The "regular" methods provided with XP (phone and online) don't work anymore. The phone number is not valid for activation anymore (I tried the German one) and the online activation does not work either (in a quick test within a DMZ other protocols like ICMP or HTTP worked fine when I accessed an internet server).
The latest question/answer I could find here on superuser is this one: XP Activation and Dual Booting which doesn't provide an answer to my question. In addition the question asks only if it can be done in general not how (neither does the existing answer say how), and about other problems (dual boot), so I decided to post the question again as specific question just about the activation process.
Windows Xp Activation Generator
The solutions can be a workaround (disabling the activation check), but for security reasons, it shouldn't contain a binary download. Preferably it also shouldn't require a network/internet connection. Although there is no way around using WinXP, I want to minimize security risks.
Calling the current MS activation number for a product still in support (e.g. for activation for Win7) and choosing "Other Products" in the voice menu. This is my preferred one since you don't have to tamper with the system. In my case (Nov 2019) I followed the link to the Microsoft Licensing Activation Centers worldwide telephone numbers.
Deleting the value of the OOBETimer key (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/WPAEvents/OOBETimer) and starting the activation via command prompt: msoobe /a. This will disable the activation requirement for good, but might cause issues (although I haven't found any yet) (source)
This link just allows you to manually activate the the installation. So you select activate via phone option, then your XP box activation screen will give you a set of numbers. You enter these numbers into the site and the site gives you the response numbers to enter into the XP installation that you are needing to activate. Then you click on "next" and the activation completes.
So there is no way that this could contain malware or virus's because nothing is installed or run on the box that you are activating, unlike the other options listed here that involve running scripts to by-pass the activation process.
I am just giving my experience here; I had a box belonging to a friend of mine that somehow got into an activation loop (even though it had previously been activated for years), and I got the PC activated using the link. And I did so by following the standard Microsoft activation screens.
A wildly wrong date will break anything that uses ssl/tls, as certificates will be assumed to be either expired (if the date is in the future) or not yet valid (if the date is in the past). This apparently includes windows activation.
I just successfully activated an old copy of Windows XP I had installed using the toll free U.S. phone number listed in the activation dialog (888-571-2048), so it's possible the issue was with the German number and not phone activations in general.
As part of the call, they provided me with an online activation link, which allowed me to activate my copy online. After providing the link, I was instructed to hang up the call. I was able to enter the information from the activation dialog into the online form, and enter the resulting activation code into the activation dialog. This successfully activated my installation Windows XP.
Call the number for your region and go through the automated prompts and agree for the automated system to continue activation through sending a text message to your smart phone. Once you get the text message you can hang up.
Looks like Microsoft took down the virtual agent entirely. Did you try phone activation option? If you call Microsoft activation phone number they used to offer activating on a smartphone by texting you a link.
I booted my computer the other day just like I do every morning to check my email and low & behold - I get a message saying my copy of WinXP needs to be activated. OK - nothing new, but extremely annoying since I've already activated my copy more times than I can count. I click OK to start the activation process and proceed to the next window, which says my copy of windows is already activated. OK great. I click OK and I am logged off! NOT GREAT!! This entire process repeats itself so I am stuck in an infinite activation loop that has no solution. Oh the fun! You can imagine how I'm loving M$ right now...OK, in order to salvage my current settings and not have to reinstall all my software, I'd like to hack my registry hives so WinXP thinks it hasn't been activated. I've done a few things1) I moved all my old [root\WINDOWS] files and [documents & settings\user files] to a backup drive. I did this to backup my old settings and allow a fresh WinXP installation.2) I reinstalled WinXP, so now I have new settings on the drive which hosts my OS and the old settings stored on my backup drive.3) I've been using BartPE to try and copy the old hives to the drive with the clean installation in order to salvage my settings, but I've been getting some serious errors when I do this. Turns out I'm going to need to access the old hives and wipe all activation activity to do this.I need to know a few things:1) Which registry keys does the activation of WinXP mess with?2) How can I open my old backup hives in regedit or some registry editor without importing them into my new registry?
I agree that activation only inconveniences paying customers but, that said, you should have opted for the phone activation.Alias-- Use the Reply to Sender feature of your news reader program to email me.Utiliza Responder al Remitente para mandarme un mail.
1) You need to activate WinXP - blah blah blah - press OK2) Activate by phone or over the internet - this screen nevers shows up!!3) Your copy of WinXP is activated.So by skipping step 2, there is no way to reactivate WinXP. I am stuck with steps 1 & 3, get logged off, then repeat. I would have tried the phone activation if it were possible, but that option is not available to me.
> I booted my computer the other day just like I do every morning to check my > email and low & behold - I get a message saying my copy of WinXP needs to be > activated. OK - nothing new, but extremely annoying since I've already > activated my copy more times than I can count. I click OK to start the > activation process and proceed to the next window, which says my copy of > windows is already activated. OK great. I click OK and I am logged off! NOT > GREAT!! This entire process repeats itself so I am stuck in an infinite > activation loop that has no solution.
> I ended up fixing the problem. Here's what I did:> > 1) Copied the Documents & Settings and Windows folders to a backup drive > using BartPE> 2) Reinstalled WinXP> 3) Used regedit and exported this entire branch: > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents> 4) Imported my corrupted Hive and imported the good WPAEvents key> 5) Deleted the Windows & Document & Settings folder using BartPE> 6) Copied my old folders back over to the OS drive> > That fixed the problem. I was able to get the activation screen working so I > could call India and activate my WinXP again (this is number 16 - w00t!!). > The problem was a corrupted registry key and all I needed to do was import a > good one! Thanks for the help guys!Glad you got it fixed and thanks for posting back your resolution.
If you looking on the internet for a Windows XP Product Key So, you come to the right place now a day shares with you all windows XP version product keys or serial keys to get enter and activate windows in 2022. A lot of people daily bases search for windows XP sp2 or sp3 professional edition windows product key because Microsft can not any update Windows XP all for manual work so this post is all about Windows XP how to activate and how to select a product key or lifetime working.
License keys are the defacto-standard as an anti-piracy measure. To be honest, this strikes me as (in)Security Through Obscurity, although I really have no idea how license keys are generated. What is a good (secure) example of license key generation? What cryptographic primitive (if any) are they using? Is it a message digest? If so, what data would they be hashing? What methods do developers employ to make it difficult for crackers to build their own key generators? How are key generators made?
Windows XP takes quite a bit of information, encrypts it, and puts the letter/number encoding on a sticker. This allowed MS to both verify your key and obtain the product-type (Home, Professional, etc.) at the same time. Additionally, it requires online activation.The full algorithm is rather complex, but outlined nicely in this (completely legal!) paper, published in Germany.
It is however very much security by obscurity. Anyone taking the time to disassemble the code would be able to find the graphing function and encryption keys, then mock up a key generator, but its probably quite useful for slowing down casual piracy.
A good software license key/serial number generator consists of more than just a string of random characters or a value from some curve generator. Using a limited alphanumeric alphabet, data can be embedded into a short string (e.g. XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) that includes all kinds of useful information such as:
Probably the hardest part about creating a license key is figuring out how to cram as much data as possible into as few bytes as possible. Remember that users will be entering in their license keys by hand, so every bit counts and users don't want to type extremely long, complex strings in. 16 to 25 character license keys are the most common and balance how much data can be placed into a key vs. user tolerance for entering the key to unlock the software. Slicing up bytes into chunks of bits allows for more information to be included but does increase code complexity of both the generator and validator. 2ff7e9595c
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