Having rebuilt, tested, and reloaded hundreds of computers, I’ve become keenly aware of one of the unavoidable speedbumps during setup — Windows XP’s product activation. After one too many activations, Windows complains that your product key is no longer valid or you’ve exceeded the limit. To keep Windows on the up-and-up (and stay atop the seemingly endless flood of security patches), you’ll have to activate once more with Microsoft. Here are some time-tested tips that will get you through the mandatory process in five minutes or less. Bring up Activation If Windows isn’t already prompting you to activate your software, or if you’re unsure if you need to, you can easily bring up the activation wizard by going to Start, Run, and running oobe/msoobe /a.

It’s okay to run this command if Windows is already activated, too, so don’t worry about it undoing what may already be complete. Try Internet Activation First If you have an internet connection when activating Windows, attempt to use the online route first. In the Windows Product Activation Wizard, choose “Yes, lets activate Windows over the internet now”, followed by “No, do not register with Microsoft”. You may receive a friendly “Thank you!” and your copy of Windows will be good to go. If internet activation fails and the Wizard complains about “too many activations” or an “incorrect product key”, you still have the option of calling Microsoft’s toll free number to activate Windows. As long as the Wizard doesn’t report “invalid product key,” options are still open. An “invalid” (not “incorrect,” mind you) key is one reported or detected as pirated, so you’ll have to find some other way to make your software go.

Phone Activation Activating Windows via phone is about as enjoyable as a trip to the dentist, but knowing exactly which buttons to push and the right words to say can help cut your time in half and get you the necessary code. If your online activation from above failed, click the Telephone button to generate an Installation ID, which you’ll read off to a customer service representative shortly. Call the number for your appropriate country, and you’ll enter into a phone menu system which would like nothing more than for you to activate by reading the numbers onscreen.

Plant Manager reports, when they call the number listed to perform a manual phone activation, the Microsoft Reps are telling him Windows XP is. Depending on how it was activated originally (OEM) its probably looking for a specific hardware ID that would involve the motherboard serial number or bios. I recently got a new laptop and I need to transfer my Home and Student Office 2013 to my new one from my old. However when I try to activate it on my new machine it keeps asking for an A-H Confirmation ID (Since MS forces you to activate via phone call hen you want to reactivate on a new machine),. Canon Ir 3300 Xerox Machine Driver Download For Windows 7 64bit.