Ways to Activate Windows XP

Contents

Introduction
How to Tell if WinXP Is Activated
The WPA.DBL Activation Method
The Registry Edit Method
The OEM Key Method
The xp_activate32.exe Method
When You Can’t Get into Windows XP
Other Methods

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Introduction

I had just installed Windows XP x32 SP3 in a VirtualBox virtual machine (VM), so as to run WinXP on Linux. Now I had to activate it. This turned out to be more complicated than I had expected.

It took me a couple of tries to develop a WinXP VM that worked the way I wanted. The first time, WinXP became activated by magic. Not really, but I was not quite sure what I had done to activate it. It could have been just the official method; it may have been something else. I was not entirely sure. But after that first time, no magic came to my assistance. At some point, the activation window informed me that I had used this key too many times. It seemed that was incorrect, but I didn’t want to argue; I just wanted a solution.

I intended to choose the phone activation alternative. In fact, I used Skype to dial that number. But this was my first time using Skype on Linux, so this was the time to discover that the headset I used for Skype was not being recognized by Linux. That was going to be a whole separate issue to troubleshoot. I could have used another phone to activate, of course, but then I realized that I might find myself having to activate again, one or more times, until I got this WinXP VM configured the way I liked. In addition, I wanted to avoid going online if possible. I was using this WinXP VM to virtualize Windows applications; that called for a system with a bare minimum of processes running; therefore I didn’t have antivirus software installed.

So: was there another way of activating, other than the usual approach of letting the activator go online, or calling a number for Microsoft’s permission to install? A search led, in fact, to several alternate methods. I decided to explore those, and this post was born.

How to Tell if WinXP Is Activated

The first question was whether I even needed to activate. I had noticed that WinXP would put a keyring icon in the system tray (at the lower right corner of the screen) and also at various places in the Start Menu, such as at the top of the Start > All Programs list. But it seemed that that icon would disappear, sometimes, after even an unsuccessful activation effort.

Another approach was to go into Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information > System Summary > look for Activation Status. This would supposedly notify the user to activate the system if needed; but someone said this indication might not always be there, even if the system was not yet activated. One time, I noticed that Start > Control Panel > System > General tab said that Windows was registered to me, and yet Start > All Programs still included an Activate Windows icon — but when I clicked on it, it said Windows was already activated. (Confusing!) Another possibility was to notice whether the system tray (at the lower right corner of the screen) still dispayed the activation keys icon.

[Note: WordPress keeps deleting backslashes in my posts. This problem has been going on for years. It is baffling. I keep adding them back. If, as in the following paragraph, you encounter a long string of characters that seems like it should be split up with backslashes, you’re right: it should. You and I know that. WordPress is still trying to understand.]

A different approach called for Start > Run > %systemroot%\system32\oobe/msoobe.exe /a. If you were already in %systemroot%\system32 (which would usually be the same as C:\Windows\system32), that command could be simply oobe/msoobe /a). That command would usually trigger the activation window. WikiHow said that, if I had followed the foregoing steps correctly, I would now see this message:

Activate Windows

Windows Product Activation

Windows is already activated. Click OK to exit.

I saw that sometimes; I didn’t see it at other times. It that didn’t appear, hopefully one of the other methods just described would verify activation.

The WPA.DBL Activation Method

The alternate activation method I tried first was mentioned by Lifehacker and detailed by Online Tech Tips. The latter explained that I could activate WinXP simply by copying C:\Windows\System32\wpa.dbl from the previous installation of Windows XP on this same computer. They warned that it would not work on a different machine. I had already activated WinXP on a previous VirtualBox VM, identical in all regards except that, this time, I set the virtual hard disk drive (HDD) to be 20GB rather than 10GB. I was not sure whether that difference would make this appear to be a different machine.

In this method, I needed to boot into Safe Mode. Normally, I would do that by hitting F8 as the computer started to boot. But in the case of this VM, the advice was rather to boot into Normal Mode and then go into Start > Run > msconfig > BOOT.INI tab > check /SAFEBOOT > OK > Restart. Once I was in Safe Mode, Online Tech Tips said, I needed to use Windows Explorer to go into C:\Windows\System32 > rename wpa.dbl to be wpa.old > copy in the wpa.dbl from my previous installation. Then I had to go back to the BOOT.INI tab and uncheck /SAFEBOOT > OK > Restart. That put me back in Normal Mode. That method did not work. Upon reboot, I got a message:

Windows Product Activation

This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate Windows now?

Normally, I would have 30 days after installing WinXP before activation would be compelled. In this case, it seemed that I had triggered this message by trying to activate in the normal way and getting that message (above) that I had used this product key too many times. When I clicked No at this point, I expected to be locked out of the system. But instead, I was allowed to proceed into WinXP as usual.

I guessed that this method had not worked, for me, because of that change from a 10GB to 20GB system drive in the VM. It was also possible that my previous activation efforts had somehow muddied the waters.

Incidentally, use of msconfig had now resulted in a System Configuration Utility message, each time I rebooted, informing me that I had to go back into msconfig > General tab > select Normal Startup > OK > Restart.

The Registry Edit Method

Next on the list, we had a method explained by WikiHow, which offered these remarks:

You can bypass the activation process by editing the Windows registry and using an OEM key, though this technically violates your license agreement with Microsoft. Only use the following if you are unable to activate and you have a legally-purchased copy of Windows XP.

Although WikiHow described the process differently, I interpreted their advice as encouraging me to begin with this registry edit file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents]
"OOBETimer"=hex:ff,d5,71,d6,8b,6a,8d,6f,d5,33,93,fd
; Original setting:
; "OOBETimer"=hex:eb,54,8c,c6,0e,45,17,59,55,5b,f4,30

I pasted those lines into Notepad, named the file WinXPActivation.reg, and ran it in WinXP. It indicated that the registry had been modified successfully, and when I ran Start > Run > regedit, I could see those new values at the registry location stated in that file. Now, WikiHow said, at that same registry address, I had to right-click on the WPAEvents folder > Permissions > select SYSTEM > check the Deny Full Control box > OK > Yes > exit regedit. Next, I had to enter the oobe command and then verify, as indicated above.

The OEM Key Method

That same WikiHow article said that, if the Registry Key Method did not work for me, I could proceed with another approach that might. This method started where the previous one left off. If the oobe\msoobe /a command didn’t give me “Windows is already activated,” then it would presumably give me the usual activation options: activate over the Internet now, activate by telephone now, or remind me to activate every few days.

The advice here was to choose “Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows.” Next, apparently there would be an option to Change Product Key. At that point, the user would enter this product key: THMPV 77D6F 94376 8HGKG VRDRQ. A search indicated that a lot of people were familiar with that key as an alternative for activating Windows XP. After entering that key, WikiHow said the user should click the Update button and then select Remind Me Later. Then restart the computer and go to Start > Run > %system. I had no idea how that sequence worked, and I did not test it, but that was the end of the WikiHow advice. (Note: this advice does not appear in the updated version of the WikiHow page, but it does appear in an archived version.)

The xp_activate32.exe Method

This section is a 2023 update to this 2016 post. In April 2023, multiple sites (e.g., Ars Technica, The Verge) reported on a post at TinyApps (2023) that, in turn, reported on a post (June 2, 2023 archive) in the Windows XP subreddit.

The gist of the story was that, according to Tom’s Hardware (Tyson, 2023), someone developed an offline (i.e., relatively safe) activation tool that did not require any contact with Microsoft (which turned off its WinXP activation servers years ago). Apparently the source code for the tool was originally posted at MyDigitalLife, but had reportedly since been deleted. The Internet Archive seemed to offer downloadable source code for this xp_activate32.exe tool, but the sources just cited did not seem to provide a direct link to a user-friendly download. A Github thread discussed security and other issues. 

The Tom’s Hardware article noted, incidentally, that users could now ask ChatGPT for activation keys for older versions (e.g., Win98). For WinXP, it presently appeared that the registry method of activation (above) might still be the most reliable solution.

When You Can’t Get into Windows XP

The other methods discussed in this post required the user to use tools available inside a working WinXP installation. Later, however, I encountered a situation where I was not able to get past the login screen. This happened with Windows XP installed in a VirtualBox virtual machine (VM). The first thing I got, after booting the VM, was this:

Windows Product Activation

This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate Windows now?

I clicked Yes. I got a window titled “Windows Product Activation” and a statement, “Windows is already activated. Click OK to exit.” But when I clicked OK, it logged me off and put me back at the login screen; and if I tried to log in, it presented me with the same question again: “Do you want to activate Windows now?”

A search for solutions to this infinite product activation loop led to recommendations that started with going into Safe Mode. To get into Safe Mode, the advice was familiar: hit F8 as soon as Windows starts to boot. For a VirtualBox VM, that was trickier than on a native Windows installation. First, I had to click on the correct icon — there were two, and at first I chose the wrong one — to tell VirtualBox to stop showing messages about the mouse and keyboard when the VM started. Also, I had to make sure the VM was capturing my keystrokes (i.e., that I was not sending keystrokes into the host machine when I hit the keyboard). It seemed, in addition, that I had to start hitting F8 before the VM booted, and keep hitting it, not holding it down.

It took multiple tries, but eventually I got past those hindrances. At that point, I was looking at the Windows Advanced Options Menu — the one in black and white, offering a dozen options, starting with Safe Mode. I selected Safe Mode and hit Enter. It showed me only one installation: Microsoft Windows XP Professional. I hit Enter. After a few moments of loading files, I was now looking at the Safe Mode screen.

From that point, the advice offered by WikiHow was, in effect, to go to Start > Run or WinKey-R. Either way, that gave me a Run box. There, I typed rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk and clicked OK. Nothing seemed to happen. I hoped it had done something. I went to Start > Turn Off Computer > Restart. This time, Windows XP started up normally, without an activation barrier. The methods described above confirmed that Windows was now activated, and I had no further problems after rebooting.

Other Methods

I did not explore further, except that I did develop a search to help me find methods other than those described above. It tentatively appeared that there might be a number of alternate activation methods. There may also be something useful for this purpose in my separate post on Windows 7 activation in a virtual machine.