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- The short answer to this question is that no, you cannot. Purchasing one copy of Windows XP Home and then installing it on more than one computer will not work when done in a legal, regular fashion.
This is because with each copy of XP that you purchase you are purchasing a license to use that operating system. This license gives you legal rights to use that operating system on one computer. To determine whether you are abusing the rights of that license, each copy of Windows XP requires activation to install and use it. This activation is done at the time of installation by entering a unique serial number that comes with XP. The computer is then registered as running that specific copy of Windows XP, preventing you from installing it and activating it again on another system.
This legal method of limiting your XP Home installation to one computer per copy is outlined in the Windows "End User License Agreement" that you must agree to prior to installation of the operating system. Thus, if you wish to install XP Home on more than one computer, you must purchase it for each computer, giving you multiple licenses.
If you've purchased more than one license you can use any XP Home disc to install the operating system. The license isn't stored on the installation disc itself. Rather it's tied to the serial number you type in during installation. If you've bought multiple copies of XP and lose one of the discs you can use another disc and enter the serial number for the lost disc.
XP on Multiple Computers
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