virtualbox.org

I am no longer able to install Windows XP3 as a guest O/S in Virtualbox. Using a valid (OEM) XP3 install disk with good key codes (as displayed on a working XP box), when I get to the step requiring the codes to be entered, I get the 'invalid key' message. I have tried several key code sets with the same result. It is not giving me the option of installing without a key code. I have tried multiple versions of Virtualbox from 4 to the latest 6 versions with the same result. I have tried both Windows 7 and 10 host boxes with the same result. My Windows 10 box has a Virtualbox installation (version 5.2.18) which was set up several years ago that contains multiple XP installs and is still working fine. The box I am trying to use is an older Windows 7 (64 bit) machine. Can anyone explain to me what is going on and what if anything I can do?

Your issues do not seem to be VirtualBox related. VirtualBox does not decide what is and isn't a good XP product key.

Just FYI: XP product keys only work within the correct marketing stream. For example retail keys will not work on installs from OEM CDs, or vice versa. Volume/Enterprise keys will not work on either OEM or Retail installs.

However, to be completely blunt: we are not here to do Microsoft's support for them. If you have a problem with Windows licensing then you really need to raise it with Microsoft, not with the manufacturer of the PC you try to install it on (VirtualBox is just the virtual hardware manufacturer).

Thanks for your reply but it doesn't help. I'm sure you are well aware that Microsoft stopped supporting XP long ago. Even when they were still supporting it, they were of limited help. I wanted to find out if it was anything I didn't do right or whether I am beating a dead horse. The fact that I could install and run XP in the past with the same equipment and software and now I can't, puzzles me. I know there are still many people running XP via Virtualbox but I can't explain what I am experiencing and wonder if anyone else has had the same problem.

If you can see the product key echoed correctly on the screen then VirtualBox's contribution to the matter is over. As already mentioned, VirtualBox does nothing that can affect whether XP accepts a product key as valid or not.

It's an aside (this is not an XP support site): but I'm not aware of any event in the past that would have changed the product key rules, so I doubt that the product key you have now ever worked with the install CD you have now. Many OEM installers were node locked to the hardware they were bundled with, i.e. they won't install unless they see the BIOS string they expect to see (or whatever else their hardware check consists of).

And to be clear: XP is probably still the most popular OS for a VM. People continually install both retail and generic OEM versions without problems. Also XP-SP3 was never an option from Microsoft. It only AFAIK existed as very late model royalty branded CDs, I think maybe Dell offered it for people who refused to install Vista, so the disk you have cannot be a standard installer.

XP3 is not a Windows OS. It was called Windows XP. As mpack pointed out, there was a service pack for XP called SP3. There is a CD available for SP3, but it is not bootable. It is an upgrade for an installed version of XP. I do have a CD of Windows XP Pro with SP3 pre-installed - I think it probably came from MSDN (I had a subscription back then). It installs fine. I does not even ask for a product key before it installs (probably because it is Pro only, not multi-version).

I thought of it at the time, but it doesn't seem to me that the OP is trying to boot from a service pack CD. As you say, that CD would fail to boot.

Instead he seems to be saying that a dialog appears asking for a product key, he enters the product key, and the product key is rejected as invalid. That's either a straight-up invalid product key, a stolen volume license key that's been blocked by Microsoft, or a product key from the wrong marketing stream (VLK, OEM, retail).

Thanks for the reminder that MSDN had an XP installer, I keep forgetting that option.