• Windows Xp Activation Tool

This is one I’ve come across a few times down the years, but it always takes me a little while to re-google the exact solution, so here it is my own blog for future reference. Situation A client’s POS server PC had taken a bath, and we hadn’t been able to find the exact same motherboard, so after fitting it, I booted from an XP SP3 CD, and ran the Windows Repair Install process, to ensure new hardware installed correctly, and to reset reg entries regarding licensing tied to the old motherboard. On first boot, you are met with the standard XP login screen, however when you try to login, you are told you must activate windows first – whether you say or no, you are returned to the login screen, looping to start all over again. So, what do you do to fix this? Well it’s quite simple, thankfully. Worked lik a charm!

I was locked out completely because of activation after changing some hardware and running a repair install. The only choice I was given was “Activate Windows Now. When I clicked on Activate, it would go to my desktop screen but no further and I couldn’t do anything. I just had a blank desktop background and a cursor. If I pressed the power button, it allowed me to log off or restart.

I could not get into regular safe mode either because of activation, but I used safe mode with command prompt to enter the commands above. When I rebooted, Windows worked as normal again with 30 days for activation. This gave me time to fix the probem for good. Thanks so much for your help!!

Excellent blog entry – worked like a charm. I had an old Thinkpad with Win XP. I wanted to convert the physical machine to a VMWare virtual machine, so I decided to change its OEM license to a retail license of Win XP which I bought separately.

(Microsoft told me that the OEM license of XP was tied to the physical machine, and could not be ported to another machine). After running the retail XP installer in repair mode, and getting numerous missing file errors (which is another topic in installing XP in repair mode!), and ignoring them, I finally got the laptop to reboot and login.

Then I got stuck at the Windows Activation panel. On responding Yes to activate Windows, nothing would happen. I then followed the steps to reboot in to Safe mode and reset the licensing components.

Windows Xp Activation Tool

Just resetting the licensing components didn’t do it for me – I still got stuck at the Windows Activation prompt. I followed the extra steps to reboot into Safe mode, delete Program Files/Internet Explorer directory, reboot again into Safe mode, and install IE 8 for XP. After that Windows Activation worked like a charm. It didn’t think I had an internet connection (I had a wired one connected), and I had to go via the voice activated telephone route for activation.