Recipe 2.11. Activating Windows XP

Problem

You need to activate Windows XP.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

To activate over the Internet:

1. Open the Start menu.

2. Navigate through All Programs Accessories System Tools.

3. Click the first Yes option to activate Windows over the Internet and then click Next.

4. Select whether to register at the same time. While activation doesn't require any personal information from you, registration does. We'll assume you select No. Click Next.

5. The wizard will pause for a few seconds, and return a success message.

To activate over the telephone:

1. Open the Start menu.

2. Navigate through All Programs Accessories System Tools.

3. Click the second Yes option to activate Windows over the telephone.

Using a command-line interface

Open a command prompt, switch to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\OOBE directory, and enter msoobe /a. Then follow step 4 in either section above, depending on your preferred method of activation. (You can't script the activation process, but you can script launching the activation wizard.)

Discussion

Activation is new to Windows XP and the latest versions of Microsoft Office and is Microsoft's way of enforcing their single-use licenses for these products. Previously, nothing more than dire warnings and license agreement acknowledgments prevented users from installing a single, purchased copy of Windows on more than one computer. The company decided that this abuse was too rampant to ignore and thus built product activation technology into Windows XP.

Product activation is actually fairly simple: within the first 30 days of installing XP, you must instruct the computer to contact Microsoft either over the Internet or by using a modem and give Microsoft's activation system information about the hardware on which XP is currently installed. Your computer then receives a release code, which officially activates the system and allows you to continue running XP without further interruption. However, upon each boot, Windows checks to make sure the hardware on which it is installed is the same and that the release code it received from the activation process is till applicable. If not, then Windows functionality is greatly restricted until you contact Microsoft to obtain a new release code.

To derive the hardware information that your system sends to Microsoft for activation, Windows looks at the following devices and generates a number based on the first device of each type it finds:

• Display adapter

• SCSI adapter

• IDE adapter, which generally identifies the motherboard

• Network card and its corresponding MAC address

• A range of RAM amount usually identified as 64-128 MB, 128-256 MB, 256-512 MB, and so on

• Processor type and serial number, if available

• Hard drive device and volume serial number (VSN)

• CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM

This number is then recorded on your hard drive. Each time Windows boots, it checks to make sure the hardware that derived the number is the same. If not, the activation sequence is retriggered.

See Also

Microsoft's activation web site: http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation.mspx, and "How activation works with volume licenses" at http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_volumefaq.mspx