Installing legal older versions of Windows XP

Solution 1:

To my understanding, Microsoft officially endorses the use of the unactivated "grace period" in a pure testing environment. So, if your testing is short term, you may not need to activate at all.

Microsoft says:

Leverage the Activation Grace Period

If activation does not occur immediately after the operating system is installed, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 still provide the full functionality of the operating system for an initial grace period of 30 days. During this grace period, at each log in and at common intervals, a notification appears reminding customers to activate the product, but otherwise, the operating system functions the same as an activated product.

If you have test systems that change frequently, consider taking advantage of the activation grace period and not activating the product while you’re testing it. If your testing goes beyond 30 days but is still short-term, Microsoft provides a way to reset the grace period up to three times using rearm functionality available through the slmgr.vbs command-line interface. This effectively extends the grace period of these products to 120 days. For details see Slmgr.vbs Options in the Volume Activation Technical Reference Guide.

This should be legally in the clear as long as you have any kind of Windows license that you are not actively using on another device - an OEM license for the same edition would be fine. This is technically in the clear no matter what, you are simply not required to activate for 120 days.

Solution 2:

If its for testing, spend the 300 dollars or so, and get a technet account - you get fully functional versions of pretty much every OS MS has made or is making , for evaluation and testing purposes.

Solution 3:

You can exercise your Downgrade Rights from Windows 7. See this FAQ from Microsoft here.

Solution 4:

"Download Free Windows 7, Vista and XP via new IE Application Compatibility VPC Images"

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Download-Free-Windows-7-Vista-and-XP-via-new-IE-Application-Compatibility-VPC-Images-200609.shtml

Solution 5:

If you are a student/instructor, your university probably provides MSDN access to you, and you can legally get a serial number for free. Or, if you graduated from a college and your account is still accessible, you might want to see if you have access to university resources (again, MSDN.)