I sure wouldn't want to re-use one of my XP product keys on a machine I'm building for a customer. Or the product key that I previously installed for some other customer.
However, if your customer has an XP product key, re-using that would be OK. And more than likely, you won't have to call in for approval unless you're using the same key repeatedly on multiple machines - it will just activate online automatically. But if you are building a machine for a client who has no existing product key to re-use, then I'd say buy the media/key for $30 and pass along the cost. It is time, I think, that customers are forced to think about the decision they're making to stay with XP and if it causes them a little pain to do so, not such a terrible thing. Carl From: Mike Gill [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 9:42 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Windows Downgrade Circus Has anyone here downgraded their (qualifying) Vista or 7 license to XP? Meaning, you bought the parts for a new computer, of which consisted of a Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate license and media, with the purpose of installing XP. I've bought machines from larger OEM's with downgrade rights whereas the machine arrived with the media for both, and XP was installed. But for this machine, I'm the builder. I thought I would use my own media for XP and get the key from MS to activate it. After talking with three MS people, they said they would send me XP media with a key for $30. I said that wouldn't work, and he suggested I use the XP key from another machine and just call into the activation center and they would just override it. I said "But the same product key would be in use on two machines." He said "yeah." Wow. Nobody does this or what? -- Mike Gill ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
