This little bit of nonsense from Mac-centric freelance writer Ian Betteridge plopped into my RSS reader this morning: Activation becomes more annoying.
My eWeek colleague Mary Jo Foley takes a look at Microsoft’s decision to change Windows activation so that you will have no longer be able to activate via the Internet if you’re using a PC from one of the major vendors. While I can understand Microsoft’s reasons for this, it makes activation just slightly more irritating…
Which is followed by the familiar “get a Mac” coda.
Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? Oh, but wait. What Mr. Betteridge doesn’t know, because he isn’t really a Windows specialist, is that if you buy a new computer from one of these “major vendors,” you don’t have to activate it. The system manufacturer activates your copy of Windows when the computer is built. You can reinstall the operating system on that computer using the original Windows XP CD as many times as you want, with no activation required. You would need to call for activation only if one of the following circumstances were true:
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You were trying to use the original installation CD on a different computer than the one it was purchased with. (That would be a violation of the license agreement, and that is the whole point of this change.)
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You upgraded the system BIOS with a flash that didn’t include the System Locked Pre-installation information.
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You replaced the motherboard with one from a different manufacturer that did not include the same BIOS.
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You substantially changed the computer by replacing multiple components simultaneously. (A couple minor upgrades won’t do it; assuming the motherboard is from the same manufacturer, you would need to replace practically every other internal component to trigger this so-called out-of-tolerance condition.)
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Your system has been infected by a virus that replaced the contents of the BIOS. (I can’t remember the last time I heard of one of these appearing outside of a virus-testing lab, and if you get a BIOS-level virus you have much bigger problems than activation.)
If one of these conditions is true, you will need to call a toll-free number to activate your installation. I’ve done this a few times and can report that the process typically takes less than 10 minutes. But most people who buy a computer from Dell or Gateway or HP or another of the world’s top 20 PC makers will never encounter the need to activate.
Back in 2001, when Windows XP was still in beta, I remember reading predictions that Windows Product Activation would be such an incovenience that it would result in catastrophic failure for the new OS. That didn’t happen. In fact, can you even remember the last time you thought about product activation? For most people, most of the time, it’s simply a non-issue. And that’s what this change will mean: nothing.
Update: Dell’s Web site offers a very clear explanation of the differences in activation between a retail copy (which requires Windows Product Activation) and an OEM copy that uses the System Locked Preinstallation technology. Although the specifics of this explanation apply to PowerEdge servers running Windows Server 2003, the exact same technology is used for Windows XP installations. I’ve highlighted the relevant section:
The Windows Server 2003 OS must be activated after installation. An OS installed manually using a Microsoft retail CD is activated through Windows Product Activation (WPA), which requires each installation of the OS to be activated either online or by phone through a Microsoft License Server clearinghouse.
The Windows Server 2003 CD that ships with PowerEdge servers has a built-in anti-piracy technology known as System Locked Preinstallation (SLP). The SLP feature enables administrators to bind the OS to a system’s specific hardware so that activating Windows Server 2003 is not necessary. When an SLP-enabled CD is used to install the OS, administrators need not type in a unique product key.
Because SLP-enabled CDs are designed only for clean installations of Windows Server 2003, administrators installing the OS using the CD should also boot from it. SLP is not supported while running setup.exe or winnt32.exe, because these executable files run from within an existing Windows environment.An SLP implementation is transparent to the end user, without any noticeable difference from a manual installation using retail media. However, the SLP process works only on supported PowerEdge servers that ship with Windows Server 2003. In addition, any tampering with the SLP-enabled CD automatically invokes WPA. The SLP-enabled CD is available only for 32-bit versions of Windows Server 2003, not 64-bit versions.
This technology is available to all OEMs and is very widely used.
Update: I have posted a very detailed follow-up on the changes in Windows Product Activation and what it means for you.
Ed Bott 
Ed, I’ve just spent several days testing new machines from some vendors that, while not exactly Dell, aren’t small either. And all of them required activation. I’m fairly sure that the Acer that I’m typing this on required activating, although as it’s a year old and my memory is like a sieve (hence, I use OneNote!) I could be wrong. Either way – thanks for the info.
As I said in my post, I can understand Microsoft’s reasoning. But I still think it’s an example of putting obstacles in the way of users, rather than providing extras to legtimate customers (as it’s done with Anti-Spyware, for example)
Ian, the routine with most new OEM computers is that you go through an “out of box” setup routine where you accept a license agreement before you actually get to the desktop. It is true that some OEMs in the past have opted not to ship their computers preactivated. What I took away from my reading of the official announcements of this change is that they will have a very strong incentive to preactivate all machines in the future. That’s the purpose of the System Locked Pre-installation program, and it’s actually been quite successful.
If I’m wrong, I’m certain we’ll hear about it!
If that’s right, then yes it would be a plus rather than a minus – I’ll need to get blogging again! 🙂
Ed, My experience does not prove out your “you don’t have to activate it” claim. I’ve got a couple of older Dells in my office. Every time, and I mean every time, I reinstall Windows on one of them, I need to activate. Now, perhaps that’s because these PCs are older, did not ship with XP, and thus I’m always reinstalling the upgrade edition. Whatever the case, I most assuredly do need to activate, every time, and the thought of having to phone someone–and will I be able to at odd hours?–just does not set well with me.
Not just replacing the mainboard. Changes to what the code considers the mainboard. I have had to reauthorize because I have simply added or removed PCI IDE controllers.
In fact:
After replacing my motherboard a few times I got sick of having to call them and listen to the speech about how Microsoft is doing this for my own good. And the speech* about how this is not a speech when I ask not to hear it. So I called customer service and paid them twenty dollars to get a new serial number. Not understanding how best to configure my new onboard SATA controller I went through a few different configurations (nothing removed or added) within a week. Now I get to call them every reinstall to reactivate again because the activation code cannot differentiate between a controller change and a mainboard replacement. This is unacceptable and in a free market would be eliminated from the feild by a better product or a correction in the code.
By the way requiring me to type in the code on my phone when I know it is not going to work and asking me to then read it to an agent once they get to me (which is admittedly a short wait) is unacceptable. If I know that my serial number is not going to work I should be able to enter a sequence that allows me to bypass this process and begin the questioning.
*Never gotten the speech? Try telling them it’s none of their business what components you have replaced in your own computer.
Ian, the situation you’re describing occurs with retail copies, not System Locked Pre-Installation (SLP) OEM copies. Using SLP, the system relies completely on the BIOS for activation. You could change everything else and activation would not fail.
Jonathan, your older Dells did not use SLP-enabled CDs. Newer Dells do. If you boot from an SLP-enabled CD to reinstall on the same system, activation is not required.
How about if I create an XP SP2 slipstream CD from the original XP SP1 SLP-Enabled CD? Will the new bootable CD understand and maintain the BIOS SLP information?
Tony, that’s a good question. I don’t know where on the boot CD the SLP information is stored. If it’s in a file that’s copied to the new disk (analogous to the wpa.dbl file created by retail WPA), then the answer would be yes. I don’t have any SLP disks at my fingertips to examine, so I can’t say for sure.
Ed
I installed windows XP supplied with the new computer – got it running and in due course tried to activate it – to cut a long story short I spent over eight hours ( not all at once but one call lasted over four hours ) on the phone to technical support at microsoft who were unable to activate it !
The result is that I have paid for a product which I can no longer use.
I am, to say the least, very wary of product activation now as past experience says it will not go well.
G Lyn,
I’m sorry to hear of your experience. However, this could have happened with any version of Windows XP since 2001 and isn’t relevant to the issue here. Your experience certainly sounds unpleasant but it is very rare.
If I were you, I would have brought the computer back to the original manufacturer immediately. A new computer should work right out of the box. If it doesn’t, it’s defective. IMHO.
Product activation can be a nusisance when you don’t have an internet connection as I found on one install for a client.
But also I worry when I have to reinstall Windows on a friends spyware or virus infested system that is beyond hope and there was no original Windows disk. So far I have been able to use a copy of Windows and the license number from the sticker, but I wonder if I will run into a OEM vendor block sometime. Is that possible?
James,
If you have to reinstall Windows on a friend’s computer, you need to use a properly licensed copy of Windows. If they have a recovery CD that came with the computer, you should boot from that CD and reinstall. If the CD is SLP-enabled, you won’t need to enter a product key at all. If you can’t find that CD and you have to use an OEM CD that is not SLP-enabled, you should be able to reactivate, although you might have to do so with a phone call.
You might want to impress on your friends that it’s important to hang on to original CDs for operating systems and programs.
Mary Jo is correct. Microsoft’s 20 biggest OEMs shipped OEM licenses which require activation by phone. This is as of the 28th. The MS rep makes you answer some questions before taking you through the challenge-response keys for phone activation. This requirment is waived if you have a volume license. I suppose you could go buy a volume license separately, but since the aforementioned OEMs refuse to ship a unit without Windows, that means you’re paying for Windows twice. Imagine doing phone activation on hundreds of OEM machines after doing upgrades on them.
While you’re busy apologizing for Microsoft, why don’t you stop over and do a couple hundred phone activations for me.
I remember way back when…… Microsoft gained in market share by having few product activation/anti-piracy keys…. Now that they’re the only major game in town, what do they do? Product Activation.
I hope Steve Jobs gains more in market share. I feel like buying a Mac….
Lauren
I cleaned some spyware from my daughters computer recently.
When I re-booted the PC, the system refused to boot to windows.
I searched for the operating system disk in the house…but no luck.
By this time I was feeling physically sick because of all the issues rushing through my mind and the forthcoming loss of face issues.
Next week I returned{A drive of nearly 200km or 150 miles each way} with my own win xp disk and performed a reinstall.
I rang microsoft and after 5 minutes of x-examination, the guy gave me a new activation number. YES …!!!
You substantially changed the computer by replacing multiple components simultaneously. (A couple minor upgrades wonÂ’t do it; assuming the motherboard is from the same manufacturer, you would need to replace practically every other internal component to trigger this so-called out-of-tolerance condition.)
I know that’s the official line from Microsoft, but my experience doesn’t agree. I’ve seen Windows un-activate itself by operations as simple as moving a NIC to a different PCI slot, upgrading the video card, or even just installing new drivers.
I don’t think it’s moral or ethical for Microsoft to hold their customers’ PCs hostage when their buggy product activation code thinks the hardware has changed. And yes, Jonathan, I’ve heard the Speech. Twice. I sympathize.
I had an OEM Version in 2001 that asked for activation within 30secs even when you told it to ask in a few days, then it would agree and promptly connect itself again, if i disabled my modem i could not do anything further. The activation would pop-up and ask everytime i tried to install drivers, effectively screwing up driver installation as it would freeze and a re-boot was needed which arrived back at the desktop with product activation arriving seconds later also the driver wizard leading to another conflict between the two until i finally got it activated two days later, by this time it was totally infected with 100’s of spyware and a virus or two.
I was helped out the first time with activation by a very nice Microsoft manager in the UK who was not really working but took the time to sort it as none of the others support staff could do it.
I eventually got an upgrade version XP Pro (retail) this was even worse and is unusable now and was made more so by SP2 as it did not recognise the CD, it being an upgrade. After Octobers round of updates it started asking for activation again after a new Video card and would not stop(3 times in 2 days) this after activation and a thankyou for using Genuine windows bla bla notice on the update site, soon it was having major problems
I repair friends computers locally and all are totally infested with viruses and spyware when i get them and most say they would not upgrade to a new version of Windows again as they feel it is totally insecure and full of flaws which the average Joe has no chance to rectify. It also is making peoples hardware/software obsolete after each major SP.
XP is was and will always be the biggest con to come out of the USA.
ps. but i love it!
I have used a Volume licensed one a few days back to get up and running hassle free but was hit with a this is a compromised Volume licence and your copy will not be supported. I have to use it and it works fine with no nagging and no infections as it accepts drivers because there is no activation required.
PS. SP2 destroyed a harddisk and bios chip on the original machine in my first post. Microsoft admitted this and were very sorry but i had agreed to the SP conditions and it was not their policy to replace parts.
Sorry, but that’s simply not possible, and your credibility just went to zero with that statement.
I have corrospondence from Microsoft which verifies it
Can you send it to me? If this is simply an e-mail from a first-level tech support person, then I wouldn’t believe it. I’ve seen absolute gibberish from low-level tech support people who have an inappropriately elevated opinion of their own technical skills.
It is extraordinarily difficult to come up with a virus that damages a hard drive or BIOS. There have been well over 100 million installations of SP2 so far, and I have never seen a single report of this kind of failure. Sorry, but I really think someone is just making stuff up here.
I must admit they were stumped by it but were very good, polite, helpful, apologetic but had no answers.
Actually it corrupted the Bios and the hardisk is usable but only in pio mode ( i did try all suggestions on getting the right mode from many sources including the manufacturers.)
I’ll see if i can find the corrospondence and send you it.
It’s on an old backup, when i get time i’ll send it but got lots to do just now.
I have 2 of your inside out Win XP and XP Deluxe books, they are very good.
It should be logged with Microsoft
Sorry gotta go but i’ll get back
Cheers,
Peter
peter…I have been doing pc repair / building since 1993 and I have never seen that. As far as the dell xp oem cd’s… I have 1 cd and have installed it on multiple dell pc’s…I use a key changer and change the preactivated key to the key that matches their pc – which makes the installation legal – and I have never had to activate windows.
I sent Ed a bit that i found and he has said he will look into it.
It does mention that the Service pack seems to have made changes to the bios.
I have an OEM version of XP Home which requires activating every time I boot up. Obviously, I am not making changes to hardware etc. Whilst this has been irritating for some time I now find that I can’t activate over the internet as it says the product key has been activated too many times and i need to activate over the telephone. I have done this twice but am now concerned that it will need doing every time i want to use my computer. Is there a way out?
Stuart,
You should not have to activate every time you boot up. I have never heard of that problem, but it indicates that somehow Windows is losing its memory of your hardware configuration at startup.
If I were you, I would check with whoever built your computer. I suspect you have a hardware problem.
Thanks Ed, unfortunately the builder is no longer in business. Would it be worth tryimg to reinstall Windows?, Any idea what type of hardware problem as I don’t get any messages, faults/failures that indicate any problems.
Sure, it would be worth trying to reinstall Windows. I would do the following:
Check to make sure the motherboard battery is good.
Flash to the latest BIOS.
Set BIOS to defaults and then disable all nonessential peripherals.
Run disk and memory diagnostics.
This problem is so odd that I’m not sure what else to suggest. Could be some sort of virus, I suppose.
I’ll give it a go. Glad to know I’m not the only one confused.
Failing this I’ll probably start going to church again. Thanks anyway
Can i put my dell xp on another computer as long as i have my code.
Raymond, your question has two answers. Assuming the copy was purchased with the original computer (an OEM copy), then:
Legally, no, you cannot use that copy of Windows on any other computer than the one it was purchased with.
Technically, depending on whether the CD uses SLP, you may not be able to install it on any other computer except another Dell from the same product line.
I got the windows xp disc with my Dell 2 years ago. Is there anyway to tell if it is a (OEM copy) or a (SLP Copy) and i have to sa microsoft has some crazy ideas when it come to there software and how you are able to use it.
If the CD came with your Dell PC, it’s an OEM copy.
Crazy idea? Assuming it’s Home Edition, you probably paid $25 for that copy of Windows, if you could break out the price that Dell paid Microsoft plus their markup to you. If you had purchased it at retail, it would have been about $100. You got a substantial discount in exchange for accepting the restrictions on your ability to use the software. What makes that crazy?
That $25 for windows is not such a good deal when you loose a motherboard and can no longer use the OEM CD unless you pay the rediculously high price for a motherboard from your PC manufacturer to get an exact replica of your original motherboard.
I also ran into an interesting activation problem yesterday. I bought a new copy of XP home 2 days ago. Installed it yesterday and tried to activate. I got the message that my product key (or something) had been activated too many times. There should be no way this could happen on the first install of the OS.
I am not against activation, but tying activation to a specific hardware configuration is rediculous. And if you read microsofts websit on activation, you will realize it does not take much hardware change to require re-activation.
Stuart, Ed,
My grandfather has the same problem with his PC. This is an IBM PC. Not my first choice, but my uncle works there and he feels that he is being loyal by buying the IBM machine. It wants to reactivate every time. I thought it was just a windows glitch so I made sure I had all the necessary updates. I even reinstalled the operating system from scratch. Still no go. I will use the PC battery idea as well as the other suggestions. Thanks for the suggestions.
“Imagine doing phone activation on hundreds of OEM machines after doing upgrades on them.”
lol, yep, this is What we run into, I commented in another thread.
If a harddrive needs replaced, or a mobo, or an FDISK due to virus or severe spyware infection, the COA sticker on the side of a dell only works if you call it in. I have never had a problem with phone activation, except for the 10 min of my life I never get back multiplied dozens of times over. I have taught my wife how to do it, so now she is going bald with frustration too. =)
I am also getting frequent activation requests, I have also had a couple of BSOD reboots (I’ve now stopped the reboot so I can read the error)and also I’ve lost the use of a USB hub altho’ the computer says its ok. I was already suspecting a motherboard error and this thread confirms my suspicions. How do I check the mothers battery ? Thanks
Take it out and put a new one in!
By the way ED! I never did get a reply from you after i sent the email with Microsofts answer…. “It appears that SP2 has corrupted the bios” . Pretty much the same as Microsoft…Deathly silence, apart from a phonecall apologizing for breaking my computer and thanks for using Microsofts products!
That’s not true, Peter.
Far from “deathly silence,” my archives show that we exchanged a series of e-mails on the topic. Here was my next-to-last e-mail to you, sent last November 7:
Sorry you had what sounds like a serious problem. I still don’t see anything that suggests SP2 destroyed your computer, despite what you think a support person told you.
as long as you keep an open mind that’s fair enough.
It was mighty strange though!
I have had two friends with XP problems recently. The first got some sort of virus that rewrote a bit of the BIOS (thereby wiping out the SLP “tattoo”, as HP calls it), and made windows not boot. The recovery disk wouldn’t work because the SLP id was gone. She paid $80 to BestBuy or someone to reflash the BIOS with the SLP key. Then the HP rep walked her through using the recovery disk. He forgot to mention to her that all her data would be erased, so she lost everything.
Second friend had some sort of virus/spyware that generally slowed things down, and caused the version information to disappear from IE, though it seemed like it was working okay. Some OS dialogs had buttons that were unclickable. I reinstalled IE. but that killed the OS due to DLL conflicts or something. The recovery disks shipped with the system didn’t match the SLP id. Compaq sent me new cds (for $24) and then were for the wrong computer. They sent me different cds, and those ones worked.
No activation issues per se, but even the Direct OEM SLP solution is a big enough pain for me.
I’m not sure that this discussion is still active, but I thought I’d ask about this here anyway.
I have a two-year-old Packard Bell computer in 2004 which came with XP installed and a COA sticker. It has a hidden recovery partition which will replace the contents of the main hard drive with the original image. I’m pretty sure that this is an SLP-locked version of XP (the Magical Jellybean program reports a product key different from my COA sticker).
What I want to do is to reformat my main partition (actually, repartition the drive so that it’s organized in a way I’ll find more useful). However, I don’t want to restore the Packard Bell image, since that includes a bunch of programs that I just don’t want or need (such as Norton Internet Security 2003!!).
Now, there is a hidden folder C:\Windows\i386 which, as we know, contains all of the files necessary to reinstall Windows. I have seen websites that have a method of burning this to create an installation CD (I also want to slipstream SP2 into it so that I don’t need to do that upgrade later, but if this creates problems I’ll leave that out).
The question is, if I use this copy to reinstall XP, will the SLP lock be maintained? It will be going onto the exact same system as before (I have changed a few things, but not the motherboard or the BIOS). Are there files that, if I save them now and replace them, will keep the lock (such as wpa.dbl)? Should I use the product key from my sticker, or the one that Magical Jellybean reports?
In any case, I’ll be keeping a copy of that Packard Bell restore image safe – if I can’t get a clean install to be activated properly I will just use the image again, and put up with the outdated junk software.
Thanks very much to Ed and anybody else who can offer an answer.
SP2 can and will destroy hardware because it destroyed my graphics card. Called windows all it did is bs me.
Neeraj Mathur,
The SLP info is hardcoded in the bios, but you need to make sure you use the OEM files and SLP key for it to work.
(1). Backup the slp key that magic jellybean shows and not the one on the sticker.
(2). Choose to show hidden folders and files, create a new folder in the root of drive C and name the folder “OEM” without the quotes and copy these list of files bellow inside the new folder.
Files needed from your Windows “system32” ;
OEMBIOS.BIN
OEMBIOS.DAT
OEMBIOS.SIG
..and file needed here:
C:\Windows\System32\Catroot{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}
OEMBIOS.CAT
(3) Now, open a command prompt and “CD” your way to the OEM folder and type in these commands one at a time:
MAKECAB OEMBIOS.BIN
MAKECAB OEMBIOS.DAT
MAKECAB OEMBIOS.SIG
MAKECAB OEMBIOS.CAT
This will compress the files to the Windows XP setup format.
Now, copy those four compressed files inside that I386 folder you found on the drive overwriting the old ones to make sure we have the correct OEM files inside the setup.
(4) Look inside the I386 folder for a file called WINNT.SIF ..open it with notepad and see if it has a key that is the same that magic jellybean showed. If so, this step is done.
If there wasnt an WINNT.SIF file there, create a new text file and copy the text below inside of it, save changes, and rename the text file to WINNT.SIF and copy it inside the I386 folder.
Note: Just copy whats between these lines below and not the lines themselves. Replace the “XXXXX: with your slp key jelllybean shows.
;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutomaticUpdates=1
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated=”0″
UnattendedInstall=”Yes”
[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
OemSkipEula=Yes
OemPreinstall=Yes
UnattendSwitch=”Yes”
Repartition=No
Hibernation=No
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
AutoActivate=Yes
TargetPath=\WINDOWS
[UserData]
ProductKey=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
(5) Now, you will need to slipstream SP2 as this will also create the root cd files needed like:
Home:
WIN51
WIN51IC
Pro:
WIN51
WIN51IP
(6) Burn the cd using a boot image file to make the cd bootable and you should be good to go with an updated SLP restore cd.
Wow! I have been searching the net for the right information on how to slipstream a OEM Recovery Disk from Alienware for XP Pro and this is the closest I have come to some great information.
My problem is figuring out to combine all my VIA drivers as well as the WinXP PromiseFastTrack SATA 378 ™ IDE Controller, AMD Athlon64 Processor, Marvell Yukon, etc.
I have been ripping my hair out for the last two years with this manufacturer. The last two Recovery disks they sent me will not copy the files when you reboot in order to reinstall windows. None of the three images they gave me was any good. Two of these images had no Promise Driver at all.
I can explore the disk and copy the files needed for a slipstream.
This computer has been shipped 12 times due to the constant mistakes time after time. They have had this computer more than I have had it.
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Brenda