Windows XP forum: Xp Home Edition CD and CD Key Compatibility

It sounds like you have an OEM recovery system from the computer manufacturer whereas your friend has a retail Windows XP CD. The two are not interchangable, so your key will not work with his CD or vice versa. You will have to contact the computer manufacturer and request that they send you a set of recovery CDs for a nominal fee. This should be done ASAP for your current installation of Windows XP is technically illegal...you cannot use the same product key one two separate computers at the same time unless you have a special volume licensing agreement. At this point both of you may receive alerts stating that your installations of Windows XP are invalid, be prevented from downloading various Windows updates, etc. Thus, the sooner you address this issue the better.

John

would the key change tool change the key on the side of my pc to the one on my firends Windows disk or vice verse. Would it be worth buying a new copy of windows altogether?

thanks for the help guys

If you had XP Home from Dell or HP/Compaq and reinstalled using an OEM copy of windows, the auto-authentication will fail. You can call and talk to a human and they will give you an activation code. I have done it several times. But as Bob noted, if you used an XP Retail copy, your not going to get it to work. OEM and retail are not the same license.

The isntall from DELL and HP don't use the key on your product sticker, they have special installs that do not have to be activated, but will only run on their systems. An install with the sticker code requires activation.