One doesnt "ring tech support" for activation,you simply dial 888571 2048
Give the nos listed in the failed on-line wizard,a new number is given...How
often & how much time does that take (5-8 minutes),with the research &
time youve spent on the subject one could have activated xp a 2 lifetime
amounts...

"Jim" wrote:

> OK first of I do own a legal version of XP Pro SP2 (Retail).
>
> The reason I'm trying to get round activation is in the past I have
> activated allot online, when I didn't know you could only do it a set number
> of times before you have to keep going through the hassle of ringing tech
> support and giving them my code number then they read me one back etc etc.
>
> Now I have read that if you back up 2 files called "wpa.bak" and "wpa.dbl"
> then once xp is reinstalled go into windows as normal and when asked for
> activation just reboot in safe mode and copy these 2 files back into the
> windows/system32 folder overwriting what might be there, as described here
> http://tinyurl.com/5zmqqy
>
> I have also read that if you format the hard drive (which I want to do) then
> this will not work, but (please bear with me) when I partitioned and
> formatted my drive I took an image of just that, so the image has nothing on
> it just the 2 bare partitions then I went about installing my copy of xp
> about 7 months ago, now I have gone back on that old image (of just bare
> partitions) and installed a fresh copy of XP and tried the trick as
> mentioned above with the 2 files but it failed to work, it said something
> like "I need to activate before logging in" so it didn't work for me.
>
> The only thing I can think of that is causing the problem is when setting up
> windows it asks/gives the computer a name I "think" the fresh install was a
> different name so I'm guessing this could be the problem but welcome any
> feedback from anyone.
>
> I have to stress I'm not trying to screw the activation process up or do
> anything illegal I just want to save the hassle as mentioned above, I have
> posted to a few groups that I think may be relevant so sorry if you see this
> elsewhere.
>
> Jim
>
>
>