First, find your setupp.ini file in the i386 directory on your Windows XP CD. If you look at it, it will resemble:

ExtraData=707A667567736F696F697911AE7E05
Pid=55034000

The Pid value is what we’re in this for. What’s there now looks like a standard default, but that is no good. There are special numbers that determine if it’s a retail, OEM, or volume license edition. First, we must break down that number into two parts. The first five digits determines how the CD will behave, i.e. is it a retail CD that lets you clean install or upgrade, or an OEM CD that only lets you perform a clean install? The last three digits determine what CD key it will accept.

You are able to mix and match these values. For example you could make a Windows XP CD that acted like a retail CD, but then yet accepted OEM keys.

This is in my opinion a very useful tweak if done properly, so listen up!

Here are the individual values, the first and last values are interchangeable but you should keep them together:

Retail = 51882 335

Volume License = 51883 270

OEM = 82503 OEM

Now if you wanted a retail CD that accepted the retail CD key then you would use.

Pid=51882335

And if you wanted a retail CD that accepted OEM keys, you’d use:

Pid=51882OEM

You should remember that doing this might be considered illegal in Microsoft’s eyes so as such it’s not something I would recommend to do.

Now if all went without typo’s all you need to to is burn your XP cd and make it bootable.