- sensibilium
- » sensiblog
- » Windows Genuine Advantage Tool
Windows Genuine Advantage Tool
Most system administrators, like me, originally installed Windows XP using the Corporate Edition due to the lack of Product Activation in that version. Even though I had a legal copy of XP for every machine, according to the Windows Update site I did not.
How to fix this problem then, which stops 'counterfeit' versions from using the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites, and also seems to stop Automatic Updates from finding the latest updates for your computer, is as follows.
1. Create an OEM or Retail version of your Corporate Disc to repair your previous installations, using the _second_ repair option in Windows Setup (insert bootable XP setup disc in CD drive and reboot. Set BIOS to boot from CD-ROM first, save and exit). Then insert the valid XP product key when the prompt appears. This will mean though that Product Activation is installed on the machine, and will have to Activate it before you go any further.
Quote:
See info below & convert your XP pro corp setupp.ini into an xp oem
setupp.ini then upgrade, or make a bootable disk and use the _second_ repair
option. Then you can use those codes on the boxes.
Another way you can do this without mucking with the setupp.ini is to see if
you still have an i386 folder left over from an OEM install. If you do,
first copy the i386 from your corp disk, then copy over all the files from
the oem i386 (oem upgrade files are missing but present on corp). Then
upgrade or make a CD.
-S00p3r H4c|<3r d00d
XP Retail OEM Volume Change
Unlocking WinXP's setupp.ini
=========================
WinXP's setupp.ini controls how the CD acts. IE is it an OEM version or
retail? First, find your setupp.ini file in the i386 directory on your WinXP
CD. Open it up, it'll look something like this:
ExtraData=707A667567736F696F697911AE7E05
Pid=55034000
The Pid value is what we're interested in. What's there now looks like a
standard default. There are special numbers that determine if it's a retail,
oem, or volume license edition. First, we break down that number into two
parts. The first five digits determines how the CD will behave, ie is it a
retail cd that lets you clean install or upgrade, or an oem cd that only
lets you perform a clean install? The last three digits determines what CD
key it will accept. You are able to mix and match these values. For example
you could make a WinXP cd that acted like a retail cd, yet accepted OEM
keys. Now, for the actual values. Remember the first and last values are
interchangable, but usually you'd keep them as a pair:
Retail = 51882 335
Volume License = 51883 270
OEM = 82503 OEM
So if you wanted a retail CD that took retail keys, the last line of your
setupp.ini file would read:
Pid=51882335
And if you wanted a retail CD that took OEM keys, you'd use:
Pid=51882OEM
or
2. As above, but just insert your valid XP install disc, and again choose the _second_repair option.
Note: When you use the second repair option in Windows Setup, it will delete a load of Windows files and re-install, so if your disc doesn't have SP1 or SP2 on it, you'll have to redownload and reinstall them (all your programs and documents will remain though). A pain I know, but it's the only way to keep M$ off yer back.
EDIT: In case you have Upgrade versions of XP, here's the Windows XP Upgrade Matrix which will tell you what earlier M$ OS's you can upgrade from.
EDIT2: I'm still undecided on whether to upgrade my work computer to XP, it's currently running Windows 2000 Pro, which is nice, but it just doesn't have the bells & whistles that XP has. The question remains however, will XP run sufficiently well on a 900Mhz CPU with 256MB RAM? Should do, but I may need a memory upgrade to help it along.
EDIT3: Saying that, I already have a user running XP on a 500MHz CPU and 128MB RAM, it's quite slow, but it is getting a memory upgrade to 512MB (maximum to mainboard can handle). May have to see how that machine responds after the upgrade to see if it makes it any faster (should do, if you follow the laws of logic, not sure M$ follows the same rules though).
- This post has 3 comments, the last was posted by horab fibslager on Wed 24 Aug 2005 at 9:55pm GMT
Comments
my opinion anyway, i had win 98 for like 5 stinkin years. lol.
