how to deactivate windows xp-64 bit?

[Maverick2002]

I need to roll-back the activation of several installs of Windows XP 64-bit and re-activate with a different product key. I've searched google on how to deactivate windows but haven't found anything yet. MS has a KB on it (they're kind of hacking their own registry) but it doesn't work on 64-bit.

The reason for this is because we imaged a bunch of computers with the same configuration, but they're now all running under the same CD-key. We have the appropriate CD-keys for them but can't roll back the activation.

Any ideas?

 

[TheKub]

Try this.

Not sure if it works with 64.

Also, read up on SysPrep for next time.

 

[Maverick2002]

a) the link you sent is for vista, not xp. there is no such option in xp
b) sysprep is a pita

 

[RebateMonger]

If they haven't already been Activated, you can change the Key ths way.

 

[Maverick2002]

the problem is they've already been activated. I'm wondering if WGA will pick it up during updates, because otherwise I don't see any way to reset the activation. It's not THAT big of a deal because we do have the other cds/keys here, but it would be nice if we could get each machine its own key. Unfortunately MS doesn't document much outside of sysprep

 

[RebateMonger]

I'm pretty sure that it will eventually be picked up by Microsoft.

You can try this Registry trick to force re-activation,which will let you change the key in the "Activate by Phone" screen.

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: Maverick2002
Unfortunately MS doesn't document much outside of sysprep

Because that how its SUPPOSED to be done. Trust me take another look at it, the documentation makes it far scarier than it really is.

 

[Maverick2002]

we've done sysprep before ... it takes a helluva lot longer which is a big time/money difference rather than straight imaging a drive with all the base programs up and running ... which takes all of 5 minutes per machine.

as for the registry "trick", tried it ... doesn't work on 64 bit

 

[Maverick2002]

bump ... any ideas? I know a "major" hardware change requires re-activation, which is why we can in fact re-activate a few of our machines (because the motherboards were different from those originally imaged), but as for the rest ... what kind of "simple" hardware swaps can I do (and how many times) to force windows to tell me to re-activate?

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: Maverick2002
... it takes a helluva lot longer which is a big time/money difference

*shrug*

I'm not entirely sure on your roll out but I've done several base images before and sysprep added a whole 15-30 min to create the image. Maybe, its more involved if your rolling out using a per machine license vs. volume license.

I spent some time looking and didn't find much. One thing you can try is take the drive out of a machine and put it in the ones with a different mobo to see if you can trip the activation and before you activate swap it back.

 

[Maverick2002]

thanks, I'll give it a shot

 

[Chadder007]

Volume license key? Don't worry about it.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Maverick2002
what kind of "simple" hardware swaps can I do (and how many times) to force windows to tell me to re-activate?

http://www.microsoft.com/norge...cy/activation_faq.mspx


How does product activation determine tolerance? In other words, how many components of the PC must change before I am required to reactivate?
Common changes to hardware such as upgrading a video card, adding a second hard disk drive, adding RAM or upgrading a CD-ROM device will not require the system to be reactivated.
Specifically, product activation determines tolerance through a voting mechanism. There are 10 hardware characteristics used in creating the hardware hash. Each characteristic is worth one vote, except the network card which is worth three votes. When thinking of tolerance, it's easiest to think about what has not changed instead of what has changed. When the current hardware hash is compared to the original hardware hash, <there must be 7 or more matching points for the two hardware hashes to be considered in tolerance. If the network card is the same, then only 4 additional characteristics must match (because the network card is worth 3, for a total of 7). If the network card is not the same, then a total of 7 characteristics other than the network card must be the same. <If the device is a laptop (specifically a dockable device), additional tolerance is allotted and there need be only 4 or more matching points. Therefore, if the device is dockable and the network card is the same, only one other characteristic must be the same for a total vote of 4. If the device is dockable and the network card is not the same, then a total of 4 characteristics other than the network card must be the same.


What are the 10 hardware characteristics used to determine the hardware hash?
The 10 hardware characteristics used to determine the hardware hash are: Display Adapter, SCSI Adapter, IDE Adapter, Network Adapter MAC Address, RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc), Processor Type, Processor Serial Number, Hard Drive Device, Hard Drive Volume Serial Number, CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM.

Edit:
You can run xpinfo on an activated version of XP to see how many harware components have changed on it since activation.
http://www.licenturion.com/xp/


I hope you find an easier way for deactivating.