issue since I was only worried about them potentially recovering the product key from the old install since I only did a quick format. There were no OEM stickers on the laptop with the product key.

I was more just trying to screw over whomever stole my laptop :P