Windows Activation issue

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 1:41 pm

A friend of mine recently got a flurry of browser hijacking viruses again.
Home built machine he bought off an IT guy at his work a couple years ago.

While we were trying to get various scanners to run it popped up a "3 days for Windows Activation" and has been counting down since.

We didn't make any hardware changes to it at all, just turn off some processes that were starting in the startup menu.

I've seen 30 day to activation before but never 3. Is this legit or part of a virus?

This is the only thing I found researching it http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-103782.php and it didn't help.

Short of being able to fix it my main question is...would there be a problem calling Microsoft and asking them to activate it if automatic activation doesn't work?

I assume it's a perfectly legit copy of XP Pro. He's not sure since it came with the computer. If not he has his own XP installation disk and the number from that one.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Not sure whether to suggest he keep trying to activate this copy, have him call MS to activate it (got the XP number from Belarc), or somehow tell it to activate with the number off his own installation disk (which is different than what's installed on his system now).

Thanks

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 1:58 pm

If in doubt, launch Windows Product Activation manually

Start ==> Run ==> oobe/msoobe /a

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:12 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:If in doubt, launch Windows Product Activation manually

Start ==> Run ==> oobe/msoobe /a

Any idea why it's prompting for this out of the blue?

and...what if it still asks for activation anyway? Call em?

Thanks

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:44 pm

No idea why it's happening like that, without knowing the exact history of the machine...and then we're only going by "hearsay".

But manually running WPA like that should bypass any worries that it's some rogue/scareware/fakealert. Because you're calling up the MS executable directly by doing that.

I'd get Microsofts Security Essentials on there right away. Activate and update and scan that sucker.

I've seen enough "built by some computer guy but it's a 'hot key'" in the past to just not have any desire to spend time on those...calling MS is really pretty quick when it comes to activating Windows/Office/other MS products. Usually all said and done inside of 10 minutes.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 4:18 pm

I've ran into this a few times but it shouldn't cause any issues and activation should go through again just fine...as said if not a quick phone call is all that is needed.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 4:36 pm

Sava700 wrote:I've ran into this a few times but it shouldn't cause any issues and activation should go through again just fine...as said if not a quick phone call is all that is needed.

Haven't heard back from him yet.

If he does call should he use the key that is on the system already (which has worked fine for years but may or may not be legit) or the one off his own XP installation disk?

Thanks guys.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 5:17 pm

Humboldt wrote:Haven't heard back from him yet.

If he does call should he use the key that is on the system already (which has worked fine for years but may or may not be legit) or the one off his own XP installation disk?

Thanks guys.

The activation will generate a group of numbers different than the key that MS will ask for to re-activate it...but only if the activation doesn't work. This only takes a few mins to key into the phone or tell some India CSR for MS the numbers and then they will give you a new set to punch in.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:37 am

Thanks