On Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:16:56 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote in article
...

In message ,
Zaphod Beeblebrox writes:
On Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:11:06 -0700, "ka6uup" wrote
in article ...

I came across a U-Tube video telling you how to find your Product
Activation Code on the XP Installation Disk.
It is in the i386\Unattend.txt at the bottom of the page.
I checked and sure enough there is a code there.
However, I have 4 windows XP disks and it is the same for each one and
not the same as any of the activation codes in the disk envelope or package.
What is this all about?
Chuck


That is an OEM key used to pre-activate XP so that the end user doesn't
have to enter a key when starting up the first time. It only works
with OEM PCs (like Dell, HP, etc.). The actual key for those PCs is
the one on the sticker, but it isn't used except in unusual
circumstances.

So what's to stop anyone using the OEM key?

The OEM key (at least, branded OEM) only activates XP if it sees a
particular signature in the BIOS. See Paul's reply to mine where he
links to an article on BIOS and the SLIC (software licensing
description table) that it uses.

--
Zaphod

"So [Trillian], two heads is what does it for a girl?"
"...Anything else [Zaphod]'s got two of?"
- Arthur Dent