Maximum number of installations of Windows XP.

Hi guys, I have a student copy of Windows XP SP2 which my sis got from her college. I installed that copy of windows on my PC and activated it over the internet. Then I formatted the HDD after using windows for about 5-6 months, I reinstalled it again and reactivated it. Then again after a couple of months I reinstalled windows and reactivated it.
Now tomorrow I will be buying a new PC and will sell this old one to a friend in a clean condition (i.e without windows or anything).

Now I just want to know how many times can I install windows using the same serial key? Like if I install the windows on my new PC and try to activate it, will it be activated or will I get that stupid "Windows is not genuine" kinda screen everytime I start windows?

What is the maximum limit of installing windows using the same CD key?

I think it will get activated until the ip address remains the same..

^ I use Airtel BB which has dynamic ip so my ip address cant remain same all the time.

It will be fine just go ahead and activate it....if it shows "Windows is not genuine" screen just contact microsoft support and explain the situation

you can call Microsoft India at toll free number to activate your windows.

shashank4u said:
I think it will get activated until the ip address remains the same..

What the .. How is activation even related to some weird IP assigned to you by your ISP? It just depends on your installation key. IP has nothing to do with it!

And yeah, in case it gives an error, just call up that toll-free number and they'd activate it for you.

I think its around 10-15 times till the online method stops working.

The maximum number of times is 4 (or maybe 5). Then you have to get it activated on phone. I did this and it is working flawlessly.

You can install it on one machine at a time, no matter how many times. You can call MS support as suggested above in case of any problem.

M

Surely activated by calling toll free no to microsoft india

don't worry, contact MS if it doesn't activate (which i presume will surely be the case as you've changed the hardware).

and there was no need to activate it 4-5 time everytime upon formatting. you could've just backed up the activation info and restored after every reinstall.

you could've just backed up the activation info and restored after every reinstall.[/QUOTE]

How to backup that and even restore it ? please explain step by step

here is a step by step proc to backup ur windows xp activation info:

*netsecurity.about.com/od/windowsxp/qt/aaqtwinxp0829.htm

and here...

*www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/Wi.../Miscellaneous/BackupRestoreXPActivation.html

Call Microsoft and tell them if you run into trouble, they will give you an unlock code. I had the same problem

He's got it activated already people and said the number of times to us too (4-5). Move along to the next thread with 0 reply count