L
Lucvdv
An XP Embedded device (kiosk-type app, XPe SP2) with a build date of April
12, 2005 according to weruntime.ini, suddenly begins asking for
re-activation:
Microsoft Piracy Control
Your copy of windows was activated by another user
To help reduce software piracy, please re-activate you copy of windows now
We will ask you for billing details, but your credit card will NOT be
charged
You must reactivate Windows before you can continue to use it
[etc...]
There are two accounts:
- A plain user account for normal daily use, running a custom shell. This
still works normally (also after failed or canceled activation attempts
by the other account).
- An administrator account for management, running the standard GUI shell
(explorer.exe): trying to log on to that account causes the activation
dialog to appear.
Continuing the activation results in it failing "because another user has
already used the same key" (of course it would, there are several identical
devices with that same key, all with paid-for licenses).
When you cancel it instead of letting it activate, the system shuts down.
Now I'm trying to figure out why it started doing this and if there's a way
to turn it back without a full reinstall (restore of post-FBA disk image),
in case more devices should "get the disease".
It is running from a standard harddisk, without EWF.
Are there any ideas, besides file (disk) or registry corruption that makes
windows think its activation has become invalid?
I half suspect that someone with access to the admin account has been
playing around with it and visited Windows Update, or manually installed
some updates or SP or so.
At the same time I find that hard to believe, because WU or SP installers
would (or should) refuse to run on an XPe setup.
12, 2005 according to weruntime.ini, suddenly begins asking for
re-activation:
Microsoft Piracy Control
Your copy of windows was activated by another user
To help reduce software piracy, please re-activate you copy of windows now
We will ask you for billing details, but your credit card will NOT be
charged
You must reactivate Windows before you can continue to use it
[etc...]
There are two accounts:
- A plain user account for normal daily use, running a custom shell. This
still works normally (also after failed or canceled activation attempts
by the other account).
- An administrator account for management, running the standard GUI shell
(explorer.exe): trying to log on to that account causes the activation
dialog to appear.
Continuing the activation results in it failing "because another user has
already used the same key" (of course it would, there are several identical
devices with that same key, all with paid-for licenses).
When you cancel it instead of letting it activate, the system shuts down.
Now I'm trying to figure out why it started doing this and if there's a way
to turn it back without a full reinstall (restore of post-FBA disk image),
in case more devices should "get the disease".
It is running from a standard harddisk, without EWF.
Are there any ideas, besides file (disk) or registry corruption that makes
windows think its activation has become invalid?
I half suspect that someone with access to the admin account has been
playing around with it and visited Windows Update, or manually installed
some updates or SP or so.
At the same time I find that hard to believe, because WU or SP installers
would (or should) refuse to run on an XPe setup.