I have a winxp disc and had planned to use a serial number from a dell laptop i no longer use. does anyone know if i can expect that serial number to be rejected as if it were meant for use only on that machine or something? has anyone done something similar?

thanks.

5/3/2009 1:11:26 PM

you should be fine

5/3/2009 1:35:59 PM

it's an OEM key - OEM keys will only work on OEM editions... and if it's Dell, it'll usually only work with THEIR OEM edition.

so, it probably won't work.

5/3/2009 2:32:57 PM

Im not sure about XP, but I have used Dell Vista Keys to install Vista on non-Dell computers and it worked just fine.

5/3/2009 3:07:18 PM

^did they actually activate? especially with dell stuff, if dell's key isn't in the SLIC table in the BIOS, you usually can't activate them.

5/3/2009 3:32:41 PM

^yeah they activated. I had to call the activation number for one computer to get the activation code but I had no hassle with that either.

[Edited on May 3, 2009 at 3:41 PM. Reason : a]

5/3/2009 3:34:56 PM

It should work. I've done a XP install on a toshiba that was used for my dell. Activated and everything.

5/3/2009 7:52:56 PM