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Since there's not much info out there on the web unless you spend a considerable amount of time googling, I thought i'd post the solution so more people can find it quickly. Update Late 2019: Several months after i posted this Microsoft fixed the problem but I believe it was a side effect of them updating their certificates due to an industry shift, so there’s no guarantee they will continue work in future also in the last update i mentioned a batch file, I ended up getting busy and my adhd made me forget, I’ll still post it once I get organised and find it again as it’s useful. Update: The latest problem with activation affects both XP and Vista however it’s relatively easy to fix, you need to update your root Certificates (The same issue causes problems browsing the net too) I have created a Batch script that will download and update the Root Certificates accordingly but it will be a couple of days before I can post it. Below is the Original Fix I posted Turns out it's exceedingly easy to restore Windows XP Online Activation Open the Start Menu Right Click on Internet and choose "Internet Properties" Goto the Advanced Tab Scroll down near the bottom to the Security Section and uncheck both: "Check for publisher's certificate revocation" "Check for server certificate revocation" Now you can activate online as normal or use the "Windows XP Product Key Change Tool" I would reccomend re-enabling both options afterwards even if you dont use Internet Exploder (which you REALLY REALLY should not be) If you’re still having problems: I highly recommend downloading the “Windows XP Product Key Change Tool” it’s an official Microsoft tool and you should be able to download it from majorgeeks worked in every other instance for me where the built in one didn’t. (And in think it also lets you use different type of keys from the media the OS was installed from, such as Retail on OEM and such) Also make sure your clock is set correctly (A common source of TLS problems)

fyi for Jody T, the Meltdown/Spectre patches for Win8 Embedded Standard and Server 2012 R0 (the "server" version of Win8.0) started in March 2018 with KB4088877 and KB4088880. I have only noticed a minor slowdown on my father's Toshiba Satellite C55Dt-A laptop using AMD A6-5200 quad core APU with the Win8.1 June 2018 KB4284815 rollup update installed.

Bear in mind @NoelC is benchmarking 8.1, and the real issue are the Meltdown/Spectre patches (which are mostly FUD as vulnerabilities, because they require actual physical access to a machine to be of use) and those don't exist (AFAIK) for Windows 8. So you should be good. Of course, for Spectre, attack though the browser is a possibility, but by using Chrome/FF/PaleMoon/@roytam1's browsers, that aspect of it is taken care of. And, yes, your approach'll keep the component store smaller.

I do.

Besides using it for strenuous parts of my work continuously since 2012, I've done regular benchmarks on my current workstation after ANY change of software since it was running Windows 7. In October 2013 I upgraded it to Windows 8.1. Even though I know how to keep a Windows system working at tip-top performance, and even optimize it over time, there has been a decline in performance of the operating system on this hardware. The best performance overall, both in benchmarks and in real work, I experienced in 2013 before upgrading it to Windows 8.1. The overall hit to performance to move to Windows 8.1 was only a few percent overall, but it was noticeable. Since then I've upgraded the monitors and graphics card, having put a more powerful workstation card in it about a year ago. I've added some SSDs as data disks but they don't participate in the benchmarks. What have I seen? I have measured performance changes specifically seen in these discrete places: * In late 2013 I lost about 5% overall performance when Win 8.1 replaced Win 7. * Direct2D took a serious discrete performance hit that affected benchmarks overall but not really the real work I do back at the end of 2014. * I gained back some display performance, which boosted overall benchmark numbers a little, when I installed a new graphics card in mid 2017. * I saw an overall 5%+ overall performance loss with the June 2018 cumulative update with Spectre and Meltdown mitigations DISABLED, which I was able to undo (and regain performance) by uninstalling the update. The important thing about these losses is that they were in disk I/O and display performance, which really do affect real work. In summary: Comparing overall performance numbers from late 2013 running Windows 7 to the June 2018 Windows Update of Windows 8.1, and accounting for an approximately 4% overall score boost due to the new graphics card, I'd say performance is down today from when I first started carefully measuring this hardware's capability by about 15%, and this does not include the MAJOR performance hit due to Spectre and Meltdown mitigations when they are enabled. The difference, at this level, of the price of machines that can do X and 15% more than X is not insignificant. Add another 20% to 30% loss in performance if you DO want the Spectre and Meltdown mitigations. What price security? Don't let fear of the unknown blind you to the degradation of the operating system being systematically done by Microsoft. -Noel

I can't wait to try it......

It's one of Blackwingcat's tool and it allows to fake the version of windows to install new software... BTW I upload it since the link is dead. fcwin2k.rar