Activate WinXP

  • Thread starter Thread starter joe
  • Start date Start date
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joe

Why is it necessary to call in for activation everytime after the first
call in?

I was told this when I called do to my stupidity of activating (twice)
before I had a stable system.
I was installing a 160gig HD without a ATA/133 Controller and it worked
(for a week) then went south.
I installed the controller and thought I was stable but a bad printer
driver scrambled the OS and my brain.
I now have what I believe to be a stable system (knock on wood) and had
to call in to register and they told me I now need to call in everytime
I reinstall my OS no more activation over the internet, why is this?


I understand copyright protection and I don't have a problem with that
but this is an annoying feature if in 3-6 months I want to upgrade my MB
or something else.

My question; Is this information true? (activation info not my
stupidity)
 
joe said:
Why is it necessary to call in for activation everytime after the
first call in?
Click to expand...

It is intended to stop people like you from giving it away to your friends.
If you don't steal software then you have nothing to worry about so shut up.
 
Check here for info about Windows Product Activation
http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm
If you keep swapping out hardware you may likely have to call. It takes a
few minutes to do this but is part of the price one pays for being in the
very small minority of computer users who like to change systems components
or reinstall their OS on a regular basis. Hey I'm one of those too. But on
the upside it takes much less time to call and activate than it takes to
swap out a motherboard. In the grand scheme of life events it really is only
a minor annoyance . ;-)
 
Perdita said:
It is intended to stop people like you from giving it away to your
friends. If you don't steal software then you have nothing to worry
about so shut up.
Click to expand...

Apparently my stupidity is topped by your inability to read an entire
post. I am not giving it away to my friends, I was overzealous in
activating the OS thinking that I had a stable enivornment, I did not
and now I am being accused of a crime that I did NOT nor contimplate
doing. I stand humbled in your almighty and all knowing presence.
 
joe said:
First off I just realized that one could infer from my email address
that I am trolling, for that I apologize it is only a small measure to
stop unwanted spam. If necessary reading my headers will show that I use
OE. I do not have mozilla in any form on my machine.

I have read the url you posted but it talks about 120 days and I believe
(unless I missed it) nothing about calling in now everytime I need to
activate after the first call in. I agree in the grand scheme of
existance it is nothing more than a pebble but non the less it is a
pebble! (most of the time I am barefoot ;-) )
Click to expand...
Joe I wasn't thinking you were trolling :-)
I haven't heard of it being mandatory to call the Activation Center for
every reinstall however if a product key has been found to be used a
considerable number of times (I don't know how many) to install to systems
with different hardware then MS could easily infer that this product key is
being used for multiple installs to different computers. I suppose that they
could red flag this.
And put some shoes on ;-)
 
joe said:
First off I just realized that one could infer from my email address
that I am trolling, for that I apologize it is only a small measure to
stop unwanted spam. If necessary reading my headers will show that I use
OE. I do not have mozilla in any form on my machine.

I have read the url you posted but it talks about 120 days and I believe
(unless I missed it) nothing about calling in now everytime I need to
activate after the first call in. I agree in the grand scheme of
existance it is nothing more than a pebble but non the less it is a
pebble! (most of the time I am barefoot ;-) )
Click to expand...
Ah, well there's your problem you see... XP is well known to be sensitive to
foot odour :)

Seriously though, XP will continue to activate over the internet UNTIL such
time as the number of hardware changes exceeds a set limit (HD formatting
counts towards this as the serial number changes - also, a single mothboard
change can actually count as several changed depending on it's integrated
hardware). Once you hit this limit, telephone activate is required until
120 days after the last time it was activated, then you can return to
internet activation.

Also, as Harry says, I suspect a product key which is used to activate
several significantly different hardware configurations could be construed
as stolen and red flagged...

Lorne
 
joe said:
I was told this when I called do to my stupidity of activating (twice)
before I had a stable system.
I was installing a 160gig HD without a ATA/133 Controller and it worked
(for a week) then went south.
I installed the controller and thought I was stable but a bad printer
driver scrambled the OS and my brain.
I now have what I believe to be a stable system (knock on wood) and had
to call in to register and they told me I now need to call in everytime
I reinstall my OS no more activation over the internet, why is this?


I understand copyright protection and I don't have a problem with that
but this is an annoying feature if in 3-6 months I want to upgrade my MB
or something else.
Click to expand...

Once 120 days have passed, the record on the site will be expunged and
you will be able to do it again on the net. I am not even sure if what
you were told is correct - the record *ought* to have been updated to
the current hardware position.

If you do a complete format and reinstall, the record on your machine
will have been lost, so you need to activate it again. Normally this
will go through on the net, and even several changes should not make it
essential to do it by phoning - see www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm
 
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