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Fixed it!! :D :D I was still able to access the computer's hard drive over the network as \\computername\C$ - thank goodness. So, I copied the entire windows\system32\oobe\ folder and subfolders from another XP SP2 machine onto mine over the network. Then next time when I logged in and got the activation prompt, I clicked "Yes" and the activation program came up normally. Activated with no problems, and msoobe.exe /a now reports that the computer is activated. No reinstall necessary - phew!

Proper Link: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...y/oempreac.mspx I'm a bit confused by that page - how am I supposed to do any of those tasks since I can't log in to the computer any more? Furthermore, I'd prefer to do a complete wipe of the HD before reinstalling the OS. All those methods require stuff to be left on the hard drive or registry. Any tricks I can use in that case?

Ah! That explains what had happened to me the first time I had installed the OS. I told nLite to automatically create an account for me. However, on first bootup, all I had was "Administrator", like you said. I didn't think anything of it at the time. I'm using a USB-Ethernet adaptor which wasn't plugged in. I plugged it in to install the driver afterwards, and left it plugged in. I then did a reinstall for something unrelated, with the adaptor still plugged in. Voila, my default user was created for me. If I understand correctly, it's because XP was able to attempt its registration properly (even though it failed), and OOBE ran as it should. Not like any of this was visible or reported at the time So, my next question for the group. Once I've done a reinstall, how do I *confirm* that the registration worked properly? Can I simply put the computer's date ahead 30+ days?

Thanks guys. What's OOBE? (I'm new at working with XP at this low-level) Anyway, I clicked "Yes" and received this message: "A problem is preventing Windows XP from accurately checking this installation... Error #0x80004005" Does that provide any more information?

Hi all, I did a search through the forums and found a handful of threads about this topic, but I'm looking for a more general answer (to start with) than those threads. My apologies if this is an over-asked question. Backstory: I created an nLite build based on OEM XP Install CD with SP2 integrated. Usual disclaimers, I have the original CD and OEM sticker that came with the exact computer I'm installing it on. I built the key into the installer image too. The process was quite smooth, and the resulting install is a joy to use - the computer boots very quickly! (around 30 seconds). All of a sudden however, it now pops up with a message when I log on: "Windows Product Activation: This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft blah blah blah". I'm given three choices, Yes, No, Cancel. Cancel shuts down the PC. No lets me log on normally. I haven't dared clicking Yes yet. So, my questions are: Did I do something wrong with the nLite process, or something just recently? How many "Nos" do I get? What the heck do I do about this? Thanks Leif