Some time agone now, Microsoft turned off the on-line activation service for Windows XP; afterwards all, it is obsolete and well past 'stop of life'.  At that place are however, nonetheless some people running it on legacy machines to support older software…and of course for historical reasons.  If y'all ever have to reinstall it, you will however only have thirty days to actuate information technology…some OEM installs don't require activation and then y'all might have access to one of those.

If you need to activate Windows XP, there are two basic options – you perform either, entirely at your ain hazard!

Plan A – Actuate Windows XP Without the Key:

This is the ane I used, even though I accept a valid central.

  1. Open up the Start bill of fare and click "Run"
  2. Type "regedit" into the text field and hitting the "OK" push to launch the Registry Editor
  3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents using the database tree on the left side of the window
  4. Double-click on the registry entry labeled "OOBETimer"
  5. Highlight all of the text in the "Value data" field and delete it
  6. Supersede the deleted text with "FF D5 71 D6 8B 6A 8D 6F D5 33 93 FD" and striking "OK." This is the standard Windows XP code and entering information technology will manually actuate your copy of the software
  7. Correct-click on the "WPAEvents" folder and choose "Permissions"
  8. Highlight "SYSTEM" in the list of accounts, check the "Deny Full Control" box and press "OK"

This worked fine for me and I went to Microsoft to download the necessary updates…the best things to do is download Service Pack 3 and any updates with a more recent engagement. My Windows XP was an OEM version with SP2 that came with my Shuttle PC.  Microsoft still have the updates bachelor via the Microsoft Update Catalog…search for 'Windows XP' once you're there.

There'due south also Program B – which I take never tried but it looks expert:

You'll need to paste this in to a newly created batch file, then run that; you practise recall batch files don't you lot?

@echo off && cd /d "."
rem :: the windows reg key used to activate process in this bat/cmd read/write/delete ::
ready "_wpaKey=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents"
reg query "%_WPAKey%" | discover /i "OOBETimer" & rem/ output key value in screen
reg consign "%_WPAKey%" ".\PAEvents_SAVE_Original.Reg" & rem/ relieve original value in file
reg delete "%_WPAKey%" /v "OOBETimer" /f >nul & rem/ remove the key/value
reg add "%_wpaKey%" /v OOBETimer /t REG_BINARY /f & rem/ recreate the cardinal/value
timeout /t -1 2> nul & rem/ time out to run across the results
cd /d "C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe" & rem/ goto to drive/folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\
start "" /realtime C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a & rem/ starting time the activate windows interface
echo/:: sample cardinal !! –^> ISAY-REIN-STAT-EMO-NICA^! & rem/ if need put some windows primal to view/copy/paste
pause >nul & rem/ pause to keep console windows