Windows Activation :: once and forever

[choudang]

hi everybody.... after having a break.... i need a help very urgently... i have searched for the topic, but i didn't find out. if it is arlready here, plz paste the link.

i have installed Original XP Professional, and it needs to activation. so will activate it. but, let us take that after couple of days i need to re-install the OS. so how do i activate the XP without being online? i found somewhere that if we keep the activation file and later on we can activate the XP without going to online activation.

plz help.

PS: i have installed the OS in two diff HDD. and i need to activate the OS in both HDD.

 

[Deep]

I guess there is one activation file which you can copy into new setup...

check this page for info: *netsecurity.about.com/od/windowsxp/qt/aaqtwinxp0829.htm

 

[dIgItaL_BrAt]

The activation files,namely
wpa.dbl
wpa.bak
are stored in the system32 folder in the drive on which u have installed XP.Back up these 2 files to a safe location.

If u want to reactivate after reinstalling,restart in safe mode,navigate to the system32 folder,rename the newly created wpa.dbl and wpa.bak to wpa.abc or something.Replace these files with the ones u had backed up.
Reboot.

 

[choudang]

thank you guys.... but the installtion process should be same. i think, i should give the same name or same installation ID name in both HDD or when i re-installation. suppose i activated the os by xxx, if i will use zzz when re-installing, my prev activation will not work. m i right?

 

[Deep]

actually I guess this is what you have to do..once u install 2nd copy..it will ask ur to activate it..say no...it will give u few days to use it...so now...copy those activation files, paste it on ur system and reboot it..

so it wont ask u activation again since it has already one activation file on system...

 

[dIgItaL_BrAt]

Not exactly,the activation is done by taking a hardware hash which is then sent to Microsoft.
The 10 hardware characteristics used to determine the hardware hash are: Display Adapter, SCSI Adapter, IDE Adapter, Network Adapter MAC Address, RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc), Processor Type, Processor Serial Number, Hard Drive Device, Hard Drive Volume Serial Number, CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM.

The Installation ID name does not figure anywhere in this list.

 

[choudang]

tons of thanks to you both......