Need to buy XP license key to install XP in a VM, all my Windows CD's are 'Upgrade'

G

ginahoy

I recently built a Linux Mint box for browsing, however I still rely on a legacy XP box (Opteron 185 circa 2006) for the bulk of my work. Except for browsing, it's more than adequate for my needs.

I'm still learning Linux but one thing is certain.. I absolutely despise LibreOffice. Moreover, some of my mission-critical software can't be ported to Linux, or in few cases, to any other machine. Not a good situation.

I'm getting tired of having 2 systems on my desk, so the plan is to restore an image of my live XP installation in a VM (VirtualBox VM) on the Linux system. It has a 7700K CPU w/32GB of RAM so VM performance shouldn't be an issue. There's a long thread in the VirtualBox forum explaining how to do this. The first step is to do a clean install of XP in VirtualBox to get the drivers sorted. Then I can restore an image of my live XP partition in the VM. I use Acronis TrueImage 9. It's served me well for over a decade.

As it turns out, all my Windows CD's going back to Win98 are the Upgrade version (I started with Win3.1 on an OEM box). So I need to buy the "full" version of XP to do the clean install on the VM.

Searching eBay, I found two possibilities:
1) pre-owned retail box, full version, with license key from original owner
2) new disk and COA/key for distribution with a refurbished PC

The cost is about the same. Since I'll be overwriting the clean install with an image of my own licensed version, it probably doesn't matter which way I go, but since I've never purchased a pre-owned Windows CD, I wasn't sure if the COA will work. OTOH, the version intended for a refurbished PC is totally unfamiliar to me. I'd be grateful if someone would allay my concerns.
 
Thanks for your reply. OEM's can lock their license to their motherboards but as I understand it, that's up to the OEM, not a Microsoft requirement. I had a Dell that had such a license. The eBay listings for "refurbished" licenses (system builder) guarantee it will work on any machine, and 99%+ feedback would seem to confirm that. Per Microsoft and eBay policy, these licenses must be sold with hardware, typically an old HDD or motherboard that's not guaranteed to work. Strange business, that.

All of that said, my preference is to purchase a pre-owned retail kit from the original owner. I just did a google search and it appears that a FULL RETAIL kit can be sold and reactivated by the new owner. It's the only license that can do that. There's an auction that ends today for a pre-owned full retail XP kit @ $30. The seller has 100% feedback so I'm going with that.
 
You can also have a look at Windows Embedded POSReady 2009. It is a trimmed down version of XP, the ISO file is available for download directly from Microsoft, the activation is done offline during the installation and it is not tied to the motherboard. You would still need to find a permanent license key somewhere, not an evaluation key (which is only valid for 120 days):

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11196

SHA1: 143cb58be71e000cc205757c9965ce486189a589

Here is more information:

https://www.xpforums.com/threads/windows-embedded-posready-2009.933434/
 
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