Microsoft has a neat little way to prevent software piracy of their Windows operating system. "Windows Genuine Advantage"[edit: I stand corrected, it has nothing to do with WGA] with its "Product Activation" requirement. Essentially, even with a valid product key, you still need to activate your Windows to ensure that only one computer is using that specific product key. If you can't activate your Windows, there being many reasons for this, you are left with a 30 day grace period to change your product key to one that is fully valid or get in contact with Microsoft and plea your case.Once your grace period is up, Windows refuses to let you login anymore. You cannot access your files. You cannot go on the Internet. You cannot do anything, except the thrill of trying to activate Windows.
Well, luckily for me I do not have to worry about this issues, as my Windows is valid and activated. However, for those who do not and have been so unfortunate enough to have their Windows expire on them, I present to you a bit of relief. How to gain access to your files on an expired Windows, with even enough functionality to surf the web, talk on MSN Messenger, and load up most of your applications. It doesn't give you full functionality of Windows, but it will be enough to get the job done until you can find the time to activate your Windows. Best of all though, it's all very simple and easy to do!!!
First, turn on your computer and wait until you get to the Windows login screen.
Next, click to login as usual. You should get an error from Windows telling you that your Windows has expired and is asking whether you would like to activate Windows now. Click Yes.
A "Let's activate Windows" window will appear. Let's minimize it. DO NOT close it.
Now, hold down the Windows Key on your keyboard while you also press the "U" key. This will open up the Narrator program to help assist those with poor vision. It is this program that will help us login to our Windows.
Click the little computer icon in the top left hand side of the Narrator window. A drop down menu should appear. The last option in this menu is named "About Narrator...". Click it. This should open up another window called "About Narrator".
In this window, there should be the text "Microsoft Web site". Click it, as it is a link and will open up your Internet Explorer, taking you to the Microsoft Accessibility website. Howrah! Internet access!
As if Internet was not enough, in the address bar of Internet Explorer, type "c:\". This should display all your hard drive contents on drive "C". From there you can load navigate your way around your computer, loading specific programs, and most whatever else.
Some common directories as to where you can find personal files and programs are:
C:\program files\
C:\documents and settings\username\Desktop\
C:\documents and settings\username\Documents\
C:\documents and settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\
On a side note, certain programs cannot be opened while Windows is still not activated. You will also not have a Task Bar at the bottom of your screen, as trying to open it will just result in it shutting itself down a few moments later. MSN Messenger works though, as well as most other non-Windows-based components.
Disclaimer: I do not applaud piracy, but I do feel people should have access to their personal files, regardless of whether Windows has expired or not. This tutorial should not be used to bypass Windows Activation, nor does it restore full Windows functionality, but I provide it to those who are in desperate need of accessing files that are suddenly lost to them through the Microsoft Genuine Advantage activation system.
[Update: some say it works even better with Vista, as the explorer.exe does not close shortly after you try to open it as it does in XP. Unconfirmed.]
Comments
So say can you press Windows Key+ R fo rhte run box?
Copy them over to your Linux system and then forget about the rest.
I'm always looking for unanticipated ways around things like this, just for the heck of it. You've made my day.
What your talking about is Product Activation.
This trick, however, works great! Kudos!
Bootable Linux CD is realy the best way though, course Windows users who find this article useful are petrified of Linux and call it Line-ex to impress people at work.
Good job bro
http://www.nimbusters.com
haha. if you really want to say thanks. note the donate button on the side. :D
thanks,
-steve
learn to read, dumbass.
You will also not have a Task Bar at the bottom of your screen, as trying to open it will just result in it shutting itself down a few moments later.
"Quit being a jew and by the freakin' software"
I hope you weren't being a BIGOT and just spell badly, and that what you wanted to say was:
"Quit being the few that buy the freakin' software".
Because, unfortunately, most common folk have no knowledge of Linux, and do not want to face another learning curve regardless whether it's high or not. Most choose to stick to what they've grown accustomed to.
I literally just ran into this problem today and this tip worked perfectly!
Oh well, perpetual demoware is better than nothing, but then again so is Linux!
If only the marketplace would demand more software be written in both Linux and Windows O/S, but no commercial profit to be gained to write for a free o/s, eh?
boot it with linux from cd/dvd/usb and you can get all your files with linux's power..
just throw it and switch to linux
BTW, nice job to the poster of this article.
Not to mention, they won't allow you to access your own personal files. This comes into play as a privacy concern for me. AS it is NOT Microsoft's responsibility nor right to hold my files for randsom.
EULA OR NOT! It's extortion.
Thumbs up.
PS I did boot it with Leenucks (however you want to pronounce it) but my teenage daughter just isn't that.
Mac is the way to go. It does everything I need and no longer do I have to put up with someone else telling me what I can or cannot do or when I will do it with my machine.
I know this works on Vista. If the system won;t let you log on because your key is expired, simply choose, "Activate with a new key from Microsoft".
That will launch a web browser. Then type in c:\windows\explorer.exe and hit enter. Windows will fully load up (explorer is the shell, the interface)! You will get the task bar, desktop, everything. Just don't close the activation window, or else the system will reboot.
Here is another tactic you can try once you are in Windows to get rid of the activation box without rebooting...
I haven't tried this, but after you are into windows, go to services.ms c and TURN OFF the windows activation service. Then go to task manager and kill the activation window PID.
P.S.:TUX is the man
MS is SOO stupid. If you want to download updates from MS website, go to the validation screen. Once there, turn of Scripting and Active X controls, and pick validate windows. It will take you to the update screen where you can update you computer.
I HONESTLY think the developers at MS let these tricks work on purpose,. I mean, NO COMPANY could be THIS stupid
Anyway, my advice (if you just want to get to your files and nothing more) is to get a hold of one of the Linux Live CDs (e.g. Ubuntu, Knoppix) and use it to copy the files you want to another drive (e.g. an external drive). There are websites all over detailing how to do this. Just do a Google Search.
One other note: While the Task Bar may not be available, if the system is booted up far enough to run Task Manager (using Ctrl+Alt+Del), there should be a File...Run command option available from the Task Manager. You could run Explorer.exe or other commands from there.
I am sure that in the Linux forums, if you got a response to a Linux article or problem of:
"Well, just switch to Windows"
you would regard this as unintelligent and not adding anything to the conversation. Stop trolling if you don't have an intelligent comment.
I applaud the author of this tip for pointing out a clever way to solve a problem that some Windows users may run across.
Desktop shell replacements
In case you want to run an explorer.exe like shell.
I'm thinking maybe this could be ran as a logon script?
Wait to all you M$ fans start using vista and start playing and copying your favorite music and videos. From what I`ve read, you ( and all the "millions of public users" ) are in for a big BIG surprise...
On the day of the release of vista, I got a chance to use it and honestly I find it crap. It appears to have taken the worst of windows (it's good old stability!!!), the complicatedness of linux and the interface from OSX. The price is outrageous, and ontop, you have to buy office at about the same price (there go the month's wages to our good old friend BILL).
Linux is pointlessly complicated and I can't see people using it much (it took me a week to install a driver when I had the instruction booklet).
PS: It's a great article. :)
WPA_Kill.exe
HKLM/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS NT/CURRENTVERSION/WINLOGON/SHELL.
I just finished installing all development software and copying all my data to new system so a reinstall of XP is not an option until I can copy my data to an external drive.
Looks like I will be using Knopix to hopefully copy data to external drive and then reinstalling XP or waiting on the phone for days.
a) Magical Jelly Bean Version 1.41 allows you to change the windows key
b) Windows XP Product Activation Hack! WinXP.Activation.V1.1English.rar (661 KB). You will asked to insert a Windows XP disk to copy the required files from.
c) Interesting article about window keys and how to manipulate them. http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Miscellaneous/Q_21851820.html
OK, since I live inside a volcano on top of a mountain in a third world country and can’t post attachments what I have decided to do is to e-mail these programs to a bogus Hotmail account which you can then access / forward / copy or save the programs from. The account is [email protected] and the password is zxcvbnm.
The text file contains several thousand somewhat legitimate XP SP2 serials / keys, try to use the one of these serials in conjunction with the magical jelly bean finder.
If you found my input useful let me know, I’m trying to sort out a friends computer half way around the world.
Now there’s some USEFUL info, unlike “change to Linux” - Bahhhhhh
Once Windows has reinstalled you will be given the option to Turn Off Automatic Updates, TURN THEM OFF!!! You will be asked if you want to register – answer NO!!!
Good Luck
This is for those of you with an expired Windows XP SP2.
If you ever read the article, you may have noticed that holding down the Windows and 'U' keys together doesn't work with XP2, so it seems that you can't use the Internet Explorer trick. Don't panic, it's possible to do it, but in a different way.
Yesterday night, my Windows XP SP2 expired, so I was unable to log in. There are two things that can be done:
1) Reboot the computer and start Windows in safe mode with command prompt. By this time, you should have the cracks or whatever you're going to use to crack Windows available, since in in safe mode with command prompt you don't have network access, so no Internet will be available. If you need Internet access you can start with method #2 and then try safe mode again.
Once in safe mode, you only see the command prompt. Type "explorer" and press Enter. Now you have desktop, taskbar, system tray and anything you like, so you can browse to a Windows Activation hack tool or whatever. If you need a crack, I've just attached one to one new email at the hotmail account [email protected] account (password zxcvbnm)
2) The first thing I tried was the well-known Windows + 'U' trick, but it didn't work. I tried anything similar (Windows + 'E' and s on) but nothing worked. I was desperate, until I tried with Windows + 'U' + Ctrl + Alt + Del (5 keys, incredible). Surprinsingly enough, it worked and directly opened an Internet Explorer Window. Since Windows had booted normally, I had Internet access, which is a plus.
Now comes the harder and tricky part. According to the old Windows + 'U' trick, you could just browse to 'c:\windows' and run explorer.exe to keep working on your expired Windows or open any other application. Well, this doesn't work either, since now Windows says you don't have enough permissions or something like that (my Windows is in Spanish, so I don't know the English error message). But, as always with Microsoft software, there's a workaround. If you right click on the application you want to run and choose 'Run as' you can tell Windows to run it as Administrator, entering the Aministrator's password, and voila!, the application starts without complaining about permissions of whatever.
As far as I have tried, this doesn't work with explorer.exe or taskman.exe, so it seems like it doesn't work system utilities, but for me it worked with Notepad, Wordpad, WinRAR, OpenOffice and even Outlook Express and eMule. The only annoying thing is that you must know where every executable you may need is installed. Now, since you'll also have usb support, you can plug in an usb memory stick with a cracking utility and remove the activation.
Try the crack I mentioned in point 1). Works like a charm
Thanks.
THANKS!!!!
it won't actually let me log on at all it just asks whether or not I wish to activate Window and when I click yes it automatically logs me straight back out :/
Help please?
But heres a few tips ive found, open an image in your browser or select some text, right click and click send to, or something similar, this gets you into outlook express and word if you have these, from here you can get into VB, i also found if you browse the pictures from say clipart, you can right click and click explore on things like my documents, this also fully restores the system, however it logs you out after about a minute.
So heres the ultimate solution for getting past this.
Boot your pc, twat F8 or del on some pcs, whatever your key is to get into the BIOS, then set the date back.
BOOYAH! Ive used this method for about a year, works like a charm, until now and its finally caught up with me.
Now its just a case of finding the right date again, or hacking my way in the system.
Fun.
Also need to expose emachines. They have a dirty little secret that when the hard drive is reformatted, partitioned, or replaced - you cannot reload XP with the restore disk (and apparently with anything).
MSB
Albuquerque
Boot to command prompt and replace (rename the old one for saftey) C:\windwos\system32\winlogon.exe with a good copy (you will have to find one.)
Add a reg key by creating a text file, adding the following lines and renaming it whatever.reg:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents]
"OOBETimer"=hex:7f,63,3e,be,ec,25,8e,19,be,a7,92,c6
Use the following command, pointing it towards your created file.
Reg import whatever.reg
reboot
Good post.
I'm yet to try any of the fixes, but you get a standing ovation from me and the little people standing next to me.
Why does Bill want all this money for windows anyway,
didn't he steal windows himself, in the first place?
How's a thief gonna be upset with fellow thieves?
C'mon Bill,
You steal, I steal, why can't we be friends:)
- Art27
I was able to get the network up and running and all is well!
-Brooke
Problem is that windows activation does not start - so XP logs out immediately again.
Will go for the solution to put the drive in another PC.
:)
Also, although Linux doesnt crash as much, when it does, it doesnt recover as well.
I suspended my system, and it wouldnt resume (Linux doesnt seem to like my APM, whereas windows and my home-made DSP operating system both work fine wih it), and when I rebooted, GNOME wouldn't work. I can use KDE effectively, but I prefer GNOME.
I also keep getting access denied messages, when I try to mount or write to my FAT partitions, with no hint in the documentation as to resolving these (besides using 'root' as a user account).
As for removing the WGA and activation stuff from XP, theres a few DLLs you can replace with dummies, and a few registry entries to delete, then you can just log-on normally, as if it had been activated.
I found this, as I tried to activate, and couldn't get through to the MS servers (tried via broadband and dialup), so I ran a linux boot CD with NTFS support and a text web-browser, got instructions for WGA removal off the net, and applied them.
Works a treat.
Incidentally, I'm soon to be moving over to a mac though - its got the performance and robustness of Linux (both based on Unix), but with extensive beta testing too - so less annoying little bugs and inconveniances.
I used File - Open in Internet Explorer.
Booted up my domain controller, made a public share with a WPA Crack in it and then browsed to it on the to-be-activated Windows XP machine. Then I ran it and it worked perfectly.
Thanks for finding this out!
you can do everyting now
run wpa kill!!!
I used my previously activated XP HOME OEM product key (about 5 months old) for a fresh installation in my new laptop. I couldn't get activated the new machine with this key, of course. So i let it as is for the whole 30 days, and just expected, the THING locked my access to the system, just this morning.
And then it came to my mind, what if I try to put in a new product key, and activate it? So I googled around and found a bunch of product keys. Let's cook!
I didn't need any software to change my key, because the last time I tried to activate using the old key and failed, it prompted me to enter a new product key.
So I clicked YES on the "would you like to activate now" (or whatever it said, I didn't bother record it) dialog box, and expecting the same "your product key has reached the limit bla bla bla" (whatever) as I eXPerienced 30 days ago. And the result was a shock!
"your product have been successfully activated" (or whatever) !!!!!
And now I have two fully functional win XP home, with exactly the same product key!!! While I wrote this, I'm updating my windows (89 updates!!) without any WGA hassle.
Someone tell me please how can this be possible???
Its just im in a bot of a bind. Im using an IBM T40, which doesn't have a Windows key - meaning I can't use the combination Win + U for Narrator.
Are there any other ways of bringing up applications when windows is in this state?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
in the activation screen you can click also a link :P
You can then access all what firefox can, i.e. "download" something from your desktop - a popup appears with a "show desktop" icon. Click on this icon and you have the whole of your desktop available.
By the way, I do not accept that after I bought it, Microsoft wants me to "activate" something I paid for already. Does MS pay for my invested time for this needless hassle?
I havea harddrive and installed Windows xp home edtition on it... and the grace period ran out is there any way I can get a activation code off the net or skip it?...or do I have to call Microsoft?
It's not hooked up to the net...and I might not even put it on the net period.
Thanks to this article I was able to gain access to the Control Panel and remove the static addresses that were blocking the access to the activation center.
_http://www.4shared.com/file/30347365/15c08411/WGA_17591.html
http://satin2jain.blogspot.com/2008/03/windows-vista-xp-genuine-activation-aio.html
but i figured out another way in thought i'd share:
shut down, restart, hit F5 to get the boot menu, then F8 for boot options, choose safemode with command prompt,
it will start a cmd prompt, you can't type explorer.exe here, but if you ctrl alt del you get the task mgr then in the file menu choose run and type explorer.exe and you're into the computer in safe mode and can access files etc...
my issue is that you can't activate windows while in safemode, and i can't get into the activation screen the normal way, so i'm still screwed but for those of you trying to get into the machine to salvage your files what i did works
And you Linux fans.. you keep on reminding us to switch to Linux.. as if that is going to switch us to a better life, or less problems while working.
I used linux, enough to connect a printer, install graphic driver (that took me only 2 days woooho), printing takes you a few hours to set up, if you wish to set up printing in another room, take another week to find the drivers and arrange the Samba server to operate with windows security. Try installing a USB GSM HSDPA device on your laptop equipped with Linux, like that on a Asus EEE PC, you can throw it away because no way you will ever find drivers for that..
You can install open office on linux, thats great. Now, what happend when someone sends you a .docx or .xlsx file, from the newest office applications.. What, you send back a message saying, sorry send it again so it is compatible with our office system (well that might work anyway).
And again there are specific programs that I use on windows, and those programs are the one bringing me paychecks, that is why I prefer windows. I dont have the time installing graphic card drivers on 200 different computers, but I now how to do it if I wish to spend a lot of time, it does give you a lot more freedom and there is a lot of software, and I will support linux where I can, but from my point of view it's another thing to waste time on before getting results you aim for.
So stop trashing and rambling about switching to a "better" OS, whatever works for you, and whatever brings the results and money is the best choice. Every OS has its advantages and drawbacks, the one that get you the results is the right one. Anything else you have to say about it is just plain old bullshitting and you didnt bring any insights into the topic. And you should be castrated..
The regards go the author of this text as he enabled us to learn a new trick that could come in handy in some situations, and it did now..
Because i went into the help section and tested all my internet connections their active. windows just wont let me register over the lan. so im just gonna go old school and use the modem.
K first, use his procedure.
then click help on narrator.
in help go to options and click internet options.
go to content tab and click certificates.
go to import.
Next.
Browse.
go up one level, and then right click my documents.
click expand and there should be an error. :) move quickly. it will fix itself.
I use the open file option and go to my cddrive, right click it and hit open then it gives me an error message which in returns gives me a few seconds of desktop.
My situation goes like this, I use a dell dimensions 8200 from 02, replaced the HD a month ago and didn't have the OS disks anymore. So I used a Emachines backup OS disc someone in my house had. Install went fine, yet I still got the 30 day activation period thing and when I went to try to activate it never worked.
So I tried that registry fix a few days before it expired which just got rid of the counter and didn't do anything overall. I'm still technically locked out of windows, with the exception of the work around I mentioned. Though now when I go to hit "yes" on activate now...I get the pop up that says windows is already activated yet when I hit ok it brings me to the log in screen.
My questions are..
1. is there a way to delete, remove, disable the activation process overall.
2.Is it true I can't reinstall a OS on this after I used an Emachines backup OS disc?
Any help would rule, I don't mind doing things through the narrator but it's annoying.
halp plz.
kudos dude I could get all my info. and therefore reinstall xp and keep going just fine.
keep up the good work
[email protected]
I have some important files there and I can't seem to transfer them to my partition.
Any suggestions?
- Steve
The main-thang is.. USE (almost) fully windows on an expired pc, with taskbar, with start-up-button, with your common desktop, BUT WITHOUT TASKMANAGER (but I bet theres also a way to keep it runnin).
So, finally, in this case yoouu WILL need something else (a file of course) which will prevent windows-security-checkup-something to log you out if you once logged in with this trick.
So that file you need, you could create on a pc which should have almost the same hardware like your pc where you want to use that file for your expired windows.. but in the even best case you did this as a wise man, if you ever had successfully activated your windows once!)
That Files name is: "wpa.dbl" and maybe your friend has a working windows which is already activated, get a try to use that that file (which could be found in x:\windows\system32-folder) and use it on your own system-folder.
OF COURSE, you can try my trick without that succesfully-activated-windows-wpa.dbl (from another pc which is almost with the same hardware-setup like yours, or a wpa.dbl-stored-file) but then you ve got maybe 2 minutes until your system will drop you out..
So if you are finally in that iexplorer-window and once you got your wpa-file you chose over your browser that location of that successfully-activated "wpa.dbl"-file (maybe from an usb-stick) and copy it right into your windows\sytem32-folder, and of course overwright that existing bitch-file xD
So if you already had done that.. you are able to get your Windows-Desktop and your Taskbar back, finally .. that good old Windows look that you are known from before your pc "expired" xD
So go to your browser and open that directory "c:\windows\system32 (or wherever you installed it)" and search for that file cmd.exe (you know.. that important little file) xD
if that dos-shell comes up, type in it :"explorer.exe" of course, thats all
your windows is almost recovered in that you already known before that hackmack. BUT still dont close that "windows-activation-window" minimize that.. and if you dont have a proper wpa.dbl-file I bet you get kicked some minutes later.
But if you have that file, and windows is a bitch, you may have to set it up sooner than you would think. then it could rescue your work on your pc..
Whatever.. have a try!
sincerely
Der-Meister-aller-Klassen
With your tutorial you made it possible for me to get some files for a task that literally meant me my matric certificate! Dewd, if you didn't post this, I would've failed. Thanks. :D
Very helpfull.
Thanks.
Option 1: The Linux Transfer.
- THis is basically just booting of a live cd of linux and viewing your HDD that way. google "how to boot linux live cd"
Option 2: The safe boot.
-Turn off your pc. Turn it on, and when on the boot screen (little blue bar scrolling across on XP) cut the POWER to your computer. (taking out the battery for laptops, turning of the surge-proctecter for Desktops) Now just restart and select "boot into safe mode"
option 3: Mod the BIOS on startup. (i will not explain this because if you are good enough to do this, you would already know how)
Hope this helps!
Thank god I switched to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is free and they will send you a cd!
I followed the various steps as described to get on-line. After getting onto the MS web site listed above, I managed to go to my C drive, then control panel and uninstall sp3. The uninstall took quite a while - be patient. Once finished, the ctr got stuck and I needed to re-booted. And voila! My ctr was funtional again with sp2 still installed. What a blessing! THE MOST PERFECT SOLUTION!!!!
Tried this - no change.
Problem was date & time out by a large amount.
Could have fixed in BiOS but seeing as I was already in IE I browsed to c:\windows\system32
Then ran the cmd file
Typed in date in dos box and then entered correct date
Typed in time in dos box and then entered correct time
Leaving cmd window open I then retried and it allowed me to proceed with the activation.
thank you
Since my IP was set to a fixed value when I got locked out I couldnt activate Windows. Now I was able to change IP with your trick and can now activate windows via the web. GREAT THANKS!!!
Go to
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\Notify
delete all files that have the label "WINLOGON"... restart
My Computer => C:\Windows\System32\dllcache.....
delete WGAtray.exe...if it can't be deleted, send it to My Document.Restart
Download the explorer.exe & open it.
You will get every thing as before for about 30 secs.
within that time open system restore & restore toa point before the activation had expired.System will logoff.
Then restart your system.
During restarting change the date to one befor e it expired.
Then log on in to your previous system.
Dont forgot to activate the windows using crack AntiWPA.
Download its torrent fromhttp://torrents.thepiratebay.org/3468960/Windows_XP_Activation_Crack.3468960.TPB.torrent .
well, anonymous, learn to spell, dumb ass!
Many thanks.After login, i downloaded antiwpa from http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/3468960/Windows.
Now everything is working smoothly.
worked for me
How great to discover I was able to log into windows in safe mode, run "jellybeans keyfinder" and get the serial number that was installed. Obviously it is impossible to activate windows in safe mode so a restart was needed.
The next problem at the normal login screen when I click yes I was to activate now I get a blank screen.
I was in a deep load of stuff, I couldn't activate windows by internet because the network driver mustn't have installed properly, so I was left with an inaccessible account after the upgrade.
Thanks.
What does not work is to run any programs, not even CMD, you get an error message about not enough quota.
But usually it is more practical to boot from a CD (Linux or WindowsPE).
Good day people...
Old laptop with original files dead - Compaq w/XP legal key
New (but still old/used, however woking!) laptop was bought without hdd - Toshiba w/XP legal key.
So I own 2 valid XP keys, but this activation came up when I put my Compaqs drive in the Toshiba - I assume the Toshibas hardware is causing the grief by what I've read - so now can I reactivate my hard drive to my Toshiba or do I have to reinstall XP from scratch on the hard drive while it's in the Toshiba? I can see my files in explorer via the instructions here but I cannot connect to the internet - I don't want to erase my Compaq hard drive because neither machine came with an actual XP disk, just a restore partition - so how should I reinstall and re-activate? And which key do I use? My Toshibas key or my Compaqs key?
...apologies for the long ramble lol =)
Also if you have an illegitamate copy of Vista or W7 and a windows update invalidates your license, you are able to log on with limited usability and can restore to a previous date(most likely created before the updates are installed) which will un-invalidate your license, and allow you to hide the problematic update.
Manage to backup all my files to an external hdd.
Thanks....
What I did was boot in safe mode. Use system restore to restore to an earlier date. This will take awhile, so pls be patient.
Then after that, normal boot it to before expired and download anti wpa software. http://free.pages.at/antiwpa11/index2.php
i downloaded the generic 1. Worked like a charm. Cheers
THANK YOU!!
You saved my day
- Download the latest WPA_KILL and also AntiWPA (torrent).
- Once you run NTFSPRO from DOS/win98 your dead drive is mounted and visible, usually as D: drive since you boot from C: (now USB Stick or CD/DVD). You can use DOS filemanagers like "Norton commander" (free) to copy and save folders.
- Here's is what I did after some thinking. in d:\windows\system32 I backed up svchost.exe by DOS commands and... go there first:
d:
cd d:\windows\system32
rename and bakup (you'll need it)
ren svchost.exe svchost.bak
genius bit:
copy d:\windows\explorer.exe svchost.exe
Now if you log in without USB/CD/DVD it gets in with much delay and explorer comes up for only 30 seconds ONLY. BUT running WPA_KILL or AntiWPA or REG edit files do not work.
SO:
An old trick for Administrator Password change if forgot/etc.: Screensaver, if set, can be renamed to CMD or explorer. But I had not set screensaver before Bill Gates stole my software. I gave it a shot. Boot into DOS/win98 with USB/CD/DVD again:
run ntfspro then do this:
d: (if your lost drive is d:)
cd d:\windows\system32
backup logon.scr, if you didn't have this file: no harm:
ren logon.scr logon.bak
make DOS command box your new screensaver:
copy cmd.exe logon.scr
Now take off USB/CD/DVD & boot normally. Get into windows activation and leave the machine (no touching keyboard or mouse or mving for screensaver to work) for 20 to 40 minutes. The command box pops up as screensaver! type: C:\windows\explorer.exe
If this does not happen try again without logging into activation by saying No to the dialog box or leave it and it will eventually work after 30 minutes of not touching the machine.
- Once I had the explorer, I ran AntiWPA and then WPA_KILL to make double sure! Then shut down & rebooted into DOS/win98. Deleted the svchost (which was in fact explorer.ex) and restored svchost:
ren svchost.bak svchost.exe in windows\system32
Shut down and took off USB (or your CD/DVD) and booted normally.
It takes a while to boot in again as the thief's software is confused! CTRL+ALT+Del gives you the task manager. In processes kill unnecessary stuff like wuaudit or similar but nothing else if you are not sure. Also from Task Manager file menu choose 1st option to run & type explorer.exe if things are taking too long.
Use AntiWPA or WPA_KILL or other stuff again if you want. Copy your stuff from desktop to safety and upgrade to Windows 7 (torrents) in good time which has a great deactivator there too. Set updates to NO as in XP. If new Service Pack for win7 comes up for Windows 7, don't use or at least wait 6 months to a year before installing as it will only do this sort of stuff again.
Good luck.
love & peace out ;)
It's what I needed after losing track of a few days and having no phone access.
Thanks again. :)
GREAT JOB...
this is not for piracy.. i know by the way thanks a lot
hope you will help more problem techie people like me
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS GREAT TUTORIAL!
WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY MY FRIENDS.
Plus, you will not lose your files if you do a re-install, just dont reformat, leave file system intact, then install XP in a different folder, once done, delete manually the old windows directory and then go do c:\documents and settings\your_old_user_name\ to retrive your old files back and move them over to your new user profile.
I think I will be retiring soon this copy of Windows XP and will be installing Ubuntu as soon as XP expires on me this one last time, I would not have to deal with this again.