Reference number: CH000103

I have an Intel Pentium III+,  how do I disable the serial number.

Question:

I have an Intel Pentium III+, how do I disable the serial number?

Answer:

About the Serial Number

This controversial feature found on each Intel Pentium III processor is a unique serial number that can be used to identify a computer. This feature was designed for security reasons; for example, when doing credit card submissions over the Internet, identification could be verified using this unique serial number. However, this feature caused many users to fear the ability of being uniquely tracked. Because of this upset, Intel gave the user the option to enable or disable this feature, and by default this feature is disabled. If you have not enabled this feature you should not need to disable it.

New Pentium III and later processors

To enable or disable this feature download a software application from Intel that allows you to display the status and change the status of the serial number. See our Utility Download section for this file.

Early Pentium III processors

Because of the controversy concerning this feature later Intel Pentium III and later Intel processors that had this feature enabled users to disable this feature through the CMOS setup. Additional information about how to get into CMOS setup can be found on document CH000192.