Comments on: How to avoid having to reactivate Windows XP after fresh install

By: John

John — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:16:13 +0000

I’ve reinstalled win98 every 6 months ever since I’ve had it. My system becomes increasingly unstable and liable to crash. I doubt it’ll be different with windows xp – which I’m about to install now. REformatting fixes my problems 99% of the time and has been an invaluable tool at my disposal. Putting a limit on the number of times you can reactivate is stupid. The important thing to make sure is that this LEGAL copy of windows xp sp3 is on only ONE machine. That’s what’s important, not how many times you’ve installed/reinstalled!!!!

By: Sunil Jain

Sunil Jain — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:09:14 +0000

i think this might help if you want to activate Windows without a product key:

http://www.gupshupblog.com/200.....oduct-key/

By: GdubMSNinja

GdubMSNinja — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:16:58 +0000

With some installations, you need to also copy the wpa.dbl, and the wpa.bak files and proceed to replace as instructed above. Some installations only have the wpa.dbl, but you will see which ones it has in the system32 file to be certain. Also, if you do need to call microsoft and have a volume license, you need to tell the agent the whole situation and mention how many computers you currenty have it installed on (not the ones you havent upgraded yet) and tell them you need to reactivate the software on the remainder machines. The do have at their power to reset the system so you can activate the rest w/o hastle…but dont be a dick to them!! Most struggle to comprehend basic english, so speak slowly in “laymens” terms and repeat your technical goals many times through the call!

By: Merlin

Merlin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:24:00 +0000

How should we deal with the following situation:

We have about 16 Win XP-pro licenses, most are SP2, but some are also SP3 CD’s

We have started to upgrade all our PCs with dual processors and S-ATA disks ( for speed and performance)

Guess what happens:
Right ! message “too many installations” pops up and we cannot continue without calling MS. ( TOO MANY ?? its only the second time
Is this the really right way to treat companies that have purchased genuine licenses ??

//I’m really tired of MS and their spyware//

Does anyone have any advice please ?

Merlin

By: andy

andy — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:49:57 +0000

i had a problem with my orange broadband which i couldn’t fix……i risked a clean install of my genuine Xp home SP3 OEM i bought a week earlier (60£)…..great to say it installed and re-activated over the internet….i didnt do any changes to the system components though….

By: james

james — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:33:41 +0000

Hi there , i have a chinese XP (legal one) and i know a friend of mine told me we can change the language of XP on microsoft site.He did it from english to french and vice versa. I work in china but i cannot read chinese yet and would like to change mine to either english or french.Can i do the same?

By: Syed

Syed — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:07:04 +0000

Terrific!!!!!!!!! I work for an IT company and normally we do heaps of fresh re installation for our clients. I’m hoping I don’t need to do any more phone activation. Great tips. Thanks

By: John Higdon

John Higdon — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:09:49 +0000

This only sometimes works. If you’ve upgraded your machine with the magic number (7) of changes you still have to call Micro$loth to have your activation completed or you will get the new nag screen.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:00:57 +0000

@daniel:
Yes, you can, as long as you have a legal license key with which to activate the O/S.

By: Guss

Guss — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:41:34 +0000

Tried with Windows XP pro SP3 (using the same machine),after the re install the above method does not work …

By: f2x

f2x — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:35:25 +0000

If MS (or anyone else) had disclosed this early on, it could have dispelled a LOT of animosity. Only recently have I installed XP on my computer due to work related issues. The Windows Activation “feature” was a real turn off for me because I was extremely concerned about losing my ability to re-activate on subsequent re-installations. Had I known this trick, I would have purchased XP years ago. Then again, I probably wouldn’t have become quite the Linux geek I am today had it not been for the onus of “remote rejection”.

By: McJoe

McJoe — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:29:47 +0000

Good tip, but I think the days of reinstalling every six months belong to the Win95 era. I very much doubt that a bloated registry would have any noticable affect on the performance of a reasonably modern PC. It’s much more likely your computer is slowing down because of all the trojans and spyware installed by all the pirated software you use.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:14:06 +0000

It is valuable to back up the two files WPA.DBL and WPA.BAK from the Windows\System32 folder.Then, should they get damaged, or should you do a ‘Repair’ reinstallation of Win XP, these files can be copied back to restore the prior activation status.

However, this only works in those limited circumstances. The contents of these two files is matched to the specific Windows setup; therefore, contrary to what many journalists and members of the user community have written in recent months, restoring these files will not restore your activation status following a reformat and clean install.

By: KnightOwl

KnightOwl — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:39:57 +0000

This article may explain why formatting the hard disk could result in reactivation. Copying over the WPA file will not work. Scroll down the page …

http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

By: Wyatt

Wyatt — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:16:45 +0000

Um, The Advanced Boot Options screen you show is for Vista…
Does this work for Vista as well?