On 02/01/2018 02:01, Diesel wrote:
Java Jive news Fri, 29 Dec 2017 13:41:35 GMT in alt.windows7.general, wrote:

On 29/12/2017 05:53, Diesel wrote:

You have a couple of options...You can continue trying via the
browser method, but, you need to update ie6 to atleast sp1 or, go
with ie8.

Alternatively, you can try this from console to bring up the
activation window I described above and go from there. Keep in
mind, it renders in html, so if your copy of ie is foobared, this
may not work. Each line requires you to press enter after it,
naturally.

open cmd.exe via start/run
cd\windows\system32\oobe
msoobe /a

Of the options presented, online activation probably isn't going
to work.

It depends whether the key is really legit. I activated a laptop
with XP earlier this year.

Well, it's a little more complicated than that, actually. There's
several types of legit keys and they won't all activate these days
with the simple online activation option. A completely legit key can
still fail to be accepted using that method. Been there, done it,
many times.

I suspect that your failures can be classed under the heading "Microsoft
no longer activates NEW keys"! That is, for some time, probably since
end of support, MS has not allowed activation of even 'legit' keys that
have never been activated before. They will only re-activate old
'legit' ones, as long as they are on the same or similar equipment. How
similar the equipment actually has to be is, I grant, a matter of debate
but in tests I did same make different model of laptop worked, but home
built desktop unsurprisingly wouldn't work with a key from a laptop.

Wait, I lied. There's actually another option, but, it's not
exactly a legal one. That is, if you really want to keep XP pro.
You'll have to reinstall it, from scratch though.

No, not really viable, as the rebuilt installation will not get
any updates, not even the ones originally targeting XP.

Wrong answer. You've evidently never heard of WSUS.

I've certainly heard of it, but I've not tried using it an that
situation. But it's still the correct answer in that running Windows
Update won't find any updates.

Oh drat, I forgot about another possible option. You'll have to
do your own homework/searching for it, but, there's a program out
there that can trick it into thinking it's activated. I
personally wouldn't recommend this manner of activation as, well,
it's a bandaid approach on a good day.

Or ...

On 28/12/2017 23:32, FreeMan wrote:

Where do I look in Windows to get the product key ?

Buy via eBay a for-spares-or-repairs PC or component from a
similar model and identical make of PC that has a valid, already
activated product key but for which the original PC is known to be
dead and has not been used for quite a while. For example, many
Dell laptops have their XP and Vista Product Keys on a cover of a
compartment on the base, for which I suspect you could just buy
the cover for a few dollars or quid. You may have to try two or
three before you get one that works.

That product key isn't the one that was used to install Windows on
the machine, though. And, the key may/may not be accepted by
Microsoft, especially if it's been used before or used a certain
amount of times already by others who followed the same poorly
thought out advice you offered.

It's based on an actual test I did.

The laptop I activated earlier this year was part of a test I ran,
not originally intended for actual use, but as it happens I
reloaded that image a few days ago to see what would happen, and
it's still activated.

Why wouldn't it be? Did you expect it to magically deactivate or
something?

I thought it possible that Microsoft might have changed something in
their rules for OS's that are no longer supported - it wouldn't have
surprised me to find that they had.

Cut out the know-it-all superior tone, because two significant mistakes
in your post show that you obviously don't know it all!