XP Product Activation
Windows XP and Office XP use Product Activation to reduce piracy.
On installation (of non corporate editions) they create a snapshot of the PC’s hardware which covers:
Boot disk volume serial number
Network adaptor MAC address
CD-ROM drive ID data
Graphics card ID data
IDE adaptor ID data
SCSI adaptor ID data
Hard disk ID data
Processor Model and serial number
Amount of RAM
Dockable (laptop) or not (desktop)
This information is stored in the wpa.dbl file
Each time that the system starts up it compares the installed hardware with the wpa.dbl data and if a significant change is detected the system will need reactivation.
“Significant” in this case means over six changes or a network card and three other changes. (Why?)
You can change any one item over and over again and it will still count as only one change.
So you can do a large amount of upgrading before reactivation is required.
If you do exceed the number of allowed changes you can call Microsoft on the number given when you are asked to reactivate. If you explain what you were doing (and that doesn’t involve installing the software on another machine) then they will give you the appropriate codes to reactivate.
Tags: boot_disk, card_id, dbl, disk_id, disk_volume, installed_hardware, laptop, piracy, reactivate, rom_drive, snapshot, windows xp, wpa
Source Tips - the world of Information Technology on 04 Feb 2007 at 4:09 pm #
Windows XP and Office XP use Product Activation to reduce piracy. On installation (of non corporate editions) they create a snapshot of the PC’s hardware which covers:Boot Disk volume serial number Network adaptor MAC address CD-ROM drive ID data Graphic Card ID data IDE adaptor ID data SCSI adaptor ID data Hard disk ID data Processor Model and serial number