Downloading a genuine copy of xp to use with my laptop license - legal?

rudeboymcc · 30 May 2008 at 23:34

Hi. I've got a vaio which i upgraded to Vista, which originally had XP on it. Problem is it didn't come with cds and i deleted the backup partition, and now i want to go back to XP.

So i have a license but no cd. If i download a windwso XP cd, and use my key with it, would it still be illegal? I have searched but i'm having trouble finind where to download it from, as most seem to be hacked versions.

thegoonden · 31 May 2008 at 07:32

Unless you DL it from Bill, they'll call it illegal, regardless of the legitimate key.
Besides, keys are so specific you'll spend ages downloading and downloading and downloading before you find the precise media your key works with.

dirtydog · 31 May 2008 at 07:40

You may be able to buy a recovery disk from Sony for a nominal fee, maybe £15-£20.

Brian Stuart · 31 May 2008 at 08:26

Any OEM disk should work but make sure that it is the right version i.e. Home MCE or Pro

Dano · 31 May 2008 at 10:00

dirtydog said:
You may be able to buy a recovery disk from Sony for a nominal fee, maybe £15-£20.

Last time I checked Sony wanted around 60 quid for a recovery disc.

What model of Vaio is it? surely the best way would be to find somebody with the same model and get them to burn you some recovery discs.

Makhaira · 31 May 2008 at 10:14

If you get the latest version of Home/Pro/MCE as applicable, it should accept your key fine. I was always under the impression that only the license matters, and you could have an XP image just burnt onto a normal disc without any concerns, since you pay for the license, not the disc.

Either find some helpful people on a Vaio forum, or ask around your RL friends to see who has an XP disc you could borrow. Bottom line - always back up an install partition if you don't have the original media!

paradigm · 31 May 2008 at 10:51

To be fair, you can download ANY version of XP, and edit the setupp.ini file to accept your type of license key. Retail, Upgrade, Corporate, OEM, it really doesn't matter.

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

Note that this does NOT get rid of WinXP's activation. Changing the Pid to a Volume License will not bypass activation. You must have a volume license (corporate) key to do so.

SimonC · 31 May 2008 at 11:38

I don't get it, why would you want a retail cd that takes an oem product key? :confused:

paradigm · 31 May 2008 at 11:57

Because an OEM disk won't let you perform an OS upgrade (say from windows 95, 98, ME or 2000), the retail disk will.

So a retail PID, with OEM last three digits, will let you upgrade using an OEM key.

LizardKing · 31 May 2008 at 13:12

paradigm said:
To be fair, you can download ANY version of XP, and edit the setupp.ini file to accept your type of license key. Retail, Upgrade, Corporate, OEM, it really doesn't matter.

Thats actually really usefull thanks!
Ive got 2 laptops that have OEM keys but no OEM CD's however i do have a Retail CD.

SimonC · 31 May 2008 at 16:02

paradigm said:
Because an OEM disk won't let you perform an OS upgrade (say from windows 95, 98, ME or 2000), the retail disk will.

So a retail PID, with OEM last three digits, will let you upgrade using an OEM key.

Sorry, theres another thing confusing me (not difficult) If say I were to upgrade from windows 98 to XP. I would have to get a copy of XP Retail, copy the disc to hdd edit the PID so that it had OEM at the end? To my limited knowledge I thought an OEM key was only for 1 PC, so you would have to buy the key anyway in order to upgrade?
Hope that makes sense.

EDIT: Or do you mean you would use the OEM key from windows 98?

Brian Stuart · 31 May 2008 at 17:04

Simple solution is to borrow a OEM CD and do a clean install using the product key on the Vaio

paradigm · 31 May 2008 at 22:37

SimonC said:
Sorry, theres another thing confusing me (not difficult) If say I were to upgrade from windows 98 to XP. I would have to get a copy of XP Retail, copy the disc to hdd edit the PID so that it had OEM at the end? To my limited knowledge I thought an OEM key was only for 1 PC, so you would have to buy the key anyway in order to upgrade?
Hope that makes sense.

EDIT: Or do you mean you would use the OEM key from windows 98?

No, I mean use an XP OEM key, which you buy with the OEM CD.

The OEM CD however wouldn't let you upgrade an existing install, the retail CD with edited PID would.