Re: Windows XP and its License..

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On OEM copies you are only allowed to activate once; the licence being
linked driectly to the OEM not the user. With a retail copy of XP though you
should have no problem. I've lost count of the amount of times i've
reformatted, reinstalled and activated. In actual fact, with a retail copy,
you can actually reformat and re-install every 120 days or so without any
problem. Having said all that i have said, you would get a problem with a
retail version if you were reformatting every 35 days or so (remember you
have 30 days to activate anyway), simply because Microsoft would assume
(wrongly of course) that you were installing on more than one pc. Anyway it
is better not to activate until towards the end of the 30 grace period (on
retail copies) because, if you need to reformat and install again due to
problems, you won't have to keep attempting to activate.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
http://vistasupport.mvps.org

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"Ted Gervais" <ve1drg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uSexKBRBHHA.140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have been told that we can only use WindowsXP once. That is, we can
install it on one computer and that is it. We can't format the drive and
start over. No. I am told that once you put it on, than that is it. No
more.

I found all this out when I bought a new copy of XP (home) a couple of
weeks ago and installed it on a new computer I built. Everything went
fine. I activated it and registered the software etc., and life was
great.

And than, I decided to make some changes so I formated the drive and
started again.
When I tried to activate it, I was told 'NO' ! The software can only be
used ONCE.

I called the phone number supplised and the person told me the same thing
but eventually gave me a new serial number. This new number is referenced
over to the orginal number and I can never uninistall my windowsXP
software with that serial number again. Only once but maybe twice , if
one talks nice.

Has anyone had this experience before? I thought you were restricted to
using the software you bought on ONE machine only. But could uninistall
it and reinstall it 100 times if you wanted. As long as it was on that
same machine. Wrong!!




.

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