Oh no!

smart me, activated winxp on my used laptop.
stupid me, messed with the registry trying to do something good.
would restart and open windows but when it got to my desktop would restart.
smart me, went in to registry to undo what I did.
stupid me, was worried that I screwed it up so I restored from last monday.
Now I have the keys back. Wants me to activate windows again.

I know there is a way to change the registry to put the new key in.
A hand would be very appreciated.

Try this:
Start->Run-> %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a

Had to call microsoft. they were nice this time. couldn't sleep last night thinking about it. they gave me a new key. Phheww!
thanks for the help. I did go to run and system root, but it didn't do what I wanted.

Peace All