xp product keys

kiel367 · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:49

do they cover 32 and 64 bit like windows vista and 7 do?

paradigm · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:53

No.

And Vista doesn't either, not sure where you got that from?

kiel367 · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:54

because iv done it before and it works, on vista and on 7, hence why you get 2 discs with vista and 7 containing 32 and 64 bit, and one product key

Meatball · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:57

Windows XP?.....Didn't realise it was 2001

.

paradigm said:
No.

And Vista doesn't either, not sure where you got that from?

Both Windows Vista and Windows 7 keys are valid for either 32Bit or 64bit installs

.

kiel367 · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:58

indeed they are, just need to know if xp is the same

paradigm · 13 Mar 2012 at 12:59

Meatball said:
Both Windows Vista and Windows 7 keys are valid for either 32Bit or 64bit installs .

Depends entirely on what you bought. OEM licenses are tied to their respective "bit" versions.

The same is not true for Windows 7, where all licenses were both 32 and 64 bit (if the product was available in both).

kiel367 said:
indeed they are, just need to know if xp is the same

Again, no. They are completely different products.

bledd · 13 Mar 2012 at 13:40

An XP32 key will 100% not work with XP64. They're very different under the hood

Dano · 13 Mar 2012 at 23:23

paradigm said:
Depends entirely on what you bought. OEM licenses are tied to their respective "bit" versions.

Really? I've updated several machines using 32bit OEM Vista to 64bit Vista and have never once had any issue activating via the net.

nightmare99 · 14 Mar 2012 at 09:44

Depends entirely on what you bought. OEM licenses are tied to their respective "bit" versions.

I am 99.9% sure that is incorrect, do you have something to back that up?

paradigm · 14 Mar 2012 at 10:03

nightmare99 said:
I am 99.9% sure that is incorrect, do you have something to back that up?

These 20-odd Lenovo ThinkCentre A57 9704-7CG's I have sat here will only install/activate 32-bit Vista Business, I've tried Vista Business 64-bit and it always fails.

bledd · 14 Mar 2012 at 11:27

Are you maybe mixing OEM keys with Retail media? (can't remember if Vista has separate OEM/retail media now)

kiel367 · 14 Mar 2012 at 12:38

iv tried retail and oem, and they have all worked, my own 7 key is off my dead hp laptop, i thought, might as well use it on my pc since the laptop was borked, from another persons point of view it isnt legitimate, but it activated so thats all im interested in, as for anyone saying, oh well thats wrong, you shouldnt do it, well..... you know what i dont care, iv spend a lot of money on that laptop, only to be refused it being fixed under warrantee so i used it, and activated my 64bit win 7, this xp one im interested in, is a legit key on a legit laptop, just the question of will it activate or not is what i need to know

ubersonic · 14 Mar 2012 at 16:38

Meatball said:
Windows XP?.....Didn't realise it was 2001 .

Isn't the car in your sig from the 90's?

Dano · 14 Mar 2012 at 17:31

kiel367 said:
iv tried retail and oem, and they have all worked, my own 7 key is off my dead hp laptop, i thought, might as well use it on my pc since the laptop was borked, from another persons point of view it isnt legitimate, but it activated so thats all im interested in, as for anyone saying, oh well thats wrong, you shouldnt do it, well..... you know what i dont care, iv spend a lot of money on that laptop, only to be refused it being fixed under warrantee so i used it, and activated my 64bit win 7, this xp one im interested in, is a legit key on a legit laptop, just the question of will it activate or not is what i need to know

It'll activate the (x)bit version it was intended for and not the other.

nightmare99 · 14 Mar 2012 at 17:52

These 20-odd Lenovo ThinkCentre A57 9704-7CG's I have sat here will only install/activate 32-bit Vista Business, I've tried Vista Business 64-bit and it always fails.

Hmm there must be something special about the royalty oem keys then, will those machines not even phone activate 64 bit? Is the 32 bit installation/media what came pre-installed?

I have never had a machine fail to activate when going from 32 bit to 64 bit in vista or w7 and that is on many models of desktops/laptops.

If you install using the key on the COA instead of the oem master key + oem files from the original manufacturer disc or recovery partition then quite a lot of the time online activation will fail and you will have to do a phone activation which will work fine.

Meatball · 14 Mar 2012 at 19:10

I echo the above. I reinstalled plenty of Vista 32bit OEM laptops with 64-bit media and they activated fine.

Dano · 14 Mar 2012 at 19:20

paradigm said:
These 20-odd Lenovo ThinkCentre A57 9704-7CG's I have sat here will only install/activate 32-bit Vista Business, I've tried Vista Business 64-bit and it always fails.

You know there are two versions of Vista Business? If you are installing without a key and choosing the wrong one it'll probably cause that issue.

Burnsy2023 · 14 Mar 2012 at 19:24

Meatball said:
Both Windows Vista and Windows 7 keys are valid for either 32Bit or 64bit installs .

Indeed. Vista was the first to allow this.

Craiig · 19 Mar 2012 at 21:37

I always thought Product Keys were specific to their version and not technology (bit)

m4cc45 · 20 Mar 2012 at 08:26

Vista / Windows 7 keys activate both versions (x86 and x64)

Windows XP don't - x64 of Windows XP x64 was released much later (2005) than the 32 bit version where as the above were released at the same time.

M.