unattended winxp setup cd-key

If you have a customized Windows XP setup CD that has the CD-Key "built-in", installing Windows is then fairly simple because you won't need to enter the key complete the Windows XP setup. However there may be a situation where you still would like to know what that CD key is, like if you need to run the winnt.exe or winnt32.exe file straight from the I386 folder while operating from within a running Windows environment.

• • For a customized Windows XP setup CD such as this, the CD key info is located in a filed called "winnt.sif".

  • Look for this file from within the "I386" folder which is located on the Windows XP setup CD.

  • Once you have located this SIF file, open it up from within Notepad or some other text editor or even Microsoft word for example.

  • Then look for the following line:

  • [UserData]

  • ProductKey="CB9YB-Q73J8-RKPMH-M2WFT-P4WQJ"

Bingo. There's your CD-Key, between the double quotes.