Continual Activation Requests

Recently I started getting prompts to activate Windows XP every time I turn my PC on . "This copy of windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate windows now?" coming up each time I turn the PC back on. I have activated over the internet now about 8 times and have also dialed the telephone number to access the codes - each time the activation is successful. I can then access but why do I have to keep doing it? I purchased this PC new from a manufacturer with XP as OEM.

Solution: Try the following and note, you may be prompted to activate again but this time it should preclude needing to do it again unless you reformat or change enough hardware to exceed the activation threshold:

1. Go to start/run, and type regsvr32.exe regwizc.dll
2. Click OK, then, regsvr32.exe licdll.dll and click OK.

If that doesn't work:
Try it again as follows and include the additional steps below:

1. Go to start/run, and type regsvr32.exe regwizc.dll
2. Click OK, then,
3. regsvr32.exe licdll.dll
4. Edit the Value:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu rrent Version\WPAEvents "OOBETimer "
5. Change at least one digit of this value to deactivate Windows.
6. Restart windows:
7. Start/Run, type:
   %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a

Answer provided by Michael Solomon MS-MVP