Tuesday, January 3, 2012

110. Get product key of windows xp from the CD itself


Imagine the following scenario: your Windows XP system somehow becomes unbootable and after exhausting all possible fixes, you determine that you are going to have to wipe your hard drive and start over with a fresh install of Windows XP. You look and find your Windows XP CD in your..CD flip book case, and that is when you realize that you have lost the product key which was provided as a little yellow sticker when you bought Windows XP. Then you panic. Well, guess what? Hope is not all lost, it is possible to locate your Product Key using nothing more than your Windows XP Installation CD.


To start, you will need access to a working computer.
Stick in your Windows XP Installation CD, then, when the XP Install Splash Screen pops up, click Exit.

Locate
Then Click Start, then My Computer and find your CD Drive (mine is Drive I), right click on it and select Search
Find 
Then type unattend.txt then click Search
Product 
It will find the unattend.txt file and report that it is located in your main drive, don't be misled, this is the right file and it is on the CD.
Windows 
Open the unattend.txt and in it you will find your Product Key
Windows 
Write down the Product Key, now you have the key and can install XP.

1 comment: