Saturday, March 17th, 2007 at 6:00 PM
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 After one too many activations, Windows complains that your product key is no longer valid or you’ve exceeded the limit.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.
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. The software behind the menu, however, does the same checking as the online activation method — meaning if your online activation failed, so too will the automated phone activation. Press 0 on the phone keypad when asked if you are calling to activate Windows XP (the first opportunity you are prompted for input). Like many newer phone menus, it will respond “I see that you’d like to transfer to a customer service representative”, and subsequently try to convince you to go back to the automated system. Ignore the pre-recorded woman’s somewhat rude request to go back, and press 1 to to talk to a human.
After a short delay and the distinct possibility of listening to some poorly chosen music, a representative will ask for either the first six digits of your Installation ID, or the full set. (The first six digits of the Installation ID are the only real keys to generating a Confirmation ID, however the reps more often than not ask you to read off the rest of the group. The rest of the numbers are encoded values detailing some very basic hardware details about your computer.)
If asked “Is this the first time you’re activating Windows?”, say yes. If you say no, the representative will ask for an explanation as to why you’re re-activating Windows.
If asked “Did you purchase the software from a retail store?”, say “It came pre-installed with my computer.”
As a final time-kill (their system sometimes takes a minute to generate Confirmation IDs on days with a particularly heavy load), you may be asked for your Product Key (Windows serial number).
After you’ve given them the necessary information, the representative will read the Confirmation ID to you, which you can simply type into the provided fields. Using these methods, it takes about 4 minutes to activate Windows on average.
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 17th, 2007 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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It worked!!! 4:11 Thanks.
The site no longer allows me to activate my windows Xp multi media software. I am trying to do it on a second computer and it has worked in the past. However, the computer has been in for repairs a number of times and each time I needed to reactivate. I am assuming that it only allows it to be activated a certain number of times. However, my real problem is that I can’t get a ‘human’ representative. I keep getting the automatic representative, who keeps saying it will transfer me to a representative, but never does - I keep getting disconnected instead.
wow it worked perfectly THANK YOU
This information was a great help. I had a serious virus on one of my computers to where I had to completely reformat the hard drive and reinstall my windows software. It gave me the message this product has exceeded it limits of activation. I called the 888 number and they helped me out with out any problems…Thank you so much for the information..
did not help me. I was told i had to purchase a new licsence for $84 or go back to where i bought the computer and have them reinstall. I built a pair of computers and bought Xp home which i installed fine on both. But i was upgrading one of them and it told me i had to reactivate. And they wont let me even using the steps above. Any suggestion?
@Will: If you have two computers with the same copy of Windows (and, presumably, same key), Microsoft is refusing to activate one of them because you’re only permitted one install of Windows per key. You might be able to get away with it by trying agian in a few weeks, but that does violate the license you agreed to when you installed the OS :-)
It’s not good. I don’t know. But please send me e-mail with PASSWORD for activate windows by phone. Send me on the cgil007@hotmail.com
THANK YOU
@salle: The “password” is generated on a per-install basis. It would be too easy to pirate if there was a universal key.
Great! perfect! I had my hardware modified and i couldn’t reactivate winzoz! I managed to do it in few minutes with your help!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH !
after installing a new M/B Win X/P keeps crashing if I try to install updates.I think it has not been activated properly.
following your instructions to activate win/XP over the phone. what happens if my Activation screen reads Windows already activated, what do I do with the comfirmation id.
@Phil: If your Windows Activation screen reads “Windows is already activated”, you should be good to go as far as that’s concerned. The crashing might be a bug in Microsoft Update or Windows’ general lame-ness. If you can find a copy, I’d recommend AutoPatcher to install a bunch of updates in one shot to see if that alleviated the problem.
Believe it or not folks, this actually worked. I was able to call the 888 number, talked to a rep. and successfully activated my Win XP. My authentication problem stemmed from me upgrading ram from 1gb up to 2gb. That made the system go into lockdown because of “Major change in system hardware”. If your copy of XP is good, you shouldn’t have any problems re-activating.
the problem i have with this is that the coputer i’m trying to activate doesn’t have interenet and the phone # they give me doesn’t work, i can’t log into windows to set up a internet connection because i have to activate.
@matt: Sounds like phone activation is your only option. The U.S. number for Windows Product Activation is 1-888-571-2048.
Thanks!!! That worked really perfect for me.
thank you, thank you, thank you! under 3 minutes and had the confirmation id. all because i upgraded the ram!
Took a few presses of “0″ to convince the computer that I wanted a human. A very pleasant man from New Delhi came on the line. He first asked for the 6-digit code then eventually the full number. I read slowly as a time filler. Almost immediately he read back the long activation number and all is well.
Be friendly, chatty and interested in where they live. These people have a very boring job, deal with a lot of grouches and will welcome the change.
All in all, activated in 3-4 minutes.
How much is it when you call the toll number?
@Carl: Thanks for the tips!
@andy: The Windows activation number is free. I don’t know of a U.S. 1-8xx-xxx-xxxx number that isn’t free. 1-888, 1-877, all are toll-free prefixes.
Thanks, this worked. i didnt have to speak to a human, the automated system asked all the questions stated above, and i gave all the answers as you said. took me 6 minutes. thanks again
Thank you for posting this. I went to use my computer and I couldn’t log in without activating (yesterday I had 20 days left to active). I used explorer to view this page and activate.
I recommend phone activation. Over the internet failed for me. It took 6 min.
once again thank you.
i try to call the 888 number and it says “weare sorry we are unable to complete your call as dialed” ive been trying to do this for 3 days and still nothing help me.
I can’t re-activate my windows because I don’t have a key for it I bought the computer second hand and never recivced a key for it.So how do I go about re-activating it without the oringinal key ???????
It worked amazingly. Couldn’t understand a word that came out of his mouth, but I got the numbers and it is just like new.