Re-activating XP

[suitcase]

I'm ready to re-activate Win XP and was wondering what I must do. I haven't made any hardware changes to my PC.

[lil Jimmie]

If no hardware changes were made to the PC then simply reactivate it over the internet. You should have no problems and if it doesn’t activate over the internet then select the option to call MS which shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to perform over the phone.

[Strider]

I just have write that re-activating isn't the big bag dragon everyone is talking about, I just replaced a motheboard/cpu (AMD to Intel) and not one problem re-activating windows xp.

[HAL9000]

I had my first glitch with XP Re-activation a couple days ago and it still wasn't a big deal. I got a msg to re-activate and chose to do so by the internet. I got a msg that this copy had been re-activated too many times and that I would have to re-activate by phone. OK, dial the 1-800 number, key everthing in as required and received a msg that I would need to speak to a MS rep. OK, no big deal, she comes online and asks for the key number which I read out. While the key is being generated, she politely asks why I am re-activating again. I explain that as I work in the computer industry, I change my hardware sometimes as often as once a week, but sometimes it goes months. She said OK, the new key is ready, type it in. Done deal, thank you, have a nice day. Big deal... the whole thing took 5 minutes and I think everyone blows this all outta proportion.

[AzCoastie]

I'm with you Hal... Ain't nothing but a thing for people to get their panties in a wad about over nuttin'!

[lil Jimmie]

I have had to make the call to MS many times with many hardware configuration changes to my systems and feel that the activation process is no big deal, but I guess it give some folks something to fuss about.

[Confused]

I'm wondering if this might change in a couple of years as the installed base grows and people start swapping out PC's. I would suspect that that will generate more calls. Volume could impact response time from MS if they choose not to increase staff at the support center. This could then lead to frustration and become a big deal.
Chas

[Roberto49]

To me the real problem will lie when Microsoft drops support for XP and it requires reactivation.
What if you had to reactivate a Win 3.0, Win 95 or soon a Win 98 system.
Some of us still play with old, slow toys.

[mike breck]

It's good that so many people don't find activation questionable.

As it's encountered little resistance, I'm sure MS will be thinking about activation for ALL it's products.

That should take a little bit more than five minutes.

[Strider]

I think you'll find more and more software companies, not just Microsoft requiring activation of their products. At least for the more expensive kinds of software (for example, Photoshop), it'll be a way companies can try to control piracy. It won't elimate priacy, but companies are starting to realize that most copy protection schemes don't work. This way if a person is thinking about copying a software product, he or she might think twice in doing it.


Just my .02 cents

[Jason Padgett]

Originally posted by HAL9000 I had my first glitch with XP Re-activation a couple days ago and it still wasn't a big deal. I got a msg to re-activate and chose to do so by the internet. I got a msg that this copy had been re-activated too many times and that I would have to re-activate by phone. OK, dial the 1-800 number, key everthing in as required and received a msg that I would need to speak to a MS rep. OK, no big deal, she comes online and asks for the key number which I read out. While the key is being generated, she politely asks why I am re-activating again. I explain that as I work in the computer industry, I change my hardware sometimes as often as once a week, but sometimes it goes months. She said OK, the new key is ready, type it in. Done deal, thank you, have a nice day. Big deal... the whole thing took 5 minutes and I think everyone blows this all outta proportion.

Same here...except that they refused to reactivate my copy of MS Office 2000. They said the key for that disc had been deactivated. I guess I reinstalled one too many times and they thought I was pirating the program or had it installed on 20 different computers. After about a month of wrangling...they finally sent me new discs. The whole thing sucks in my opinion.

[suitcase]

Thank you all for your responses. Cricket, mike breck, Hal, reboot, I know I've missed some. Since I got XP running again my USR ext modem is working fine. My friend who got it working said there were no less than four partitions on my HDD. It happened someway as I was trying to re-install XP. Anyway, it's working great as of now. I will re-activate now, just to keep that annoying pop up from appearing every time I boot. Thanks again everybody.