What am I Doing Wrong ?

[Fren Banklin]

I have a mostly working machine that was a bit flaky so I decided to run a repair install. When I went to input the Product Key (that was used on the previous install and reported by Magic Jelly Bean), the installation refuses the Product Key.

I've tried at least 6 different disks and all have failed. I'm waiting for the 7th to complete as I type this.

Here's the Product ID information:

Product ID: 76487-OEM-0012031-51200

This number was taken directly from the computer's registry, per the instructions on lunarsoft's wiki.

The wiki lists 5 different possible disks:

76487 : XP Media Center Edition 2005

76487 : XP Pro Royalty OEM ‡

76487 : XP Pro SP2 (retail)

76487 : XP Pro SP3 (OEM)

76487 : XP Pro volume license (with '640' channel ID)

I know the install isn't a Media Center edition. There is no Certificate of Authenticity on the case, so I can't rule out the other 4 possiblities. To make certain of success, I've labled the disks correctly.

So far I've tried:

PID 76487OEM from a disk VX2PFPP_EN with SP2

PID 76487000 from a disk VX2PFPP_EN with SP2

PID 76487OEM from a disk GRTMPOEM_WN with SP3

I've tried others, but only started documenting the last 3.

<break>

OK, the last attempt succeeded. I used a corporate volume disk that worked.

Odd thing is, the Product ID information from the disk that worked is nothing like what was in the registry originally. Here's what worked:

[Pid]

ExtraData=786F687170637175716954806365EF

Pid=55274270

The plan is to now change the registry information to reflect the previous (and legal) installation.

I've spent about 2 days on this. Am I missing something obvious ?

[Fren Banklin]

An update:

After the successful install of the Volume License XP Pro Installation disk, I notice that the product key being reported in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version is:

Product ID 55274-645-6440716-23162

Odd thing is, the installation disk's setupp.ini file reports:

Pid=55274270

How does a Product ID of 55274 with a channel ID of 270, get changed to a channel ID of 645 ? This indicates to me that the channel ID being reported in the registry sometimes may not be the one needed in the \I386 folder of the installation disk.

The cause of all my problems.

Is there an explanation for this ? Is there a way to take a Channel ID from the registry and definatively know what the Channel ID of an installation disk should be ?

If not, should I just have defaulted to a volume license channel ID from the start ?

How likely is it going to be that manually changing the product ID and product key to their originals is going to work, i.e. pass Microsoft's activation & validation. Getting updates is important.

[cluberti]

An update:

After the successful install of the Volume License XP Pro Installation disk, I notice that the product key being reported in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version is:

Product ID 55274-645-6440716-23162

Odd thing is, the installation disk's setupp.ini file reports:

Pid=55274270

How does a Product ID of 55274 with a channel ID of 270, get changed to a channel ID of 645 ? This indicates to me that the channel ID being reported in the registry sometimes may not be the one needed in the \I386 folder of the installation disk.

The cause of all my problems.

Is there an explanation for this ? Is there a way to take a Channel ID from the registry and definatively know what the Channel ID of an installation disk should be ?

If not, should I just have defaulted to a volume license channel ID from the start ?

How likely is it going to be that manually changing the product ID and product key to their originals is going to work, i.e. pass Microsoft's activation & validation. Getting updates is important.

Well, using a valid COA product key and the appropriate disc should handle the latter part. Remember that the value in setupp.ini simply directs the installation media on what TYPES of keys to accept - it doesn't actually change the media in any other way (you could change the setupp.ini on a retail disc to take VLK keys, but the install will still be a retail product).

[Fren Banklin]

Yet another update:

Okay, so after successfully completing the O/S install, I go to Windows Update and it wants to do a Validation check. I decided not to do this, instead I manually changed the registry entry mentioned in the previous post with the original Product ID/Channel ID. Then used an older version of "Magic Jelly Bean" to change the product key from the "one size fits all" corporate key to the original key I got prior to the Repair Install. (Later versions of MJB do not have the "Change Product Key" tool.)

Seemed like it went well, so I browsed back to Windows Update and -

Guess What ? No Validation Required.

Downloaded all 50+ updates and installed them just fine. So the immediate issue of this particular machine is resolved, but the larger questions remain. Why would all the legit information fail, the "pirate" data succeed and then once booted to desktop, the O/S can then be manually changed back to "legitimate" ?

[Eldmannen]

Ever heard of anyone that purchased Windows because they couldn't pirate it? Not me.

Pirates seem to have no problem at all with pirating Windows or other software.

These copy-protection measures seems to only annoy and bother legitimate people.