Hi all! I have a toshiba laptop with one of its original restoring cds damaged so I had to buy a new xp home cd at the store and have been using that since (couldn't get one from toshiba). . My question is the following: since it's a little annoying to be having to reactivate xp with each new install.... (use the laptop to surf the web so it's more often than I like!)...is it possible to somehow install this new retail copy of xp as usual but somehow use my toshiba laptop cdkey for that version so that it would seem to the pc like its the oem version with activation not needed since it was made for that specific machine???? mmmmmm....xp is xp no matter if it was in my original restoring cds or in this new retail version....so if my laptops oem version had a cdkey and was set to that specific machine then another xp installed in that machine and with that cdkey should work since its the machine the original cdkey belongs to and therefore won't need activating or is there a lot more to it than just a simple cdkey??? sorry if a little confusing but I don't speak english well! (thanks google!!!)Ji Ji Ji

Using your laptop key is not going to solve the activation annoyance. If the "version" cd that you bought is similar to the "version" that was installed on your laptop, you should be able to use the laptop key, with the other CD, but this will not change the activation thing--you'll still have to activate it. You need to consider getting some backup software, such as Norton Ghost, and learn to use it. It takes about 5-10min to generate an image of my hard drive, and about 5 to "rebuild" the hard drive after a crash. I make a fresh backup about 1 a week, to week and 1/2, and save the last 2 or 3 bavckups. Therefore I KNOW that I have an uncorrupted image in case of a crash.

is it possible to somehow install this new retail copy of xp as usual but somehow use my toshiba laptop cdkey for that version No it is not possible based on Response Number 2 in this thread. i_XpUser

Hello again XpUser (thanks for writing in my other post/question) and hello name that other thread was much more profesionally asked! ji ji ji I will try to backup with gh etc like you say....wow it's definitely much faster than doing it my (dumb) way! Thanks again!