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I bought an OEM Windows XP Professional disc from Newegg.com a few years ago after my hard drive died on me. I lost the sleeve with the serial number on it. I did a search for this question on Google and I saw a couple posts on random sites suggesting there is a way to find the serial number on the disc.

I don't want to have to buy another copy.

Is there a way to find a Windows serial number on a Windows XP Professional installation disc?

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That's for finding serial numbers on a computer that has the software installed. Thanks anyway. – Kapitol Oct 8 '11 at 10:13
Deleted my earlier comment, unable to reverse the vote though. – Nifle Oct 8 '11 at 11:28
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OEM discs from Newegg or other retailers do not contain the product key on the disc. You are sol. – Moab Oct 8 '11 at 15:04
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The disk itself will not have a serial number on the disk - since you can use any media with any key, as long as they're the same type. In addition, having the serial number on the disk would mean each disk would need to be individually mastered, or you'd have to store every possible serial number on the disk.

Just not practical compared to what MS does - printing the serial number on a sticker you really should have attached on your system.

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