Buying some Windows XP cds

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gzervali2006

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I'm buying (5) copies of Windows XP Pro that are brand new and sealed from someone. How can I confirm the fact that none of the product keys have been used and activated on another computer? This is a major concern to me.


Any ideas? I would greatly appreciate it.
 
Realistically there isn't, unless you call Microsoft and explain what you're doing and offer the keys over the phone for them to check. There is no other way because you can't "test" an XP key for activation; the process of testing it activates it and locks it down so...

Best thing you can do is call 'em up, provide the keys, and ask if they can offer information about whether they've been compromised/used already.

Good luck...
 
Besides, even if they had been activated before, you would be holding the discs and the COAs, which would make you the legal owner of the license. If your copies failed to activate, you would be able to call MS, explain the situation, and have them activated for you.
 
gzervali2006 said:
really? They would provide 0 assistance for OEM licenses?
Click to expand...
That's why OEM licenses are cheaper. The OEM provides the support. If you were to ever even consider buying an OEM license from a third party (not a trusted retailer, like Newegg), you better have some kind of proof that they were never used, opened, activated, etc.
 
gzervali2006 said:
really? They would provide 0 assistance for OEM licenses?
Click to expand...
MS will activate OEM licenses by phone. I've done it before at work. But you get no other free OS support (besides updates) from MS with an OEM license. The OEM is supposed to provide that support.

I would be more worried that the XP+License are counterfeit.
 
Based on the XP End-User License Agreement (EULA), you can install an OEM license only on one machine.
If you remove XP from the machine it is on, you cannot install it on another machine. You can with retail.
If the machine dies, you cannot transfer OEM XP to another machine. You can with retail. The OEM XP license dies with the machine.

Of course, Microsoft has been very lenient in re-activating OEM licenses. But, that does not mean they have to be.

The last thing you want is to end up with a license that has already been activated or even will be activated in the future (because someone wrote it down without you knowing it and shrink wrapped the package as if it was sealed).

You wouldn't expect this to happen with an item purchased from a reliable reputable outlet. That is why you pay the price.

I don't believe there is any way to know if a license has already been used or not.
It gets even worse!
The data base that holds the activation data, has a running life time of about 4 months. So, if someone activates an XP license and then sells it to you after 4 months, you can activate it on another machine and it will activate with no problem. But, that does not guarantee that no one else has a copy of that same key somewhere.

I am not saying the person you are dealing with is dishonest.
All I say is that if you have an opportunity to acquire OEM licenses for really good price, you have to be very careful.
 
gzervali2006 said:
So I can call them up on the phone and see if they are already active?
Click to expand...

That's pretty much was I said in the second post above. ;) They'll assist you if you have a concern about the software being legitimate and legal, regardless of it being OEM or Retail - Microsoft will always cooperate with anyone that's in a position to purchase their software legally, that's not even a question.

Call them, explain the situation, and they'll do what they can, simple.
 
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