XP Home sp1 ask's to be activated when logging onto

[Elvis2]

an already activated installed, legit copy. click ok to activate and a window pop's up and say's it's already been activated and log's off. my friend was screwing around with Reg. Cleaner and upon rebooting it said to insert the xp home edition cd because it was missing a file. he didn't have a copy so i let him use one of mine. now he get's the activation message each time he tries to log on. everything's ok booting into safe mode. even tried restore to last week and he still get's activation message. what gives?
tia

 

[Aluvus]

I would start by installing SP2, both as a general practice and because there's an off chance it might fix this behavior.

 

[John]

Yet another reason registry cleaners are generally a bad idea. I like Aluvus's suggestion, but I would do a repair installation with an XP disc that has SP2 slipstreamed.

 

[Elvis2]

thank's for the tip. SP2 did the trick