Changing Win 98 Serial number

At our office we have 20 older machines running windows 98. These
machines seem to get ruined by the staff here with downloads of
spyware, adware, free games etc. Due to this mass downloading of
rubbish i find myself having to reinstall the OS often.

As all the machines are of the same spec hardware, i have decided that
the easiest way is to set up one clean one and then take a norton
ghost image of the drive once all the updates etc are done. then when
i need to reinstall another machine just use the ghost file.

However this leaves me with the problem that all the machines will
have the same serial number, even though we have a licences for every
one of them.

Is there any way to change the serial number post install so to speak?

In addition is there any easy way to change the login/user name, maybe
through the replace function in the registry editor (for some reason
people get really stroppy when it says log off whoever instead of
their name on the start menu, beats me why)

Cheers for any help

I seriously doubt you can change the serial number
afterwards; however if anyone points a finger at you and
says you are a software pirate you can just smack them in
the face with the licensed copies... or alternatively just
politely present them.

As for login/user name, goto c:\windows and delete the
*.pwl files does that work? Have you considered doing
unattended installs instead? Read the resource kit on the
win98 cd for more information.

On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 06:51:38 -0700, "Travis Swift"
wrote:

I seriously doubt you can change the serial number
afterwards; however if anyone points a finger at you and
says you are a software pirate you can just smack them in
the face with the licensed copies... or alternatively just
politely present them.

As for login/user name, goto c:\windows and delete the
*.pwl files does that work? Have you considered doing
unattended installs instead? Read the resource kit on the
win98 cd for more information.

Haha, what just literally pick up all the cds and smack them with em.
not sure how that would go down with a compliance investigator, but i
am sure that it would make me feel better.

You might have a new management stress relief technique there

Go to Start/Run. Type regedit hit OK.
Open plus at HKEY_Local_Machine.Open plus at Software.
Open plus at Microsoft. Open plus at Windows.
Highlight Current Version.
( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current
Version)
In the right window scroll down to Product Key. You can
right click on the "Product Key" words and select modify.
Be sure to enter the new number correctly. 5 groups of 5
digits with dashes in between.
Good Luck.
-----Original Message-----
At our office we have 20 older machines running windows
98. These
machines seem to get ruined by the staff here with
downloads of
spyware, adware, free games etc. Due to this mass
downloading of
rubbish i find myself having to reinstall the OS often.

As all the machines are of the same spec hardware, i have
decided that
the easiest way is to set up one clean one and then take
a norton
ghost image of the drive once all the updates etc are
done. then when
i need to reinstall another machine just use the ghost
file.

However this leaves me with the problem that all the
machines will
have the same serial number, even though we have a
licences for every
one of them.

Is there any way to change the serial number post install
so to speak?

In addition is there any easy way to change the
login/user name, maybe
through the replace function in the registry editor (for
some reason
people get really stroppy when it says log off whoever
instead of
their name on the start menu, beats me why)

Cheers for any help
.

"adcb" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 06:51:38 -0700, "Travis Swift"
wrote:

I seriously doubt you can change the serial number
afterwards; however if anyone points a finger at you and
says you are a software pirate you can just smack them in
the face with the licensed copies... or alternatively just
politely present them.

As for login/user name, goto c:\windows and delete the
*.pwl files does that work? Have you considered doing
unattended installs instead? Read the resource kit on the
win98 cd for more information.

Haha, what just literally pick up all the cds and smack them with em.
not sure how that would go down with a compliance investigator, but i
am sure that it would make me feel better.

You might have a new management stress relief technique there

I use the same media/key for all the win9x installs ....I just keep all the
licences handy in case i have to prove what we own :

now XP ...there's a different story :

"adcb" wrote in message
...
At our office we have 20 older machines running windows 98. These
machines seem to get ruined by the staff here with downloads of
spyware, adware, free games etc. Due to this mass downloading of
rubbish i find myself having to reinstall the OS often.

As all the machines are of the same spec hardware, i have decided
that
the easiest way is to set up one clean one and then take a norton
ghost image of the drive once all the updates etc are done. then
when
i need to reinstall another machine just use the ghost file.

However this leaves me with the problem that all the machines will
have the same serial number, even though we have a licences for
every
one of them.

Is there any way to change the serial number post install so to
speak?

In addition is there any easy way to change the login/user name,
maybe
through the replace function in the registry editor (for some reason
people get really stroppy when it says log off whoever instead of
their name on the start menu, beats me why)

Cheers for any help

I would think that you could just make a .reg file for each machine
and hide it somewhere on the pc (or put it on a floppy) that won't be
changed when you do the reinstall. Just have the .reg file contain
the 'product key' for that particular machine. Then all you would have
to do is run that reg key to put the old 'product key' back into the
Registry.