I have question.. Time ago I bought original copy of XP Home edition, but product key was missing.. So I went to look for $winnt$.inf file in WINDOWS\system32 folder to get key.. It wasn't there so I went looking for Unattended.txt en voila.. I found it.. So I thought to myself, Great.. I go back and buy rest of that stock.. (about 30 CD's) coz it was cheap and I do make quite few PC's for friends and family.. I was happy as a child untill I had to go install one putter.. Key in Unattended.txt wasn't good one.. I went Googlin' about in search of a lost key, and only thing I could find was information that actual key isn't even on install CD (which I find strange.. What is that key in Unattended.txt doing there???) Does anyone of you guy's know how to retrieve product key from CD? I would really like to know. Thanx in advance..
Theres no product key on the cd. The only purpose of UNATTEND.TXT is to allow you to do an unattended installation (i.e you don't have to answer the prompts during installation). This streamlines and automates installation. The UNATTEND.TXT is a sample. The installer needs to modify this file and include their unique information, including the product key.
The fact that you found key in Unattended.txt means it you system is a branded OEM SLP machine and has OEM SLP string in bios or DMI area the key in unattended.txt file is only good on that brand of machine. The same goe's for the cd's you bought are they branded i,e,say DELL, HP, e.c.t , if they are branded you will find key in i386 folder in file called WINNT.sif. But if the cd's are branded they are good to you unless you have those brands of machine. read stickies on how to make oem sld cd and alos look at hp dmi boot cd.
Thanx for quick reply venu.. If there is no key on CD how does Installer knows I typed a wrong key then?
I just saw your answer urie.. Yes that makes lot of sense.. well, I guess I throw away 100 euro then..
I have few Dell XP Pro and few XP Home complete with all instuctions an stuff.. When I did clean install XP Pro on my Latitude, there was no problem at all and I wasn't prompted to type in key.. (lucky I guess) I think both versions are OEM..
well that explains why the dell installed if you look there will be winnt.sif file in the i386 folder on cd there will also be an $OEM$ folder, the XP Home complete with all instructions an stuff ones i have no idea about also if you wanted to use the dell oem cd on other nonbranded machines it they would require bios mods, as i said you would be far better making up an HP oem cd and use the dmi tattoo cd this doesn't involve bios modding and is safe i would stay away fro pheonix bioses if possible you need to flash them to add dmi string.
Thanx again urie.. This is actually next question but I will start a new topic coz it got nothing to do with lost key but creation of Windows install disk from running and updated OS.
Sure, the disk will install fine on ANY machine. On Dell it will be activated instantly (via oembios set plus SLP string in BIOS) On any other un-modded system it will give 30 day period to activate, which is NOT possible with OEM SLP key installed, so the key needs to be either changed to real retail, CoA via phone activation or maybe online, or BIOS mod to Dell or BIOS mod to anything else with use of VLK and OEMBIOS changer... from stickes - even it is NOT VLK in first place sebus