You can reinstall Windows XP without bothering with reactivation, if you have activated the product before.
A topic of frequent discussion and concern in many online forums is Microsoft’s Product Activation, which is not limited to Windows XP, it is now required for many Microsoft products (on a personal level, MS Office for instance).
Isn’t it galling that we need to contact Microsoft for “permission” if we choose to reinstall a product that we already legally own and use, and have “stamped” so before?! This method of copyright protection has not exactly rollicked among customers. Well, no worries, there is a trick for getting around product activation for Windows XP when reinstalling.
If you have successfully activated the OS already, and if you are reinstalling it on the existing hardware, this trick should do just fine. Here it is:
- Copy the file
c:\windows\system32\wpa.dblto a floppy. - Reinstall Windows XP.
- Boot to a DOS disk if you are using FAT, or to the Recovery Console if using NTFS.
- Copy the file from the first step above back to
c:\windows\system32. - That’s it – because all of your hardware is the same as before, your copy of WinXP is still valid according to the previous activation.
That’s it. That should do it! For some really cool instructions while reinstall Windows XP, read Mark’s dandy but must-read instructions “Install Windows XP in 5 hours or less.”
400 Comments
I have a Dell Windows XP computer. When I turn on my computer a blue screen comes on and it says that I have unmountable_boot_volume. I took it to a person that said he can fix it. So I took it to him and then he returned it to me. He said that he installed Windows ME version. So I went and connected it all up and then turned it on. Then the blue screen came back on. So I put in the Operating Systems Disk for the XP version. So it loaded and until it got to the end it gave me three choices so i chose the second one which was the one that sid press R to repair. then it said that I dont have any drivers connected. So I put in the Drivers and Utilities Disk and it didnt even load. Could anyone help me fix this big problem?
Dan # 271. Had the same thing, as a problem.
HP / Compaq was not able to help. So did it the old fashion way. Trial and error process.
What is neccessary, is that you MUST remove all / anything,that was not part of the original setup.
Your Restore disks will now do what is needed to restore all the original programs.
TheTalker
I have a Windows XP Professional OS, all legal and with serial etc, each time I restart the computer Windows asks for activation, I am connected to the internet and the OS activates and I get the “Thankyou for your activation” message on the screen. If I restart my computer it asks for the activation to be performed again. Any help stopping this would be appreciated.
how long does xp take to copy files
i did not activate smartdrive
i am wondering if the computer crashed
hi everyone..
one of my file corrupted(system 32….)and i cant enter windows! so i need to go for recovery console, BUT the worst thing is i forgot my adminstrator password which i cant recover it!!!
please teach me how to get back the password so that i can carry on the recovery process!!
thank you..hope to hear from u guys soon!! thx!
Hi sun,
Take a look at this article about recovering windows passwords.
HTH,
Shashank
Hi,
I have a problem with my windows xp and after reading all of the post there wasn’t anything related. You tell everyone they need there system DISK or Recovery DISK. I bought my PC straight from IBM and yes it is about 4 yrs old so out of warrenty now. However my computer came with windows XP pre-loaded and the recovery files and the xp program are located on a separate partition on my hard drive. There were no disk that came with it. (that was one of microsofts attempts to keep people from having a disk at the time). Like I said that was 4 yrs ago I couldn’t tell you where my books and manuals ae now. I want to wipe my hard drive and re-install windows. I know it is possible to do this from that partition, but it’s been along time since I’ve had any problems and I don’t remember how to do it. Can you help?
Doing Windows update will prolong your pre-
activation time. I installed XPHome SP1 and waited about 12 days before doing the updates.
After updating, my pre-activation time was reset
to thirty days (I did not update to SP2, I just
did the critical updates). After noticing this,
I figured I’d experiment and wait 26+/- days
before updating to SP2 to see if the time would
again be reset to 30 days. Well, I just finished
updating to SP2 and, YES, again my time was reset
to 30 days!! Don’t know if this helps, but if done correctly, you can get 58 or 59 days of use
before requring activation. I’ve tried saving the
wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files and re-installing them and this method doesn’t work. I’m gonna wait about 25 more days, and then check the windows update site again and install only the critical updates and see if I can prolong my pre-activation time… will post results….
First of all I like your page. Second I have re-installed my legal version of Windows XP home. I tried to activate it with my old WPA.DBL. This didn’t work, it seems windows is replacing this file with there own smaller in size WPA.DBL.
Ofcoarse I can activate it trough MS server. But I liked your article and wanted to try it this way. Can you help?
Hi,
I would like your assistance with this problem, I have windows XP home edition…
When I turn on my PC I get a pop up window called Windows Product Activation saying ‘This copy of windows needs to be activated with Microsoft before you can log on, do you want to activite Windows now? Option Yes or No, I click Yes
then pop up box says ‘Windows is already activated click Ok to Exit’ I click OK
then I get the Welcome page with my log name and icon, I click log in and it doesn’t let me in
instead the first pop up box Windows Product Activation(see above) saying ‘This copy of windows needs to be activated with Microsoft before you can log on, do you want to activate Windows now? appears again
I am going round in circles I type No and the same thing happens, it won’t let me in the only option left to me is to turn the Computer off can anyone help me to fix this thanks in advance!! I’ve had this PC for 4 months and windows been working fine up until now how can i fix this?
Hello
I have probulms with my computer ” E machine XP Microsoft” I had a virus call bloodhound and I manged to get rid of it but I stupidly deltled WININET.DLL I thought it would get rid of the virus but I silly delsted something important. now everytime I turn the computer on it just re boots it self just after it loads itself. Could you help? I cant log on or nothing it just goes in a loop of restarting it self is there a way to reinstall the WININET.DLL ? If you could help I would really admire this thax.
PEOPLE WHO ARE STUCK IN THIS “ACTIVATION LOOP”:
Refer to post # 299, robert’s suggestion of booting in safe mode and deleting the exe file seemed to solve the problem. I am currently struggling with the same problem, I’ll try it out and post on here today if it works or tomorrow if it doesn’t!
Hey,
I have a problem. I went to reinstall windows Xp but found out afterwards that it is now installed twice. I have the reinstallation CD. I went to reinstall it again this time deleting all the partitions. There are only 2 partitions one with 37mb and another with the rest of the memory. I tried to delete the larger partition so as to wipe clear all installations of xp. It wont allow me to delete the bigger partition sayiny “cannot delete this as files needed for installation process are on it” The result is that i have two xp programmes on my computer. How do i solve this?
Thanks Aidan
hello
i have no idea how i did it but i misread the install/uninstall windows components thing on my windows xp home computer and i accidently deleted all the programs such as internet explorer, windows msn, wondows media player etc instead of another program i was meant to uninstall.so now those programs r totaly uninstalled..now it is telling me to reinstall them using the windows xp home edition cd 1 or whatever exept i have looked everywhere and cannot find it?? how can i reinstall internet explorer and outlook express etc with out the cd?
HOW TO REINSTALL WINDOWS DRIVER FILES (HAL.DLL) WITHOUT LOSING YOUR WORK.
MY COMPUTER WENT DEAD ON ME IT WILL NOT BOOT UP
I HAVE A REGULAR WINDOWS DISK NOT COMPANY BRAND(COMPAQ,DELL,HP, ETC.) PLEASE HELP ME
have installed windows zp so far everythingworking fine except in cannot find the cookies cud u help.
James, I’m not sure what you’re looking for while searching for cookies, but I don’t see how that is relevant to the topic under discussion here.
please help me, i was playing world of warcraft, and i went out to help my mom for 3 hours or so. wheni came home, my world of warcraft would not load. so i restarted the computer, and i get a error note that says ‘A problem is preventing Windows from accuratley checking the license for the computer. Error Code: 0x8007007e.’ i’ve ask my friend and they best they could tell me was to buy a new computer
I had a new motherbroad installed , then some problems came up and had a complete system recovery , I cannot activate my windows and I have 27 days left can i find that on my system some where with out calling the vendor to get it ,because they did not give it to , I guess they installed or did something I don’t know about. Can you help me on this ? Could you e-mail me something ,I might not find this page again.
Hi. All icons on my home PC (XP Pro)have become .lnk files that are not recogised and do not operate. No warning, just there when I switched on. Thus I cannot access email or open any programmes. starting in ‘safe mode’ to perform system restore does now work, I simply get a DOS style file list that fills the screen and then stops. I would like to retain data and files if possible. any ideas?
I haven’t had the chance to read all of these…but from what I’ve read I understand I will have to re-install Win XP Home on my computer. Well, my dilema, is the fact of…how exactly can i get my very important files off my computer that I’m now locked out of? I’m locked out of course due to the windows activation problem that Lowell and a few others had. Any suggestions? I dont have a problem buyin a new Key or re-installing, but I first need to get my files off of my HD first and move them to my spare one so I dont lose em…
ya kno, is it just me, or does it seem like when you are having troubles and nothing works except safe mode….. and then you finally find something that might help you, and you attempt to go into safe mode, AND IT DOESNT GO… why does that always happen… anyway sorry about my rant but now my question, does anyone kno how to run a last known good config on safe mode???
Windows XP Activation Loop SOLUTION
ok i just posted above but i have came up with a solution for that activation loop problem……. so i tried comments 299 solution and that didnt work, it just did the same darn loop, so this is what i did…
I went to a fellow friends computer and with my trusty USB 64mg drive and i went into his c:\windows\system32 folder and copied his
wpabln.exe file and his wpa.dbl, i then went into safe mode and deleted my wpabln.exe and wpa.dbl then copied the ones i got off of his computer. I then clicked restart and let it go all the way through the proper way and it booted all the way to windows with activation screen.
Now to me, if you didnt purchase your windows copy then you shouldnt do this because that would be stealing, but if you are like me and actually spent the crap loads of money for a program that decided to stop functioning for you and then get no support from microsoft, this seems like the thing to do. Hope it works and if anyone has any questions feel free to email me at pdbarz@gmail.com
After reading all 373 of the posts, I haven’t seen a solution to a problem like mine. My hard drive was full so I installed a new one. I moved the old one to the slave position (leaving the contents intact). I reinstalled the same XP Home to the new HD as was on the old one. After I imported all my email messages and address book, as well as other user files and settings, I deleted all the old WINDOWS directorys. Problem is, Activation didn’t work. I talked w/Microsoft and they said it was because I was using a Dell disk on a non-dell computer. I find this hard to believe because I used the same disk to install it in the first place (on the old HD). Microsoft wouldn’t tell me why or even help anymore with activation. Does anyone have any advice or solutions? Please don’t say to buy another copy of XP because I refuse to buy another (legal) copy every time I upgrade.
Thanks
I had problems with a legal version of windows 98SE and a friend repaired my computer & installed a copy of his version of XP. Has worked fine for months but recently my computer wouldn’t start up (possible worm/virus? although all checks could find nothing wrong). Eventually tried reinstalling XP but it keep on freezing during the setup process. Now I don’t even reach the GUI screen. I have done this several times without success. Thought there was a possible hardware problem but I have now reinstalled win 98SE and it is working great but I would really prefer to use XP. Is the problem the activation code? I haven’t had any error messages concerning it but I am wondering if I have tried to reinstall too often? Any advice is appreciated.
It seems like this board has only problems and not answers, HOWEVER, maybe someone can help me with this crazy problem.
Computer is a Gateway 2.4 mhz processor with 40 Gig HD running Windows XP Home. The original Intel motherboard video died and I replaced it with a “compatible” ASRock G-Pro motherboard (www.asrock.com).
The computer seems to work wonderfully EXCEPT that it asks me to Activate my (legal) copy of Windows. When i go to the Activation, it says that Windows is already activated. I have already reformated the hard drive and reinstalled Windows on this machine, so that no trace of the previous activation or setup should be present.
Any suggestions as to how to have it not think that it is activated so that I can actually get it activated. Again, this is a legitimate copy on the original machine with a new motherboard.
Thank you.
Jim, past few commenters: if you have a legitimate copy of Windows and your OS still doesn’t recognize activation *for the first time*, please note that this is not what this thread is about. Please seek support from the vendor of your machine. For instance, if your PC is Dell, then Dell’s support should let you know why your OS is not activated as it should be.
Hi…I may already know the answer to this..but just to make sure..Here goes..
I purchased a shop built Pc with WinXP Sp2 already pre-loaded. I was sure i was told the OS disc was included. A year later i need to re-format but couldnt find any disc, recovery or other. I rang the shop and they told me i would have to buy a WinXP disc at a cost of £60 if i wanted to re-format.
What i’m having a problem with is that i own the PC, with the OS on it…How comes i have got to buy it again? Is this normal practice? Since Win95 / 98Se / ME i have had the OS discs supplied and i suppose i just assumed it wuld be the case with this one as well.
If this is a common practice, then so be it, but it does seem a bit wrong. Thanks guys.
DB
Hi! A friend of mine came for help with me.. So now I ask for help from you. This guy defrag his PC loaded with XP Home (He doesnt have the installation CD.), next day it didnt start, just get to the start menu with options: Safe Mode, Safe mode with Network support, Last good known configuration, Normal mode, but it doesnt start in any of them. On Normal, doesnt even change the screen, just get freezed. On Safe: It starts loading files but when it gets to a file named Mup.sys, freezes again. Another friend borrowed an XP Pro Installation CD so I can try the recomendations from Microsoft with the recovery console but REGEDIT didnt run, then I Backup some files (system, software, sam ,data & default) from windows\system32\config and restore files from C:\windows\restore but, (yes, you found it!) didnt work either… I hope you understand my “english” and can give some tips to solve this, thanks a lot!
ive looked around on the net for some time now trying to find a solution to my problem which is.. one of my computers got really messed up from a virus it messed up everything on my computer it serverly damaged my registy disabled both my cd drives and floppy ive downloaded a registry fixer but that didnt help me at all i cant get my cd drives to work or floppy is there any other way to reinstall xp on my computer i can transfer files via flashdrive but other than that theres no way to put files on that computer..
This didnt work for me at all, in fact it actually took away my 30 day time period to activate away. Why did i do this!!!
Jordan, read the article carefully. It is meant for people who are (a) reinstalling the OS, (b) have their own legitimate copy of Windows, (c) are reinstalling on the same hardware on which they had installed the prior version. If you fail on any of those counts, this is clearly not for you. Anyway you may wish to call Microsoft tech support in your area to help you with it.
my medion will not boot into windows.
its a xp and earlier neither of the cd or dvd drive would work for some reason.
now when i turn on my computer it goes normally except this screen comes up and says windows did not start properly…..blah blah blah…….. and it gives u the options to safe modes , last known good configure., and start normally.
now everything works up to the point where it says windows xp loading and there is the bar on the bottum with green bars going through it.
all a suddeen a blue screen pops up and says something ..
except u can’t read it cause it stays there for .1 seconds and i can’t pause screen to read it….. well after the blue screen the computer makes some noise and starts back to the beging screen when u would turn on the computer and it just keeps doing this in some kind of loop. and thats all i don’t know what to do………….. can u please help me?
email. me at ltln@hotmail.com
thanks!
hi iv got xp home and had a virus or still have , iv tried everything to get rid of it , iv tried to install norton system works 05 but it wouldnt activate ,so has a mess around and now it wont install, iv tried to reinstall my xp cd with no luck and iv got no keyboard control to set it up at start up, so iv tryed to crash the pc by deleting what ever i could out of windows and programs but its still working , not fussed if i lose all my stuff just want to install windows again please help
You can install windows xp professional corporate edition on your computer and not have to use product activation…any serial key for corp. ed. works
If you need to know how to get pro corp email me at rainbowbryte@gmail.com with the subject “Windows XP Pro Corp”
Hello there,
My computer has become really sluggish and I am thinking about reinstalling winXP.
WinXP Pro came preinstalled on my PC. The dealer gave me a CDR copy of the WinXP installation CD. I thought nothing at the time, the guy looked trustworthy.
A product key is handwritten on the CD and it matches my actual product key, as found by Magic Jelly Bean.
However, just out of interest,, I have run the “windows genuine Advantage” test and, to my surprise, my PC did not pass the test (“the operating system on your PC does not appear to be genuine”).
I am given 2 reasons for this:
* Invalid windows product ID
* The volume license product key used to install Windows is know to pirated.
My question is: will I be able to reinstall WinXP using the “wpa.dbl trick” (yes, on the same computer) despite this?
Many thanks in advance! O
PS: the IT shop is now “under new management”… well of course…
alright, reactivation is required after we did a new motherboard change. so iam stuck at the user long-on window and if i go to log on with auser it says it needs to reactivate windows. i dont have the key ne more , never did, i have the genuine cd though. so how do i find out the key that is on my comp already if i cante get past the user log on? is there some way to find it in dos or something? this really sucks! i dont want to have to buy a new one! please help!
Ei guyz!!! can you help me about my problem?!?!
I’ve already done activating windows on my computer but, this weird message appeared on my computer before entering and it says “You must activate windows in blah… days. Do you want to activate windows?!?”
Thats what it says.
But I’ve already activated windows.
What’s wrong with this?!?!
Anyone pls help me?!?!?!?
maybe i should have added this iam not sure but here goes ; this is along with my problem that i just posted; ok i tried changing key’s and then going through the whole telephone activation process & that don’t work either. so iam left were either i need a the real COA key thats already on my comp which i cant get to know b/c iam stuck at the log on user menu and i cant go past it. or i get one of those big long activation codes. i dont know, its saterday so cant call microsoft and bi the sound of them i doubgt they will be able to help!. please helP!
I am having trouble with my computer and was going to format it, but I dont have the Windows Xp operating disk. I was wondering if anyone knows how I can reformay my computer without having a disk and it still work.
Bryan, you cant, this is the whole idea of having the disk. email me, i may have a solution. cav_king@msn.com
Question: I have a HP computer with a hidden partition (pre loaded software) and I want to formatt the c drive. I have done it once, there is a special code that you type in but it was a long time ago and I don’t remember. Are you familiar with what I am talking about? Also, I want to buy more RAM for this dumb computer, is it possible to upgrade the RAM? It’s a HP Pavillian 304n
Thanks, Starla
I have windows MCE05 installed i upgraded from pro. it will not log in unless i activate windows. It logs me out if i dont activate. icant do anything it only shows the activate windows screen. there is no START menu or anything. What should i do, without formatting?
I m having this problem for 3rd time. i.e After installing windows98,when i used to install windows xp , somthing will deffinate happen etheir windows xp will be losted or windows98. now i had losted my windows xp this, what should i do with problem i don’t & also now i don’t have any windows cd to install.
My ram is of – 254.0 MB &
My file system is 32-bit.
I have a compaq computer that came installed with XP home. I am able to reinstall the system from the recover CDs that I made on the system but it loads a bunch of unwanted crap. I don’t know if I would have an activation problem doing this, as I did this only to test the CDs were good before proceeding….
I have a retail boxed version of xp home. I booted from the CD and formated the C: partition and began a fresh install from the retail boxed version. When it asked for the product key, I entered the one on the sticker located on the side of the machine. The install program reports this is an invalid product key.
How do I get around this problem? I really want to install from this retail box so I have a “clean” install.
Ok I have a Dell Inspirion 1100 laptop. And I want to reinstall Winxp using the copy c:windows\system32\wpa.dbl to floppy method but the only problem is that my computer doesn’t have a floppy drive on it. Would this work if I copied to a usb flash drive or coping this to a cd? If not how could I do this?
I have SATA hard disk .My win xp OS couldn’t detect it. I went to BIOS and clicked on integrated peripherals, on SATA Mode I changed it from RAID to IDE and my hd was detected, but it ran slow like the regular ATA hdisk. I tried using Win ME OS with RAID sata mode. Fortunately there was no problem at all and it is now operating fast like SCSI RAID. I’m using this for my video editing.
Kalibre, yes, it will work. You simply need to copy the appropriate file after the reinstall.
I have been running (a legitimate) xp on my home computer for a few years, purchased from Tiny computers. I’ve encountered a problem and need to use the factory reset cd, and unfortunately it’s scratched and unreadable. Obviously I can’t get a replacement from Tiny, any suggestions?
Adman, speak to your original vendor, they may give you a new one if they trust you and empathize with your story. If not, you may need to speak to Microsoft and convince them that you deserve a new version. If that doesn’t work, well, you need to buy a new one.