Can I move XP to a new computer that I am building? Will MS allow this? I've heard that the OS stays with the machine with their new license. I would remove XP from the old machine and put ME back on it. Thanks in advance.... Leon

Recently, my hard drive failed. Since it was under warranty, I took it back to the shop. They replaced the hard drive and also had to replace the motherboard for some reason. Got it home and restored everything using Nortons Ghost and started up WinXP. A message popped up saying that I had to register it. Called Microsoft and explained what happened. They did not sound convinced but gave me a new registration number anyway. This would be very similar to what you will probably encounter. At this time, Microsoft appears to be liberal in their policy but I don't have much faith in that being a long term policy.

Just call MS and ask. The situation Dave had isn't untypical. For the most part, they have to believe you, since they have no way of knowing. If they started denying people's rights to move XP to a different computer (or even to upgrade), then they would probably have a ton of lawsuits, since the EULA doesn't forbid upgrades and moving it to a different computer (which of course would greatly diminish the value of the OS..)

It's a difficult one to call - I have no objection activating Windows XP - I tend to "spring clean" my PC every now and then which requires a reload of Windows, and at first, it was fine - I just clicked the activate option and away it went. However, I recently replaced my motherboard, processor, graphics card and memory - and now each time I re-install, I have to call Microsoft - and explain that I have not installed XP on a different PC, and I did buy it e.t.c. Each and every time from now on. I am just waiting for the "sorry sir, our records show that you have contacted us x amount of times" and not be able to activate it anymore.

Here's something found on the news groups if anybody wants it. Reinstalling Windows XP Doing so might mean that you have to re-activate the operating system, right? Nope. Not if you backup the license file first. Believe it or not, the entire hoopla about Windows Product Activation comes down to one little file. For whatever reason, one of my PCs just suddenly decided to freak out, and since it had been upgraded from Windows 2000 anyway, I figured it was time to start from scratch, but didn't want to have to place that call to Microsoft. No sweat. Just backup the c:\windows\system32\wpa.dbl file, install Windows XP as you normally would, restart in Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Replace the wpa.dbl file with your backed up version, and you should be back in business. Mind you, the information in that file will be specific to the product ID entered during installation as well as being tied to the hardware in that machine only. If you try moving this file to another computer, it won't work, even if it's the same model, right down to the amount of RAM. This is because of unique information obtained from the network card, processor, hard drive, etc., so when it doesn't match up, it will gripe.