Windows Product Activation (WPA)Windows Product Activation (WPA)on Windows XPVersion 3. Last Updated August 2. Hold mouse here for list of most recent changes. 1-1-3: Your computer can't read the configuration info stored in the CMOS. Replace the motherboard. 1-1-4: Your BIOS needs to be replaced. 1-2-1: You have a bad timer. Windows Vista Oem Replace Motherboard On Dell![]() There are a great many rumors, and much misinformation, from which you might be led to think that WPA is going to call Microsoft every day and say just what you are doing with your computer; that, if you make any changes at all to your computer hardware, the machine will be instantly disabled; and that WPA is a sneaky way for Microsoft to store personal information about you or your computer, or to begin charging you a monthly fee for your continued use of Windows XP. In fact, all of these rumors are false. WPA is a fairly easy- going check when Windows boots, confirming that it is still installed on the same computer as last time it checked. But the rampant misinformation is understandable, because it is hard for the general consumer to find a simple yet comprehensive explanation of just what WPA is. This page tries to fill that gap by explaining WPA in a straightforward, detailed way — and to show that it will be a lot less trouble to most people than many have feared. What’s the idea of WPA? The Microsoft License for use of Windows has always been limited to allowing installation on only a single machine (and that excludes having the same copy installed on a laptop as well as a desktop machine: only MS Office is licensed for the combination). Microsoft believes that this has been subject to much casual abuse. This guide explains how to start factory OS image restore utility on a Dell laptop with Windows Vista. Running this utility will erase everything from the hard drive. Find great deals on eBay for windows xp operating system and windows xp professional operating system. Shop with confidence. MDGx AXCEL216 MAX Speed Performance Windows 10 2012 8.1 8 7 2008 Vista 2003 XP SP1 SP2 SP3 ME 2000 98 SE OSR2 OSR1 95 NT4 NT 3.11 3.1 3.10 DOS 6 Tricks Secrets Tips. OEM contains absolutely NO transfer rights to another PC, so if you have to replace. One new feature in Windows XP that has caused great concern is Windows Product Activation (WPA). There are a great many rumors, and much misinformation, from which. Ultimately, this works best for motherboards that are either identical or extremely similar. Prepping Windows 7 For a New Motherboard. The System Preparation Tool. The Dell Windows 7 OEM System Locked Preinstallation from a Dell Windows 7 Reinstallation DVD or ABR program will not work on your Dell as the system is not shipped. Windows Vista Oem Replace Motherboard Whirlpool![]() WPA is a means of ensuring that a single copy is not installed on more than a single machine. So, within the first 3. Windows XP, you must get the system . This involves the computer dialing in and giving some information about the hardware on which Windows is installed, receiving in return a release code which will be recorded on the system. More is said below about OEM copies provided preinstalled on a new computer. At subsequent boots, Windows checks to see that it is still running on hardware that it can recognise as being the same. If it does not match well enough, you will be unable to do more than backup files until you call Microsoft to explain — for example, that the old machine broke down and had to be rebuilt — and get a new release code. What hardware gets checked? The WPA system checks ten categories of hardware: Display Adapter. SCSI Adapter. IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address. RAM Amount Range (i. Processor Type. Processor Serial Number. Hard Drive Device. Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)CD- ROM / CD- RW / DVD- ROMIt then calculates and records a number based on the first device of each type that was found during setup, and stores this number on your hard drive. Initially, this is sent to Microsoft in an automatic dial- up, together with the Product ID number derived from the 2. Product Key used in setting up Windows. If Service Pack 1 has been installed, the entire Product Key is also transmitted: This can then be checked against a list of known pirated keys. The hardware is checked each time Windows boots, to ensure that it is still on the same machine. Also, if you subsequently perform a complete format and reinstall of Windows, Microsoft’s activation center will have to be contacted again because the information held on the machine itself (the number previously written to your hard drive) will have been wiped out by reformatting the hard drive. If your hardware is substantially the same, this will be done by an automated call without your needing to talk to anyone. What does ? WPA asks for ! Minor cards, like sound cards, don’t come into the mix at all. If you keep the motherboard, with the same amount of RAM and processor, and an always present cheap NIC (available for $1. If you change the device in any category, you have lost that Yes vote — but will not lose it any more thereafter if you make changes in that category again. If you are doing such. Hint 3 in What about formatting a hard disk? You will be required to reactivate by a phone call to Microsoft. You will have to write down a 5. This will reactivate your copy of Windows. This is made easier if Windows XP Service Pack 1 has been installed: The system will continue to boot normally for three days, during which time you will be able to contact the activation center via the net. If the extra changes have been removed, or if 1. What about formatting a hard disk? Two things are recorded for disks: the number of the disk drive itself, and the Volume Serial Number (VSN) of the partition on it. HINT No. 1: The VSN is part of the data in the partition’s first sector, so it is changed when you reformat the drive. It is worth getting the freeware utility Volume ID to restore the original VSN. Then, after the reformat and new Windows XP installation, defer the new activation until you have run Volume ID to restore the old VSN, and rebooted. This is not essential — but it saves one of the . Another thing that changes the VSN is converting a FAT 3. NTFS. So, if you upgrade a system using FAT 3. Windows XP and intend to convert to NTFS, do the conversion before activating the system. Remember, you can wait a while: you have 3. The machine’s hardware at the time of the first activation is what counts. Or, if you have already activated, use Volume ID as described in Hint No. If you are doing this after activation, also first back up the WPA. DBL and WPA. BAK files, as described in Hint No. HINT No. 3: It is valuable to back up the two files WPA. DBL and WPA. BAK from the Windows\System. Then, should they get damaged, or should you do a . However, this only works in those limited circumstances. The contents of these two files is matched to the specific Windows setup; therefore, contrary to what many journalists and members of the user community have written in recent months, restoring these files will not restore your activation status following a reformat and clean install. The disk drive and partition recorded will be the ones that the system has found first when doing the initial activation: normally the one from which the system booted. If, though, you add a new hard disk, copy the original partition onto it with an imaging program, and retain the original hard drive as a secondary data disk, it will still be found by a later check. This is because it searches for all disks, and the vote will be Yes in both categories if it finds the original one, with the partition not reformatted. What about a swappable hard drive bay? Provided the swappable hard drive bay is for secondary disks (used for data), and the boot disk with Windows is still present, the swappable disks do not enter into the WPA calculation. Changing the motherboard. Installing a replacement motherboard will change the IDE controller, and usually will mean that you change to a new, faster, processor. If the processor is one with a serial number (Pentium III), then you lose a third vote — including when you change to a processor with no serial number, such as an Athlon. If you also add RAM, or if the motherboard is one with an on- board SCSI adapter, that makes four or five categories now voting No — you would need an unchanged NIC to avoid having to call in for reactivation. If the new motherboard also has inbuilt video (and possibly even a NIC of its own!), you run right out of Yes votes with this one hardware change. Again, this doesn’t stop you from making such a hardware change, nor from using Windows XP thereafter. The phone- in reactivation option was created for just this type of situation. Also, this is an extreme example. Due to the onboard features of some motherboards, this one hardware change is equivalent to several changes at once. Re- activation on a new setup after adding devices. If you add devices, as mentioned earlier in relation to hard disks, the check at boot up will still find the original device, even if it is now in a subsidiary postion (e. But if you format and do a new setup, it will be the device that is now in . This means that this hardware category no longer will match — and will be seen as voting . Therefore, from the point of view of WPA, it is best to make such hardware additions subsidiary ones. For example, if you add another CD drive, have it as the secondary slave, and, if need be, move the original one onto the primary channel. There is a useful program XPInfo which will give you a simple picture of which categories are currently casting Yes votes at the boot- up check. How long does this go on? The license for a retail version of Windows XP is in perpetuity. You get to use Windows XP forever, if you choose. But Microsoft recognises that machines do get upgraded. If, following the activation after setup, you do not need to contact the activation center for 1. If you get a new computer, you are entitled to remove Windows XP from the one that is being junked, and install the same Windows XP on the new machine — but you will have to do the reactivation by a voice call and explain (unless, as was just mentioned, 1. Microsoft has said that if it ever becomes not worthwhile for them to keep this activation system going, they will take steps to allow users to disable it. OEM versions. Restrictions of specific license types may limit the foregoing. OEM versions of Windows XP are licensed together with the hardware with which they are purchased, as an entity, and such a copy may not be moved to a different computer. Also, other specific license types (e. Academic licenses) are handled in different ways. These aren’t a WPA issue per se, but rather an issue of the license for that purchase, and therefore outside the scope of this discussion of WPA. There are two versions of OEM Windows XP systems. One can be purchased separately, with qualifying subsidiary hardware, and installed with that hardware to an existing machine, to which it becomes bound. The software may be reinstalled and reactivated indefinitely as with a retail system as long as it is still on the original machine. It may not be transferred to a different computer.
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