If you have Mfr X's restore system disk, and MFr X's machine's HDD goes belly up, you would like to use that disk to re-establish that OS onto the replacement HDD. I have such a mfr X's disk, and have used it to reload the system onto the replacement drive of that machine. The process went fine. So fine, in fact, it was so good as to not have you re-enter the 25ish alphanumeric sequence on the box's sticker. After all, you did buy the thing; it's your's, so why should you have to go through all that again? Even better, it was up to the second service pack, and, best yet, yielded an up and running OS fully "Activated". No need to go to some website and fill out a questionnaire. Later it occurred to me the disk may be undiscriminating about what model it goes into just so long as its a Genuine Brand X. Trying it on two other Genuine Brand X models, it set them up as well. Nice Disk. Trying it on a computer of a different mfr, the disk (rather surprisingly) loaded the OS without comment or complaint. Only after it was installed did the disk then call foul, and insisted on you activating the OS. I had thought the thing would balk as soon as it realized it was being told to load into a Brand Z. So what if you could get the computer to lie to the install program about who made the motherboard? Years ago there was an entry on a Google search result list for software that could do this. I could have sworn I took a screenshot of that list, but now I just can't find it. Anybody out there know a source for such a program?

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