Temporarily Bypass Windows Activation to Backup Files
If you are like me, you reinstall Windows XP at least 10 times a year
or more on you PC to keep the system fresh and get rid of those pesky
registry experiments gone so very wrong. Microsoft doesn’t allow you to
activate your copy of Windows XP more than 4 times per year over the
Internet, and phoning in to talk to Microsoft is a time consuming
process. In this article, I will show you two different ways to get
into Windows XP one more time before you either take the plunge and
re-install Windows or call Microsoft to explain – again – why you need
to activate your system.
**Please read and follow the disclaimer**
In This Article:
Disclaimer
How Activation Works
Activation Bypass: Option One
Activation Bypass: Option Two
Further Reading
Disclaimer
This
article was written only to provide you with a last resort to backup
your files or complete final tasks once your Windows Product Activation
(WPA) grace period has run out. This has proved helpful in situations
where phone and Internet access is not available.
In one
situation, I was hired to implement a network infrastructure for a
hotel. I had the network and all of the computers setup before the
telephone system was operational, so the processes outlined in this
article was the point of last resort for me. I didn’t have a cell phone
on me.
Always activate your copy of Microsoft Windows XP and use only genuine and legally purchased copies of Windows.
How Activation Works
Microsoft
requires activation of all Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 editions
that were bought either in OEM or Retail packaging. A thirty day grace
period is allowed before the lack of activation will cripple Windows
and prevent the user from logging in.
During the Windows
installation, Windows Setup uses the 25-character product key to
generate a unique 20-character PID or Product ID. This is then combined
with a 20-character hardware ID that is generated based on your
hardware configuration. The HID and PID are concatenated to form the
Installation ID. When activation occurs, your Installation ID is
checked by a Microsoft licensing house to make sure that your copy of
Windows is valid and that it is not already running on a different
computer.
For the purpose of this article, the method of activating Windows over the Internet will be used.
Microsoft
allows you to activate a single copy of Windows XP up to four times per
year. In the case of a major hardware upgrade, you may be required to
reactivate Windows even if you have not reinstalled the Operating
System. A major hardware upgrade can be described as one of the
following:
- If you replace your Network Interface Card (NIC),
you may replace up to three additional pieces of hardware without
having to activate Windows again. - If you do not replace your NIC, you can replace up to five items
In
order to activate Windows, you must have TCP ports 80 and 443 open in
your firewall. Because these are common ports, HTTP and HTTPS
respectively, they should already be open.
Activation Bypass: Option One
The
first option is actually quite obvious if you know where to look. I
actually stumbled upon it by accident. This method will only work if
you have already exceeded the limit of activations per Windows XP copy.
In
the Activate Windows window, proceed through the steps to activate
Windows. Once it has been verified that you are over the limit of
activations for that copy of Windows XP, you can simply click on the
‘Microsoft Activation Assistance Web Site’ link, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Microsoft Activation Assistance Web Site Link
Regardless
of your default web browser, the activation window will launch Internet
Explorer. This works to our advantage because Internet Explorer and
Windows Explorer work very interchangeably: you can type an URL into
Windows Explorer and you can type a local resource path into Internet
Explorer. As you can notice in Figure 2, by typing ‘C:’ into the
Internet Explorer window, you are actually able to access your hard
drive through Internet Explorer.
Figure 2: Your hard drive displayed in Internet Explorer
From
here, you have unrestricted access to any program of file on your hard
drive(s) as long as your user account has the necessary permissions.
It
should be noted that Alt-Control-Delete has no effect on the computer,
and Control-Shift-Escape will not bring up the Task Manager. We will
discuss why this is important in the second option. By default, you are
not
able to see the Start Menu or Task bar through this method. One way I
found to bring it up is to go the the Control Panel and right click on
My Network Places > Properties. This will bring up the Desktop,
Start Menu, and Taskbar, but only for a little while. After a minute or
two, Windows figures out you’ve tricked it and hides the Desktop, Start
Menu, and Taskbar.
Activation Bypass: Option Two
Option
number two is a little more complicated and not quite as usable in some
respects. In order for this option to work, we must enter Safe Mode
with Command prompt. To do this, wait until the Power On Self Test
(POST) screen has disappeared, just before the Windows XP logo appears,
press the F8 key on your keyboard. Windows will start in Safe Mode and
allow you to login to your user account or the Administrator account if
you have the correct password.
Log into a user account and you will see only
a command prompt window. That is ok, though. Simply press
Control-Shift-Escape to launch the Task Manager. Once the Task Manager
is open, click File > New Task. This will bring up the Run command
window. Enter the path of any local resource. This will bring launch
the Windows interface including the taskbar and desktop. From here you
can do almost everything except for where services have been disabled
because you are running in Safe Mode. I have not yet figured out how to
‘trick’ Windows into becoming ‘not Safe Mode’ from this point, so if
you know how, please leave a comment.
Further Reading
No related posts.
Comments
Thank you very much,
your command prompt bypass helped me back up my files before I reinstall windows. Not quite the same scenario as you (computer had problems and upon system restore activation of Windows was required, so if I booted normally blue screen and if I booted in safe mode I couldn’t get in) but still helped all the same.
Пинайте своего хостера – сайт с трудом открылся
Please comment in English. I have no idea what that says.
How’s it going?
Hola
just passed by consedince while for some articles 
anyway nice blog Will check it out Later on ,hope you accept me as a friend blogger. thanks ^^
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