VIRUS: transfer windows activation?

[breadandbubbles]

right, so i got a very problematic trojan. it doesnt seem to actually be doing anything, but NOD32 and Norton both have permanently plastered notifications centred on my screen.

so im intending to reformat. t doesnt seem like a big problem to me because i keep all my files and installers well organized. so i can put them on some dvds and away i go. now i have adobe photoshop and ive found a very handy "transfer activation" feature. it closes down the activation on my current pc and brings it to a new pc.

why doesnt Windows have that!!!?

ive read something about copying the wpa.bak file, but apparently theres two files you have to copy? i only found one, and it didnt work when i tried it (i ended up just repurchasing XP)

i dont have that kind of money this time though. so could anyone give me a quick step-by-step on how to do that? will ti work for my Office XP 2003 Proffessional edition too?

...hmm...sorry if im all over the place. i meant to add in there the trojan i have, because it might be easier just to fix the trojan. but i dont thinkso. its apparently called "Trojan.Adclicker"

by clicking on the error message it brings me to a seemingly handy guide to getting rid of it (http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.a.d.clicker.html).

I followed the instructions until it got to the registry edit window. I couldn’t find any files in the editor that matched the corrupt file name from Norton and NOD32. I know that all I have to do is delete the right file from my registry and all will be well, I just…don’t know which one…

Please help?

[Porn Loader]

haven't tried removing that trojan so im no help there...

but windows should reactivate just fine if you re-install. the only time it asks for re-activation is when your hardware changes a certain amount of things blah blah blah. when i reach that point (fairly often as i go thru a good amount of gear), when it won't activate i just activate it by phone. ms will ask you a bunch of crap, you just tell them that you changed hardware.

[breadandbubbles]

nah man. to remove the trojan, ill have to reformat...wont i?

[breadandbubbles]

okay so after like...10 hours of waiting for someone to tell me whether or not i can reformat and not have to reactivate, and if that would work on windows office xp, i decided to move on. because apparently its complicated...i dunno.

so i decided to simply try reinstalling XP. i dno...why not. couldnt hurt to try. im at my wits end. im breaking smashing the thing. id love to reformat it but i DONT KNOW WHETHER OR NOT I HAVE TO REPURCHASE XP.

so i tried reinstalling it. i got a message saying i needed to be administrator. which is weird because im the only account on my pc. then i remembered that for some reason when i boot in safe mode another account appears called "administrator". so i did and...voila. there it is.

so im in safe mode and i reinstall xp. it boots. and...it boots in safe mode. i guess its stuck because to put it in safe mode i ran msconfig and selected safe mode from the boot.ini tab. its the only way i know how to do it.

so it reboots in safe mode. and i get a message that "windows cannot install in safe mode. windows is rebooting"so i click okay. which is the only option.

and it reboots. in safe mode. same message.

so now im completely stuck! endless cycle!

HOW DO I REBOOT WITHOUT SAFEMODE

HOW DO I REFORMAT MY COMPUTER, ONCE I GET ACCESS TO IT, SO THAT I WONT HAVE TO REACTIVATE?WILL IT WORK FOR MICROSOFT OFFICE XP 2003 PROFFESSIONAL?

please...please help me. i need this computer. i need those files!

[MageJubi]

Not sure about the Office Xp, but like Porn Loader said, as long as you haven't changed more than 3 components (video card, memory, etc.) you'll have no problem reactivating XP online . I format all the time and have zero problems reactivating. Have you tried Trend Micros online "housecall"?...Run it if you can access their site--it might take care of that trojan for you.

[benrock]

Well, why don't u just try boot from the CD and take an overwriting installation? I guess this will help.

[dcyphure]

the windows activation file can be a bit tricky, once you have a copy of it and you reinstall windows you need to go to safemode ...simply tap on F8 key while pc is booting untill a menu appears, you can choose safemode or normal and other options.

in safemode you need to open command prompt and use the copy commands to copy the activated wpa file into the proper windows directory...i think its system32 folder cant recall. reboot and it shouldve worked ...at least thats the only supposed official way to do it....but if not then you'll just have to reactivate it again which shouldnt be diffucult