Avoid Win XP Re-activation
24 September 2008
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The time may come that you’ll need to reinstall your Windows XP. It could happen. Maybe you’ll add a new motherboard or hard drive. Maybe you’ll get constant errors and problems that just won’t go away. Or perhaps you’re a neat freak who wants to rid yourself of clutter and start fresh with a clean operating system. If you do reinstall Windows XP, then you’ll need to re-activate it too—that is, unless you keep this tip handy.
See, the first time you activated XP it created a file called “wpa.dbl” that lives in the WINDOWS\system32 folder. By creating a backup of this file on disk, you can simply put it back into the folder after reinstalling XP and avoid the whole re-activation hassle. Here’s how…
- Go to My Computer then select your Hard Drive (usually drive C). Go to the WINDOWS\system32 folder and scroll way down until you find the wpa.dbl file.
- Right-click and choose “Send To” then either Floppy Drive (make sure you have a disk in) or CD-R/RW.
- Now, when you reinstall Windows XP you’ll come to the activation screen—decline to activate and let the install finish.
- Restart your computer in Safe Mode (keep hitting F8 at start-up then when the Advanced Boot Options menu appears arrow down to Safe Mode).
- Find your way back to the WINDOWS\system32 folder. It’s a good idea to rename the wpa.dbl file you’re replacing just in case you run into problems, so call it something like “wpa.nothing“.
- Get the backup disk and copy the old wpa.dbl file back to the WINDOWS\system32 folder and reboot. There you go—XP is up and running again.
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