OK, I have been given a laptop to fix, but the was a mess so I decided to reinstall windows. The only cd I have is the one that came with my own laptop, so I tried it. It installed fine, but it never asked me for a key during the install (which I have, it is printed on a sticker on the underside of the laptop). However, windows keeps telling me i need to register it.

So my question is, is it 'safe' to register windows even though a different cd was used to install it? or will it just turn around and tell me my windows is invalid? Is there a way to put the proper key in before registering (assuming that the cd has the key for my own laptop embedded in it somewhere)?

Thanks.