Windows XP Product Activation back in full force

[JellyBaby]

Heads up. According to The Register, the new XP beta disables the registry key circumvention of Product Activation. In other words, the previous workaround will no longer work. And the centers to take activation requests aren't even up in full force yet. Eeek.

 

[Wik]

Well that sucks.

 

[Angst]

gah

 

[fogleroller]

Will the 2428 Installation Die? Or will it still work?

I wonder, when they release the final product to the public, if you have to do all the online activation stuff. Will the final product still "Call Home"???

If so, I guess I'll stick with ME/2000/RedHat

 

[JellyBaby]

I'd think m$ would have relented by now given the pressure. But after sneaking it in to Office without any apparent problems they must feel empowered. This is monopolistic. At any time m$ could stop supporting Windows and a good part of the world infrastructure would be rendedered useless (if XP stuff gets market share). Dumb, annoying, and probably will hurt their bottom line.

 

[Budman]

I am grabbing 2446 right now,and the same fix will work on it too.



<< Microsoft XP Pro 2446 Installation Method
** CD -KEY DELETED **
***Also, the following Registry Hacks are NECESSARY !!! ***
On the first boot after install is complete, boot into SAFE MODE (thats the F8 key) and open regedit.exe
Locate this following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ change the &quot;RegDone&quot; key value fron 0 to 1
Then find this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\ change &quot;Activation Required&quot; key value from 1 to 0
Close regedit and do the following: Go to Start\Run, type in: regsvr32.exe -u regwizc.dll That's a fix to keep it from calling home.
A new twist thrown in for build 2446... Open Explorer and go to the C:\Windows\System32 dir.
Delete the file `idwlog.exe'
Reboot and you're safe as a bug in a rug >>




looks like i will be trying this out tonight.

 

[rommel]

seems that ol mista gates is gettin back at the feds fro bustin on him and makin him lose money

 

[Budman]

The new fix is very easy.

Delete the file `idwlog.exe' after doing what i posted above.

 

[JellyBaby]

That works eh? Thanks for posting it. I hope I won't even need to use it. I'm buying Win XP (unless it's just plain a bad O/S, then I'll grab Win 2K) but I refuse to go through that activation nonsense. :|

 

[mofo888]

wow, thanks for the tip budman

 

[Wik]

umm that is the fix I did for 2428. idwlog is the key generator that takes all the info of your hardware and makes a key, it then trys to connect to the net to send it out. You need to make sure you take that out of the startup before you connect the net to it.

 

[err]

JellyBaby

Microsoft won't stop supporting windows ... where would 50,000 people with thousands of millionaries go ?

eRr

 

[JellyBaby]

err,

Does MS support Win 3.x? No. How about Win 95? No. If these were subscription/hardware-protected OSes like XP will be, where exactly does that leave consumers? Am I expected to be forced to upgrade each cycle even if it's not cost effective? I remember when I used to used PCs and software the way *I* wanted to.

 

[Soybomb]

I think you're foolish to imagine that MS won't use this to their advantage. Right now I'm sticking with 98 for my MS OS because I don't feel that microsoft has released a better os yet. 2000 might be dandy but I can't afford enough ram to make it speedy right now. I think its a few years off, but eventually when for some reason or another when almost all ms users will be using registered software, ms will use that to make money.

&quot;Ohh yeah, we're very sorry but your one year lease on that ms product has expired and we are no longer renewing that product. Could I interest you in our new Spyware 3000 OS though? Yes ma'am that is your only option if you want a MS OS&quot;

Its a pretty simple way to force upgrades in the future I think.

 

[NicColt]

Budman will that work on 2458 ?

 

[Budman]

NicColt,

Yes it will.

 

[Wik]

2458 no longer has the WinLogon entry. You can delete the idwlog but also needed is the cracked actshell.htm file in the System32 folder. This I think is the new activation file and if left the same and not activated the OS would stop working in 14 days.

 

[Budman]

Wik,

the actual location is in WindowsDir\System32\oobe.

If anybody need the &quot;Actshell.htm&quot; file give me a PM &amp; i can send it to you.

 

[Wik]

Sorry that is what I meant.

 

[Wik]

Budman, I was testing the crack for the Activation thing and it does not work. I set my computer clock past the 14 days. I get the screen telling you that you should register and this is where that crack takes place. It says I can get reminded later but after 1000000000000000....etc days I would HAVE to activate it. But I cant login at this point without activation. So the new crack will not prevent us from not having to contact M$ to use XP. Maybe I am wrong in the way I did it but I did all the fixes that have turned up since 2416 minus the winlogon.

 

[Nerd]

im running the latest build 2458 right now. i didnt do the crack because beta 2 is scheduled to come out on march 21th. ill just wait till then. someone will come up with a crack.

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

I'm running 2454 beta and did two registry hacks and deleted two things. Good forever.

 

[Wik]

&quot;I'm running 2454 beta and did two registry hacks and deleted two things. Good forever.&quot;

What is the second reg hack you did? The WinLogon entry is gone in 2458.



Try setting your date on your computer a month ahead and then logout. Tell me what happens when you log back in. It looked like it was going to be fine but after looking in the event viewer there were activation warnings. When clicking on one of these to read what they say I could see that the days were still counting, 8 left. This is when I decided to see what happens if you set the clock ahead past the 14 day limit and this is where I am stuck in a loop.

 

[Shudder]

Someone will probably figure out the retail version as well.

I REALLY wish people would stop making cracks for the current beta versions simply because if they can be beaten now, why give MS the knowledge it's not good enough.. Wait till they release it, crack it, I'll buy it and be happy forever.