Hi everyone,

We have a large amount of PCs at work that use Windows XP. Now and then some of them have to be re-imaged. The problem is, when they are re-imaged, Windows activation starts up, saying the product has to be activated within 30 days.

The problem after that, is that doing the activation over the intenet, says that the machine has already been activated, and that you have to either enter a new key, or call up someone to get a 50,000 long character key.

I have seen a registry hack out there that marks Windows as activated. Is this a legal hack for a PC that has previously been activated??

Thanks!

I do beleave that is not not legal to perform reg-hack. However, you could backup the wpa.dbl file for each machine and once the computer is re-imaged, replace the file via safe-mode.

Ref:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/Win...Activation.html

I think this is probably a grey area. A registry hack sounds no good to me, even if you have a legal, valid product key--because it sounds like you are trying to trick windows into thinking its activated. I've heard of some of these methods before, and if the ones you refer to are the same, you won't pass the "genuine advantage" test, so I don't think this is what you would want to do. you can refer to this forum link to change your product key, which may be what you looking for:

Change XP product key

This isn't exactly the same question you are asking, but this method may work if in fact all you need to do enter an individual, valid key to each PC after re-imaging.

after you set up a machine the way u like it...activated, updates ect....

sysprep it, then image it.

then the next time you reimage it, it should be activated.

it's just easier to deal with microsoft...

1-888-571-2048

Deal with it. In the worst case, they'll give you a new product key...

It sounds to me like you're doing something wrong. If you really have restored a complete hard drive image from a copy of Windows that was already activated, it should be restored to the exact state it was in when the image was made, and thus already activated. Are you sure the system you made the image from was activated?

Unless the image is restored to a different machine.

This is one of the reasons the volume license keys don't require activation.

I do beleave that is not not legal to perform reg-hack. However, you could backup the wpa.dbl file for each machine and once the computer is re-imaged, replace the file via safe-mode.

Ref:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/Win...Activation.html

Doesn't work from the first service pack ! just works with rtm windows xp ...

For basic ghost, if the system is same as the source, no problem for activation, because windows think is okay, and it's okay for genuine too ... but this method works only if the system is same ... personnaly I use this, but my final client has windows xp with his key product and he can reinstall without any problem with activation too ... It's same method of oem company they ship their windowswith key differs from their sticker ...

Edited November 22, 200520 yr by sonic

We don't have a volume lisence key (MS said we don't have enough PCs for it), so each machine has a separate lisence.

The ghost image we have was taken with sysprep, but not done by me. i have since made some base images that don't require product activation, i think i will check to see what key they have.

Also, a registry hack is far easier to do than call MS and enter an enormus number, twice

Not to throw the topic off completely but can someone explain sysprep? I hate calling MS up....they always make me feel like I am doing somethng that i am not supposed to.....on the phone.

Sysprep can remove the Product Key, Deactivate Windows, and reset the activation timer. The activation timer can only be reset 3 times. There are alot of other things that sysprep can do but that is off-topic.

We have a large amount of PCs

...

We don't have a volume lisence key (MS said we don't have enough PCs for it), so each machine has a separate lisence.

You only need as few as 5 computers to acquire VLK.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/howtoacquire.mspx