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Manually Activate Windows XP without Ever Having to Connect to MicrosoftDo you know where System32 is? |
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Activation is an integer part of the Windows XP operating system. Essentially, XP activation is designed to help reduce software piracy. According to Microsoft, "casual copying" affecting XP is the behavior targeted with activation. But outside of the initial grace period of XP, users will only be able to use the operating system if they will activate their copy. Microsoft offers three alternatives to activating Windows XP, via the Internet, through a modem or by phone. Of course that there also are illegal alternatives to XP activation. Various cracks and workarounds circumvent Microsoft's antipiracy measure. But none of the above is the method to manually activate Windows XP
presented in here. The object of this article is to let you in on a way to easily and effortlessly re-activate you copy of Windows XP after a reinstall. This implies that you already have a genuine and activated copy of Windows XP to begin with. But in case you have to format your hard drive, or just the XP partition, and install XP all over again, you can spare yourself the time and labor to re-activate the operating system, according to the SunbeltBlog. All you have to do is make your way to the C:WindowsSystem32 folder and identify the "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files. Copy both of them to a USB drive or burn them to a CD. Format the HDD and reinstall Windows XP, but do not activate the operating system. Instead restart and boot into SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal, press F8 during boot in order to access the SafeMode options. Navigate to System32 where you will be able to find the "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files. Since you already have the old files on your portable media simply rename these as "wpadbl.new" and "wpabak.new" and copy the old "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files in System32. "Product activation makes sure that each Windows XP license is installed in accordance with the EULA and is not installed on more than the number of computers that the license permits. Windows creates a unique installation identification (ID) that is based on information from the product ID and a hardware identifier that are created when you install Window XP. To activate, use the Windows Product Activation wizard to provide the installation ID to Microsoft over the Internet or your phone line. The installation ID records an association of the product ID to your computer and a confirmation ID is sent back to your computer to activate Windows XP. Activation is anonymous, and no personal information is required to activate," Microsoft revealed in relation to XP's activation process.
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| Article rating: |
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Good (3.6/5) |
45 vote(s) |
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User opinions: |
| Comment #1 by: chaitanya on 22 Feb 2008, 21:15 GMT |  reply to this comment | gret
thanks you
hve saved mee from reactivation method by phone |
| Comment #1.1 by: M.R.R.Khan on 23 May 2009, 16:46 GMT | After fresh installetion, I failed to find wpa.bak, I only found the wpa.dbl, but not wpa.bak, Though from original genuinely activated OS, I kept two files in safe, so that I can replace these as advised. But no wpa.bak was found. Can any body help me,please? |
| Comment #2 by: dave on 07 Mar 2008, 05:04 GMT | reply to this comment | The only problem I've had with the concern about activating is that I have bought a new and bigger hard drive every 6 months since buying the XP quite a few years ago. Not to mention all the motherboards that have been bought for upgrades on my same computer. Thats a lot of activations every time I do upgrade.
Am also sure many people do the same and like upgrading.
So far luckily XP has always activated over the phone, but if it stops, or they eliminate the phone activation completely someday, I will try the file backup. |
| Comment #3 by: VICTOR CUTAJAR on 21 Nov 2008, 14:15 GMT | reply to this comment | I am sorry to say that it has taken me about 3 hrs to try and activate windows.The response I am getting is incorrect key.Can someone advice on what to do. |
| Comment #4 by: Steve on 04 Dec 2008, 22:14 GMT | reply to this comment | I suffered the ultimate. Telefonica, the spanish telephone/IP service made a total mess of a new contract, during that time my drive and motherboard both died. So I was offline for 3 months, just got back on. My original supplier provided an english version of XP (pro), I wanted it in English although I now live in Spain, I actually bought and paid for XP Home. I had done backups, for an IT guy I was a bit thick, the backup missed files, even worse I had encypted a directory, all has been lost. The backup didn´t do its job properly and even worse encypted data cannot be restored to a new installation. However I digress, I have tried for 5 days to activate over the internet and each time it is unavailable, the original s/w is now 2 years old and never actually been activated in the 1st place, am I cynical or is it an MS ploy. I daren´t ring them as I will automatically get someone saying ¡hola!, (that I understand) but getting any further, especially technical will be a nightmare (ps I have run a european IT helpline and I know how difficult it can be as the receiver of the call). Lo siento I digress again! I have now installed on 2 seperate partitions both very soon to run out, just so I can make a FULL secure backup, once bitten twice shy, so how does anyone get round this nighmarish problem. I accept my data and all the programs, even worse, the information I have put together over 3 years has now been lost forever just because of I let it happen and even worse, distrusted my own feelings and experience in putting my trust and faith in BigHard |
| Comment #5 by: bbmaxwell on 12 Dec 2008, 15:52 GMT | reply to this comment | I was not able to find wpa.bak on my computer. I found the wpa.dbl, but no .bak? |
| Comment #6 by: Chuck on 13 Mar 2009, 21:51 GMT | reply to this comment | Steve,
If you can get ahold of BartPE, you can boot to WinXP from a CD and access the data on your drive. You can also access a network (if you have a supported card installed) or access a thumb drive to save off your data. |
| Comment #7 by: M.R.R.Kha on 23 May 2009, 16:50 GMT | reply to this comment | On fresh installetion, I failed to find wpawpa.bak file. I found only wpa.dbl file. Why it is like that. I failed, and finally I had to contact Microsoft over phone to get my win xp sp2 activated. |
| Comment #8 by: M.R.R.Khan on 23 May 2009, 23:23 GMT | reply to this comment | On fresh installetion of my Genuine Windows xp pro sp2, I failed to find "wpa.bak" file. Other file "wpa.dbl" was found. As such, trick described in the article simply failed. I had to once again contact Microsoft to get it activated.
How come a prestigeous website like Softpedia could publish such an instruction which failed tp work. Did any body in Softpedia ever verified that really it works or not? I urge upon Softpedia to be good enough to verify such miracles, before publishing this sort of article. Credibility of Softpedia will have to remain high. |
| Comment #9 by: S.Imran on 26 May 2009, 08:26 GMT | reply to this comment | You are right. wpa.bak file is not available. Softpedia remains totally silent, after publishing a bogus trick. |
| Comment #10 by: rgs on 29 May 2009, 15:34 GMT | reply to this comment | doesn't matter if wpa.bak isn't there, its just a backup copy of the wpa.dbl file. if u don't have it, make a copy of wpa.dbl and then rename it to wpa.bak. |
| Comment #11 by: M.R.R.Khan on 31 May 2009, 04:01 GMT | reply to this comment | It works. But Windows will have to be installed in the same HDD as it was in genuinely activated earlier. |
| Comment #12 by: David on 02 Aug 2009, 02:54 GMT | reply to this comment | just rename wpabaln as wpabaln.new and wpa.dbl as wpadbl.new.
as for me it has work... i can activate |
| Comment #13 by: BM on 16 Oct 2009, 11:50 GMT | reply to this comment | I cant find wpa.bak on the system32 folder. |
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