Do windows XP still need a Licence Key to be activated now that There's no Support?

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Lord Letto

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Jun 2, 2013
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Hi, I'm Currently running "Windows 8.1 Pro Preview, Evaluation copy build 9431", Complete with it's 2 hour Restarts, I'm unable to afford Windows 8.1 Pro or Windows 7 Home Premium at the moment and I was wondering if I could run a copy of Windows XP without Licence Key now that support has ended and M$ are likely not making any more $ From it. if I can then I have a Disk for XP Media Centre Edition 2005 From a old Emachines computer I had a few years ago and don't have any more after 2 HDD Failures from Virus in the Motherboard or something. if a Key is needed, my mom's old computer that's still around got Home Edition, not sure if the HDD is IDE/PATA or SATA but if it's SATA then maybe I could put it in my computer and use the Product key on her computer to reactivate it or something? another option is to find/make a Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit Disc as I have the HDD from my old Laptop installed I would just need to get it to work with my computer and maybe running a repair or something from a disc would make it work on the Motherboard.
 
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USAFRet
XP will still (I believe) need a license to activate. They did not make it automagically 'free'.

For Windows 8, you almost certainly do not need Win 8 Pro. Regular Win 8/8.1 will do the job for 1/2 the price.
You can download the official Windows 7 ISO here:
http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325/

Burn to DVD, install, and you have 30 days to go buy one. Activate with the key you receive when you buy it.
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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XP will still (I believe) need a license to activate. They did not make it automagically 'free'.

For Windows 8, you almost certainly do not need Win 8 Pro. Regular Win 8/8.1 will do the job for 1/2 the price.
You can download the official Windows 7 ISO here:
http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325/

Burn to DVD, install, and you have 30 days to go buy one. Activate with the key you receive when you buy it.
 
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mbreslin1954

Distinguished
Nov 27, 2010
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I just installed Windows XP as a virtual machine, and yes, it still requires a valid license key. It's built into the software, has been from day one. The only thing Microsoft could do now would be to automatically grant activation to all license keys, no matter how many times they were being used, but they haven't. They won't. They don't want anyone running XP any more.
 
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