• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Activating older, newer versions of windows in 2021

NeXT

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
8,096
Location
Kamloops, BC, Canada
This really walks a line so please, don't link to anything that's against forum rules. ;)

So the regular online activation process for stuff like XP and Server 2003 no longer really works anymore and it's at the point where it's all phone activation and no promises that is going to exist in a few more years. Even stuff like server 2008 gave me trouble but I still managed to make WGA happy after a phonecall. Lets say you have a legit product key and legit install media. What do now? Once I start applying updates WGA's going to want to phone home and the 30 day timer starts again, but it can't so I end up with installs that at best I can extend the activation life to 90 days and then I'm locked out.
 
Well there are many "fixes" to these issues found on many "interesting" web sites. While using these "fixes" is more than likely breaking EULAs as long as you use them in-house only for personal, or preservation, purposes only you should be fine. Using such a "fix" to put a server 2003 system on-line (and my goodness why would you want to) would be a bad idea.

Unfortunately I can foresee no 100% legit way to keep these systems running forever. I'm hoping that in 50 years from now we'll look back and say, "do you remember the time when OS software was proprietary?" Not that I'll be around to say (or see) that.
 
I simply use VL keys, they don't require activation. I don't care much whether or not the install is using a key I legally own or a different one. I own a license to use it anyway.
 
I recently (about 2 months ago) installed fresh copy of Windows 7 on a system here. I was not asked to register it and updates went through normally. My copies of XP are OEM only and don't ask for registration or activation.
 
Anything older than XP can be installed locally, if you have a working install key. That isn't an issue.

From XP onwards, the standard installs only work at Microsoft's whim. Luckily in your case the phone works, but that isn't going to happen in all countries, and one day they'll cut it off. Eventually those systems will be paperweights. For XP at least, you can make a batch file to run at switch-on to reset the WGA counter, provided you log in less than 30 days apart.

Having an unregistered windows means no window updates. Vista is particularly vicious, you only get 2 bootups before it kills itself.

As for windows updates for any system older then Win7, they are only available via the catalog, and you have to download and install them yourself. Automatic updates were broken last July and won't be fixed. The reason is that Microsoft decided that SHA-2 authentication is required to access many of their servers. They pushed out updates to handle this for Win7 and later only. So anything older won't connect and is practically a dead duck.

It's up to you of course if you want to have old systems on the internet, as long as you can accept any consequences. I still sometimes connect up an old machine just to see what still works, even WFW 3.11 sometimes.

The solution to registration is of course as others have mentioned already, use corporate keys, or some other method that registers itself without needing Microsoft's blessing.
 
This really walks a line so please, don't link to anything that's against forum rules. ;)

So the regular online activation process for stuff like XP and Server 2003 no longer really works anymore and it's at the point where it's all phone activation and no promises that is going to exist in a few more years. Even stuff like server 2008 gave me trouble but I still managed to make WGA happy after a phonecall. Lets say you have a legit product key and legit install media. What do now? Once I start applying updates WGA's going to want to phone home and the 30 day timer starts again, but it can't so I end up with installs that at best I can extend the activation life to 90 days and then I'm locked out.

One way to stay alive with XP is to find an 'Enterprise' edition which were mostly made available to the educational arena. If you have the patience and are willing to search online you may be able to find that set.
 
For XP (and for Win9x), search the web for "unofficial service packs". They're basically rollups of all of the KB patches, in my experience.
 
Having an unregistered windows means no window updates. Vista is particularly vicious, you only get 2 bootups before it kills itself.
That is not correct. You get no updates if the WGA check fails (e.g. the used key is black-listed by MS). Without activation at all, all versions of Windows prior 10 will stop working after the final reminder has passed and you can no longer get to the desktop. In Vista and 7, however, this is handled by system services, which can be disarmed easily.
 
That's good to know. The Vista machine in question was one that someone threw out. It still had the hard drive but the power supply and most of the rest was gone. So I put the hard drive into another machine to see what would happen. First time it booted normally with little indication of what was to come. Second time it wouldn't let me log on, said I had to validate it. But validation needed to have IE9 installed, but in that state, you can't install anything, it won't let you. So it was useless. So, I made it the D drive on a machine, grabbed what looked useful and then formatted it. Perhaps it could have been rescued instead - but i don't know.
 
I have some sources for keys for 9x and 2000 that I use - though I still remember my 98SE key from my legit copy I bought in 2001 so that's what I use the most.

For XP I think I have some kind of trick installed in the registry that I'd need to look back at to see what was done. It basically sets it to activated despite not having a key applied or something. Works great.

TBH, I don't see a reason to use anything beyond XP, even then, I prefer SP4 2K with the various updates/hacks that basically make it XP minus the XP gobbledygook I don't want or need.

And for 3.1x I just write in my own ridiculous keys based on songs (6060-842, 867-5309, 5M311511KET33N$P1R1T....)
 
I have some sources for keys for 9x and 2000 that I use - though I still remember my 98SE key from my legit copy I bought in 2001 so that's what I use the most.

For XP I think I have some kind of trick installed in the registry that I'd need to look back at to see what was done. It basically sets it to activated despite not having a key applied or something. Works great.

TBH, I don't see a reason to use anything beyond XP, even then, I prefer SP4 2K with the various updates/hacks that basically make it XP minus the XP gobbledygook I don't want or need.

And for 3.1x I just write in my own ridiculous keys based on songs (6060-842, 867-5309, 5M311511KET33N$P1R1T....)

There's a trick for generating Microsoft keys such as xxx-xxxxxxx and xxxx-xxxxxxx. The first three or four numbers can be anything, 123 or 1234. The second seven digits need to be evenly divisible by seven when added together. 123-1234567 (1+2+3+4+5+6+7 = 28 / 7 = 4) 1234-7777777 (7 * 7 = 49 / 7 = 7). Works every time.
 
Back
Top