Windows activation upon reinstalling...

[-Exi|e-]

I really hope i dont have to reinstall in the near future but what if i have too.... Will it ask me for the product key again and will it let me activate it since it has been activated once? Or will it ask me for my 20 number key i got when i activated it? Im so confused about this, i didnt have any problems installing it but i was just wondering about a possible reinstallation in the far, far, future (I HOPE!!!)


By the way, i do have a legit copy of WindowsXP, paid 299$ CAN for the full Home version, so plz dont close this thread thinking its about warez or something.

[William]

I "think" you have to activate again but you will have the same hardware profile so it won't flag you.

[-Exi|e-]

Thats what i thought also, i dont mind reactivating:) Thanks for the reply.


If anyone has comments or knows about this pls feel free:D

[mbigna]

There is a file that is saved in your /system directory with the extension .WPA after activation. I can't remember for certain the exact filename, or the directory, for sure. However, I know that you can back it up and save it should you need to replace a hard drive (or reinstall, or repartition, or whatever). Assuming that you have made no major changes to your system, the backed up .WPA file can be copied back to the correct directory and you should be able to avoid re-activation. The nice thing is (if there CAN be anything nice about the general pain in the a$$ is to have to activate at all), even if you DON'T back up the .WPA file, and you are forced to reactivate through Microsoft (web or phone), you should have no problem creating a replacement .WPA file--again assuming you haven't changed much hardware in your system.

You might just try to search for all files with the .WPA extension, I don't expect there to be many. In the meantime, I'll go back through my issues of MaximumPC and PCMag to see if I can get the exact file name and location. Check back here later...

[-Exi|e-]

Well, thanks alot mbigna, your help is much appreciated!

[bdf24]

Originally posted by William
I "think" you have to activate again but you will have the same hardware profile so it won't flag you.

So what if he builds a new system and is running a new motherboard, cpu, etc... Will microsoft deny him a reactivation? You are allowed to run it on one system. So if he were to upgrade or build a new one and not run XP on the old system, He should still be allowed to run XP on the new one. Right?

[Yodums]

Originally posted by bdf24


So what if he builds a new system and is running a new motherboard, cpu, etc... Will microsoft deny him a reactivation? You are allowed to run it on one system. So if he were to upgrade or build a new one and not run XP on the old system, He should still be allowed to run XP on the new one. Right?

I think Microshaft's activation only allows it to run on one comp only and that you were to build another system that you wouldn't be allowed to put XP on it.

... I guess Microsoft thinks doing this will stop more Warez.

[mbigna]

Originally posted by bdf24


So what if he builds a new system and is running a new motherboard, cpu, etc... Will microsoft deny him a reactivation? You are allowed to run it on one system. So if he were to upgrade or build a new one and not run XP on the old system, He should still be allowed to run XP on the new one. Right? Supposedly, if you do buy or build a new machine, or upgrade extensively, a call will be required to M$ to explain what is going on before issuing a new activation code. M$ has stated that they won't grill people too hard on this, but I don't believe it--do you? Technically, if you build or buy new, you must remove Windows from the old machine before you can move it to a new one. This has been the case for all versions of windows (or DOS, for that matter). If you do upgrade, it will probably be best when calling for a new code to tell M$ that you have wiped the old machine's hard drive and are donating it to your favorite charity.

There is another caveat: After three months, your upgrade counter resets, and you should be free to make even more changes to your system without prompting reactivation. Now, I don't know if that would allow one to conceivably move another copy of XP to another machine by gradually upgrading one system to another, but I'm sure that this will still stymie casual copying for the home (and ****** off alot of people).

As a developer, I was able to get M$'s "channel excitement package" which supposedly includes a full version of XP Pro (which it says on the website "this is an unlicensed version"--whatever that means--maybe it is unactivatable and self-destructs after thirty days) and a M$ lava lamp--among other totchka's (did I spell totchka correctly?). I have yet to receive it, but I'm interested to see how cheesy it is. I also bought an home upgrade from Staples (I wanted to take advantage of the digital camera deal and several other freebies that were included). I plan on evaluating both versions pretty heavily before recommending either version to my corporate clients, or anyone else for that matter.

FYI, there is already a patch available on the web (surprise, surprise).

IMO, M$'s ongoing company policy of user hostility will backfire on them. After all this time, you'd think they would learn. There is no encryption or copy protection that hasn't been overcome. My theory is that the likelyhood of cracking a product increases proportionally (if not exponentially) with the popularity of a product. Having been in the industry for 20 years, I've seen the trend. Copy protection breaking companies came into existence (and thrived greatly) due mainly to products like Aston Tate's (remember them?) Dbase series of software. At the time, there was no other viable database option for businesses. Dbase was expensive and copy protected. It wasn't long before it was cracked. Furthermore, by the time they lowered the price and removed the copy protection, FoxPlus/FoxPro, which was at the time cheaper and un-copy-protected--not to mention faster and compatible, had begun its takeover. [M$ later bought FoxPro, and then killed it, thus assimilating another more nimble competitor, but this is another story]. Dbase 'died' soon after, though Borland eventually bought what was left of the company (to no benefit to Borland, which is no longer, either).

It amazes me the extent to which so many people ignore history (and not just the history of software companies, but history in general). Who was it who said "he who ignores the lessons of history is doomed to repeat it" anyway... There are SO many stories like this in the arena of software that I believe that we are going to witness another sea change in the business. The advent of things like linux and StarOffice and web based computing are going to change the paradigm of the way we use software. Soon, software will become a very cheap commodity (how many more functions can be packed into Word, let alone used) and CONTENT will be what we pay for. And this is how it should be.

Which brings me to the subject of copyright protection--which WON'T be discussed here because I can see that I have begun another unintended RANT.

[mbigna]

NOTICE: I misspoke (mistyped) about the filename that holds the hardware keys. It is WPA.DBL (not *.WPA, as I earlier intimated).

The WPA.DBL file resides in the Windows\system32 directory and holds the hardware configuration information and activation state of the current Windows XP installation.

I'd like to direct you to an www.extremetech.com (http://www.extremetech.com) article that explains Windows Product Activation (WPA--though I prefer to refer to this pain as Windows Product DE-Activation, since that is really what the software does). The direct link to the article is here:

ExtremeTech WPA Article (http://www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,s%253D1027%2526a%253D11079,00.asp)