How many times can one activate WINDOWS XP?

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HI! I just wished to know how many times can one activate XP? Genuine edition? I just had it the third time and that too on the phone since WINDOWS was not accepting my activation..

D

i think you can install it for unlimited no of times.
there might be a problem

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After installing WIN XP two times and activating it, when I installed it for the third time, it did not accept my activation. Then I phone Microsoft and activated WIN XP over the telephone through a configuration ID..

I would have told you that if i had read this earlier. You cannot activate for more than two times and after that the last chance is over the phone from tech support, however be very carefull not to give your cd to anyone else as microsoft will detect that.

i tell u

u cannot activate more than two times the Genuine
windows xp untill u format your system and reinstall xp

thats all

T

NO You can install XP unlimited number of times. But you will have to be very careful since the following applies.

1. You can activate XP four times in a year.

2. You can activate XP if one or two hardware changes are made one in a while. That means if you make more then two hardware changes together XP will refuse to activate over the internet.

3. You can activate XP for unlimited no. of times, that is forever on the the same machine.

4. No activate is usually required if you purchase an OEM CD of XP and install it on one computer say SYSTEM 1.

Now, when ever you are required to re-install XP on the SYSTEM 1 with the same OEM CD of XP , no activation is required.

5. In general, activation is required only when you make certain hardware changes to your system. But hardware does not mean changing the floppy drive, CD- Rom Drive, HDD, etc.

Hardware means your computer Motherboard, Processor, Graphics Card, Modem(some models only), RAM ,etc. which actually are the main components of your system.

6. Please do not attempt to install your geniune XP on two Desktop Computer, Microsoft will come to know about this and hence you will be denied further activation. So be careful. However, as per microsoft you can make one backup copy of the original CD and can also install the same OS on a Desktop computer and a Laptop computer only.

@Tech&ME
hey does this mean that if i keep formatting my machine (without making hardware changes to it) and install xp , then will i be able to do it n number of times ?

and ya suppose i upgrade my mobo,processor,hdd,ram .. then how many times can i activate it on the new machine ?

man i am feeling cheated now :twisted:

T

mohit said:
@Tech&ME
hey does this mean that if i keep formatting my machine (without making hardware changes to it) and install xp , then will i be able to do it n number of times ?

and ya suppose i upgrade my mobo,processor,hdd,ram .. then how many times can i activate it on the new machine ?

man i am feeling cheated now

Why do you say you are feeling cheated now :?:

And YES as I said in my above, U CAN ACTIVATE WINDOW XP N' NUMBER OF TIMES , PROVIDED YOU FOLLOW WHAT I SAID EARLIER.

See Mr. mohit Microsoft sells in general two types of Window XP CDs in the market. One is called RETAIL CD and the other one is known as OEM CD. You can buy the original RETAIL CD of XP from any retailer you know. OEM CD are for OEM Distributor and System Vendor like HP, HCL, IBM, DELL , etc. So when you buy a computer from say HP or HCL they will load XP from the OEM CD. And once it gets installed on this PC , no activation is required untill and unless you make any hardware changes.

How, to understand this in simple terms. NO ACTIVATION IS REQUIRED IF YOU RE-INSTALL XP ON THE MACHINE N' NUMBER OF TIMES.

however, you will have to activate XP if you make any hardware changes to you PC. Again remember by default You can make only two hardware changes at a time and you can activate XP four times in one year.

So, this means, u can activate XP for 8 times in 2 years and so on.....
However , all the terms and conditions which I have mentioned in my above thread also applies.

Tech&ME said:
How, to understand this in simple terms. NO ACTIVATION IS REQUIRED IF YOU RE-INSTALL XP ON THE MACHINE N' NUMBER OF TIMES.

hey man if i format my hard drive i will have to reactivate xp whether it is on the same machine or not ... as formatting will erase all the files and the activation file also.

and you have said that by default only 2 hardware changes are allowed at a time ... does that mean if i have to upgrade 4 components such as mobo,processor,hdd,ram then first i upgrade my mobo n processor and then activate ... after this i put in my ram and hdd and then again activate ??

i am sorry i am not able to understand yaar.

I

who cares about activation.................. :lol:

dheeraj_kumar said:
who cares about activation..................

All those who PURCHASED license.

XP can be reactivated any number of times. But you can activate it over the web for 4 times per year only. After that you will have to activate it over the phone and will have to explain MS why you are reactivating for so many times.

Activation is needed in case of hardware changes or reinstall.
In case of reinstall you can restore your previous activation data file and then there is no need to activate. But this works only if you have no hardware changes.

V

I haven't acitvated my XP edition on internet. I have activated over phone that to an OEM version (from HP) and have formated my computer over 10 times!!!!! Now what do you say. I have visited microsoft website. It says that once installed i wont ask for activation untill u overhaul ur system or upgrade ur computer hardware from the said 10 parts and also u can backup ur acitivation using tweakXP PRO !!!!!!!

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Hey Guys, THNX very much for the info..
>> Siddhartha

hey people , there was a manual way also of backing up the activation file of windows xp.. anybody know how to do i ?
it was done by copying some pwl file and then restoring it back to the same folder after a reinstall ... somebody plz post the xact details of that procedure.
thanx.

T

mohit said:
Tech&ME said:

How, to understand this in simple terms. NO ACTIVATION IS REQUIRED IF YOU RE-INSTALL XP ON THE MACHINE N' NUMBER OF TIMES.

Click to expand...

hey man if i format my hard drive i will have to reactivate xp whether it is on the same machine or not ... as formatting will erase all the files and the activation file also.

and you have said that by default only 2 hardware changes are allowed at a time ... does that mean if i have to upgrade 4 components such as mobo,processor,hdd,ram then first i upgrade my mobo n processor and then activate ... after this i put in my ram and hdd and then again activate ??

i am sorry i am not able to understand yaar.

Oh yaar, I am sorry the spelling is worng, Please read it as under :

" NOWto understand this in simple terms. NO ACTIVATION IS REQUIRED IF YOU RE-INSTALL XP ON THE MACHINE without any hardware changes for N' NUMBER OF TIMES

And Yes, I repeat that, you can only make two hardware changes together, which mean suppose you made a change, say you changed your mobo and the processor and a new HDD, you qualify for an activation.

But, Mohit as I have already said HDD does not come under main hardware component , hence XP will not detect it as a new hardware during activation.

Microsoft allows you to add / change a few hardware on your system without the requirement of activation, which means there are components like your CD-ROM DRIVE, Floppy Drive, HDD , which you can keep changing and even if you change this devices XP will not ask you to re-activate Windows XP.

mohit said:
hey man if i format my hard drive i will have to reactivate xp whether it is on the same machine or not ... as formatting will erase all the files and the activation file also.

Yes if u format your hard drive and then install a fresh copy of the same Windows XP from the same CD , NO RE-ACTIVATION IS REQUIRED.

Hope you now understood what i mean to say, if not ask again.

mohit said:
hey people , there was a manual way also of backing up the activation file of windows xp.. anybody know how to do i ?
it was done by copying some pwl file and then restoring it back to the same folder after a reinstall ... somebody plz post the xact details of that procedure.
thanx.

Here are actual steps to follow

Double-click My Computer
Double-click on the "C" drive
Go to the C:\Windows\System32 folder (you may have to click on the link that says "Show The contents of this folder")
Find the files "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" and copy them to a safe location. You can copy them on a floppy drive or burn it onto a CD or DVD.
After you have reinstalled Windows XP on your reformatted hard drive, click "No" when asked if you want to go ahead and go through the activation process
Reboot your computer into SafeMode (you can either press F8 as Windows is booting up to see the Windows Advanced Options menu and select SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal or follow the instructions in Starting Windows XP in SafeMode
Double-click My Computer
Double-click on the "C" drive
Go to the C:\Windows\System32 folder (you may have to click on the link that says "Show The contents of this folder")
Find the file "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" (if it exists) and rename them to "wpadbl.new" and "wpabak.new"
Copy your original "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files from your floppy disk, CD or DVD into the C:\Windows\System32 folder
Restart your system (if you followed the directions in Starting Windows XP in SafeMode you may need to go back into MSCONFIG to turn off booting into SafeMode)

Source : *netsecurity.about.com/od/windowsxp/qt/aaqtwinxp0829.htm

humm..... in that case one major H/W change & ur CD wont work....

saurav_cheeta said:
humm..... in that case one major H/W change & ur CD wont work....

Correct but if you only want to format and reinstall, don't wanna change hardware then this is useful to avoid the activation process.

S

Good thing about aadipa is that he always mentions the source so that we can check it out if we want.

@aadipa
thanx for the info buddy. actually i dont make h/w changes but my pc gets formatted once a month by my experiments and this will be helpful for me as i wont have to keep activating again n again.

C

as far as i think u need not activate the xp once its done.

T

During a re-installation of Windows XP without makeing any Main hardware changes, NO ACTIVATION IS REQUIRED. So, I think backing up of activation files is not needed.

Tech&ME said:
During a re-installation of Windows XP without makeing any Main hardware changes, NO ACTIVATION IS REQUIRED. So, I think backing up of activation files is not needed.

backup of activation file is needed in case of format and install, not in case of just reinstall.

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Thanks @aadipa and @Tech&Me for the above wonderful data...I shall follow the given rules..