XP Home sp1?

[Bleak Outlook]

A friend of the family is using a XP Home SP1 install

obviously they have upgraded via MS with all hotfixes and all available updates

but they need to do a clean install as this has not been done since they got it

and that was when XP home SP1 was the only home option

as they are old an scared stiff anything illegal will have the microsoft police bashing down their doors

they wont have any truck with the idea of using a cracked OS

also being old will not entertain the idea of going XP pro as its new and new scares old people

they have lost, misplaced or possibly eaten their original XP disk

so im planning on downloading a disk and using their product key which luckily is stuck on the side of their system

to install it again

now my noobish question

i cant for the life of me remember how it works

the sticker has a product key but will i need anything else serial number wise?

also i can get XP home Fully intergrated with SP2 and all hotfixes up till july

but does SP2 or any of the hot fixes course issues with using the original keys/serials

thanks for reading

and im sorry as im sure you all have more important things to be doing

Bleak

[Ponch]

1) You only need 1 serial, but it has to correspond to the type op version on your CD. (OEM, retail)

2) Updates and SPs do not interfere with the needed serial or the installation process.

3) XP PRO's interface is totally identical to Home.

[TheFlash428]

Be warned--the number on the side of the box is not always a valid install key!!!

Dells, for example, place a COA sticker on each computer with a unique number, but their OEM install CDs use a DIFFERENT number, which is hard-coded into the winnt.sif file of the XP disk. If you try to use the number on the box to install, it will come back with "Invalid Product Key" errors every time.

If this is a computer that installed with an OEM XP version, look out for this.

[Jeremy]

Nice signature, Bleaky.