This will disable the activation requirement for good, but might cause issues (although I haven't found any yet) ( source) In my case (Nov 2019) I followed the link to the Microsoft Licensing Activation Centers worldwide telephone numbers.ĭeleting the value of the OOBETimer key ( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/WPAEvents/OOBETimer) and starting the activation via command prompt: msoobe /a. This is my preferred one since you don't have to tamper with the system. for activation for Win7) and choosing 'Other Products' in the voice menu. I found two solutions, both of them work offline, so you don't have to connect the WinXP system to a network (although I have to use WinXP I try to minimize security risks):Ĭalling the current MS activation number for a product still in support (e.g. because certain drivers/HW/SW is only compatible with Win XP.ĮDIT4: note, the activation process comes after entering a installation/serial key (e.g. However in some cases it's not an option to change to a different OS, e.g. Therefore, if possible you should change/upgrade the OS of your device. I made a thorough explanation in meta here.ĮDIT2: it was suggested to call MS support and/or sales unfortunately they do not help with WinXP anymore.ĮDIT3: please be aware that running an outdated OS without security updates poses security risks explained here as BurceWayne points out correctly. Although there is no way around using WinXP, I want to minimize security risks.ĮDIT1: Since quite a few people asked, please note why (in my opinion) this question is not a duplicate of XP Activation and Dual Booting, please see my explanation above.

Preferably it also shouldn't require a network/internet connection. The solutions can be a workaround (disabling the activation check), but for security reasons, it shouldn't contain a binary download. In addition the question asks only if it can be done in general not how (neither does the existing answer say how), and about other problems (dual boot), so I decided to post the question again as specific question just about the activation process.

The latest question/answer I could find here on superuser is this one: XP Activation and Dual Booting which doesn't provide an answer to my question. The phone number is not valid for activation anymore (I tried the German one) and the online activation does not work either (in a quick test within a DMZ other protocols like ICMP or HTTP worked fine when I accessed an internet server). The 'regular' methods provided with XP (phone and online) don't work anymore. What Options are there to activate Windows XP nowadays?

Windows xp starter edition product key