How to beat activation

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

MULTIPLE POST

Jim wrote:
> OK first of I do own a legal version of XP Pro SP2 (Retail).

Great...

> 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.

There is no set number of times. There is a badly worded and confusing to
some message that if researched (by searching online) one would find is just
that - badly worded - and you can still activate your copy via phone as you
found out. Also - if you don't re-install that same copy (same license) but
once every 121 days or so - you *can* do it online everytime and *not* have
to call anyone.

> 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.

When you made the disk image - was the computer already activated?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

clip
> Also - if you don't re-install that same copy (same license) but once
> every 121 days or so - you *can* do it online everytime and *not* have to
> call anyone.

do you mean you can reformat after 121 days, reload, and then
activate normally?

> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>

Shenan wrote:
<snipped>
> Also - if you don't re-install that same copy (same license) but
> once every 121 days or so - you *can* do it online everytime and
> *not* have to call anyone.

~~single~~ wrote:
> do you mean you can reformat after 121 days, reload, and then
> activate normally?

Does your 'normally' mean 'over the Internet'? If so - under standard
circumstances - yes.

Some reading on the subject...
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm


--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html