Last year but one, Muggins purchased XP Pro online and when it arrived, after many attempts, MS refused to activate it, the inference being that it was slightly erm, not one of theirs. I whinged mightily and got a refund, but was told not to bother sending the disk back to the supplier. So far, so good.
Last week but one, XP crashed on me in the biggest way possible and I had to do a clean reinstall. I scratched around for my 2nd XP Pro disk (The replacement that I purchased locally) but got it wrong and reinstalled the errant disk referred to in Para 1. Only when I had installled did I realise my error, but surprise surprise, the activation worked beautifully and I now have, according to MS and the Active X proggie that decides if you are a genuine user or not, a fully updated and functioning program.
Work that one out!
Conan