Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (
More info?)
Original post reformatted for clarity.
The Unknown P wrote:
There is no problem to reactivating your copy of XP. You can do this
as many times as you like on the same machine.
There is a way of not having to either phone or go on line that will allow
you to activate the reinstall yourself. Once you have installed an XP OS
and have activated it either over the phone or through the internet a file
called wpa.dbl is place in your windows\system32 folder. You may need
to go into your control panel\folder options and then the view tab to
set XP so that you can see hidden operating and system files like the
windows\system32. This is a heavily encrypted file so don't bother trying
to read it. It contains your activation and system configuration
information.
Copy the wpa.dbl to a floppy disk and label it for future reinstalls. Then
once you have reinstalled XP and are asked if you want to activate you can
choose not to and once on the desktop you can then copy the wpa.dbl back
to the windows\system32 folder and you have activated your copy of XP.
This will only work on the original machine with the original hardware
that XP was activated on.
Welcome to the eXPeriance. {:~)
Michael Stevens replies to the oblivious Unknown P
Once again you give incorrect information in a format that is incredibly
difficult to read plus you seem to have never heard of paragraphs.
On a clean install, the backup of the wpa.dbl file is of no use whatsoever.
You say you know how to use the CDO ["web format" in case you don't know
what "CDO" is] format, but you seem to miss critical replies that have
repeatedly pointed out this error to you.
Once again, the backup of the wpa.dbl file is only useful if you do a
inplace [i.e. repair install ] upgrade and nothing has changed with the
hardware since the file was backed up or if the activation information was
corrupted. There is no other use for the wpa.dbl and it's backup.
to quote Alex Nichols web page on activation and the usability of the
wpa.dbl file, see below.
HINT No. 3: It is valuable to back up the two files WPA.DBL and WPA.BAK from
the Windows\System32 folder.Then, should they get damaged, or should you do
a 'Repair' reinstallation of Win XP, these files can be copied back to
restore the prior activation status. However, this only works in those
limited circumstances. The contents of these two files is matched to the
specific Windows setup; therefore, contrary to what many journalists and
members of the user community have written in recent months, restoring these
files will not restore your activation status following a reformat and clean
install.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
xpnews@bogusmichaelstevenstech.com
http://michaelstevenstech.com
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