Activation technology reinstall xp

When prompted, type your name and organization. These will be used when labeling documents, and can be changed in Windows settings later. Enter your Product Key. You will be prompted to enter your digit product key at this time. Your Product Key should be found at the lower part of you Certificate of Authenticity.

Enter your computer name. This is the name that will appear on the network to describe your computer. For XP Professional, you will be asked to enter an Administrator password that will be used to access the Administrator account. Set the correct date and time. You will now see a calendar and clock that can be adjusted to your specific time. You can also select the correct timezone for your location. Setup network basics. You will be asked if you want to install Typical or Custom network settings.

For nearly all users, Typical is the correct choice. If you are installing in a corporate setting, check with your system administrator first. When asked to enter a workgroup, most users will want to select the first option, and leave the workgroup label as default. If you are in a corporate setting, you may need to specify a domain. Again, check with your administrator.

Windows will finalize the setup. This will take several minutes and requires no input from the user. Your computer will continue to boot from the hard drive and finish the Windows install. Select OK to adjust screen resolution. Windows will attempt to automatically change the screen size to make reading easier.

Once the screen resets, you will be asked if you can read the new text box. If you can, click OK to continue. If you cannot, then hit Cancel or simply wait 20 seconds for the screen to revert to its original settings.

Select Next to proceed with the installation. The Welcome to Microsoft Windows screen will appear once the screen changes are made. This process will just take a couple minutes. Windows will attempt to check your network connectivity. If you are planning on setting this up later, you can skip this screen. Enter the names of your users. In this step, you can create separate logins for each of the users of your computer. You must enter at least one name. You can enter up to five users on this screen, but more can be entered through the Control Panel after installing.

After entering the names, click Finish to finalize the installation. Windows will work for a few moments and then you will be greeted with your new desktop. Run Windows Update. This will download the latest system updates from Microsoft.

These are very important, as the patch system vulnerabilities and stability issues. Install your drivers. Chances are you will need to install your drivers again now that the computer has been formatted. Depending on the devices you have attached to your computer, this could include your video card, your modem or network card, your sound, and more. Method 3. Install from the recovery partition. Many computer manufacturers ship their computers with a partition on the hard drive that contains the Windows installation files.

In order to access it, you will need to boot into the recovery partition. The most common key to enter the partition is F As long as you aren't making any hardware alterations, you can back up the activation status files before you reformat the hard drive and then restore them after you reinstall the operating system.

Copy the Wpa. Decline the activation request at the end of the installation procedure, and restart Windows XP. During bootup, press [F8] to access the Windows Advanced Options menu. If they exist, rename the new Wpa. Copy the original Wpa. In addition, for both legal and contract purposes, you will not get operating system level support on a non Dell install of Windows.

Unless I mis-read your post, you had Vista on there. Put in the Vista disk, start as if you were going to install. When you hit the part where you set partitions, delete the OS partition.

Eject the disk. Put in the XP disk. Re-start the computer and do the install. With the other partition gone, it should work like a champ. Actually I just used a COA key on a Compaq laptop yesterday, it activated just fine, some do some don't. Browse Community. Windows General. Turn on suggestions. The CD somehow installed XP using the product key from my other computer bad! How can I change my product key back to the one I originally purchased with my Inspiron ? I used keyfinder 1.

Actually, so far I've not been prompted to activate the installation. My concern is that the product key embedded in the Inspiron which just had the reinstall is the same as the product key in my Inspiron m whose CD I used to reinstall. You make an interesting point; if I never had to activate this copy of XP, then my product key and unique hardware identifiers were never sent to Microsoft I may just follow that link you gave me, and explain the situation to a Microsoft tech and ask them what I should do.

Yes, it was the only copy of XP I had on hand. That time, it also somehow knew the product key from my Inspiron m even though I had never typed it in. However, I was able to change the product key to the legal one using keyfinder [www. After changing the product key, I activated XP with Microsoft and had no problems. This time, keyfinder 1. Any ideas? Thank you so much for your time and help. I just don't want to invalidate the copy of XP on my m! I ask because there have been reports unconfirmed that installing a Dell OEM copy of XP on a system other than the one it shipped with does not prompt for activation.

If you are being prompted, the procedure here will allow you to change the Product ID to the one reflected in the character COA on the sticker on your computer before you activate.