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end users or members of your IT staff.
The problem
You discover that invalid product keys were supplied for a
Windows XP Professional installation, or you receive an invalid product key
error when attempting to install a Windows XP Professional service pack, and
you don’t wish to reinstall Windows XP Professional to correct the situation.
The cause
Windows Product Activation prevents software deployments
that use invalid product keys or pirated product IDs.
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The solution
Note
Editing the registry is risky, so be sure you have a
verified backup before making any changes.
- Edit
the registry of the illegal machine. - Use
Regedit and find:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents - In the
right pane, right-click the ODBETimer binary value and select Modify.
Change at least one character of this value to either a number from 0 to 9
or to a letter from A to F, and then click OK and close the Registry
Editor. This renders the current product key invalid and deactivates
Windows. - Reactivate
Windows using your new product key. - Click
Start | Run and enter the command: %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe /a - Windows
will launch the Product Activation Wizard. - Select
the option to telephone a Microsoft customer service representative to
activate Windows. - Select
the Change Product Key option and enter your new product key. - Click
Update and close the window. - If
Windows returns you to the previous screen, just select the Remind Me
Later option. When the wizard is finished, reboot the system. - When
Windows reboots, your next step will depend on which Windows XP version
you are using. If you have XP Home or Professional, you’ll be prompted to
reactivate your copy of Windows through the normal activation process. If
you have XP Corporate, no activation is required and your machine should
have a valid product ID.
Future prevention
You can help prevent this problem from occurring again by
following these steps:
- Only
use valid product keys for Windows XP when installing XP in your
organization. - Track
and inventory product keys to ensure that all keys are valid. - Use a
key finder such as Magical JellyBean to ensure that the keys you’re using are
valid and not copied from the Internet.