Help! I'm posting tech boards and scouring the internet and can't find anyone who will give a straight answer. I must stress that we have adequate licenses and I'M NOT PIRATING SOFTWARE! These PC's always come pre-loaded and pre-activated with Win XP. I use cloning tools to deploy new PC's with all the third party software packages installed and all 200+ megs of MS updates applied. I can't begin to tell you the amount of time this saves. XP uses product activation codes generated by two parts, the product key and the hardware list. From what I can see, this number is only checked against the MS database when installing the XP OS. Cloned operating systems are already activated and should only have the previously known SID issue, which is able to be worked around. My question is this:

Is the activation code stored permanantly on the PC and, if so, will the activation code also be cloned between the PC's and, finally, will this cause any problems?

Considering the way people dance around this subject and the way the microsoft site avoids it, I'm guessing this is still a way to pirate software and simply ignored because of it. I'm not trashing one of my most valuable tools simply because they don't like it. There are sufficient licenses for the product and I need to get work done! I'm the only PC tech for 120+ machines and don't need extra headaches during replacements/upgrades!

<font color="#f683ad">Sounds like a problem for the MS support line..or for your Vendor Rep. I always make the vendors do the leg work for this kind of crap. </font>

Well why don't you try it? Clone it onto one PC and see if it nags about activation. Or am I missing something?

If windows update runs on a machine with a dodgy product key, that key will be locked out of windows update forever. I dont know if activation keys are sent to that server though.

I could be way off base here, but I think Windows checks your hardware list every time the machine boots? You can change 6 pieces of hardware as long as it's not a network card, or 4 pieces if one of them is the network card before the MS goons start hasseling you about it. Oh yeah, the soundcard isn't considered a piece of hardware.

Yes, the activation code is stored on the PC and it will be cloned with your OS and I'm pretty sure it is going to cause your problems at some point. There is however, a way to see that code, but none that I know of to change it.