Windows Product Activation?

derrick

On opening my computer this morning I received the following message;-

Windows Product Activation.

Since Windows was first activated on this computer, the hardware on the computer has changed significantly. due to these changes, Windows must be reactivated within 3 days.

Do you want to reactivate Windows now.

YES NO

Is this a usual/genuine request?
To my knowledge there has been no hard ware added to the machine, certainly not within the last weeks/months!
I cannot think how the hardware would change!

What happens if I do reactivate?
What happens if I don't reactivate?

I also have another problem?
Yesterday I deleted an item from the start menu that kept on returning even though I deleted it from start up using, run>msconfig>start up, I then clicked apply>OK. then this time,(although never did this on other occasions), I chose "selective start up",but when I booted up this morning I had problems connecting to the web and had a light coloured task bar, upon entering the start up menu it had changed to "diagnostic start up", I changed this back to "normal start up" and was able to log on.
However I now have various icons in the taskbar that I cannot get rid of, I have gone back to msconfig, deleted them restarted but they keep coming back, should I choose "selective start up" ? as that gave me problems this morning logging on or just use "normal start up" that seems to put them back when I log off then back on the following day!

Thanks in advance.

sco0ter

Product reactivation can occur with changes in BIOS (disabling onboard hardware or enabling on board hardware). It can also happen if some system files become corrupt or removed.. SP3 also made me reactivate . As long as it is genuine there will be no problems but if you dont reactivate then windows will shut you out and you may only get into safe mode.

What were the things you removed??? If you have disabled anything to do with running of hardware then this can be seen as a hardware/Motherboard change as the drivers/equipment will no longer be available to windows

banger9365

have you changed any thing ,graphics card,cpu, motherboard ect even updating motherboard drivers can do it,
is it xp or vista ?
if you can turn the things back on that you have turned off

derrick

sco0ter wrote: »

Product reactivation can occur with changes in BIOS (disabling onboard hardware or enabling on board hardware). It can also happen if some system files become corrupt or removed.. SP3 also made me reactivate . As long as it is genuine there will be no problems but if you dont reactivate then windows will shut you out and you may only get into safe mode.

What were the things you removed??? If you have disabled anything to do with running of hardware then this can be seen as a hardware/Motherboard change as the drivers/equipment will no longer be available to windows

I did not remove anything to do with Windows, only things like voipbuster, roboform etc, I now have icons inc, ATI,( that I cannot get rid of), quicktime etc, I had deleted all of these from the start up menu earlier, have just gone back in and they are all ticked again!!

So do you think it is OK to reactivate Windows and it will not cause me problems? Thanks

derrick

banger9365 wrote: »

have you changed any thing ,graphics card,cpu, motherboard ect even updating motherboard drivers can do it,
is it xp or vista ?
if you can turn the things back on that you have turned off

As in my reply above, I haven't changed/removed anything major,(I daren't), am running XP home

banger9365

just activate it ,you mite have to ring Microsoft up to do it ,it's free 0800 number put activation will tell you

toasterman

Oh and a tip for you. If you follow the instructions through and it tells you it's already activated on another machine, and hangs up...call back and do exactly the same again. A couple of times, if need be.

It took me a while to work out what I'd done wrong when it did it to me. (For the techies - it was an action pack subscription, which can be installed on more than one pc. Nobody has told the automated helpline though, so when it asks how many other pc's its installed on, and you say 3 - it hangs up. When you call back and say 0, it tells you its allocated to another machine. Stupid thing. Took me at least 3 goes to get through to someone in India who gave me a new code.)

derrick

OK I will attempt to reactivate.

As an aside but in relation to the startup, I have managed to get an image of the stuff that is on start up, if it is not legible enough I can attempt to enlarge it, is there anything in there I can delete from start up and how do I stop them from starting again, as I have taken some off previously only to find them back on when I log on again.

toasterman

There's a few things in that list I'd get rid of.

realsched (checks for updates to realplayer),

qttask (checks for updates to quicktime, and puts an icon in the taskbar),

nerocheck (checks for updates to nero),

googletoolbarnotifier (I think it checks for updates to google toolbar),

adobe reader speed launch (runs a part of acrobat reader constantly - meant to make it start quicker when you open a pdf but its a waste of memory)

winzip quickpick - winzip isn't even really needed on xp to be honest - windows xp has the functionality to zip/unzip files on its own.

Anything starting with "my websearch", I'd get rid of. Pointless email stationery, "funny" mouse cursors, etc. Also spyware.

I think I see "windows desktop search" installed there. While cached searching is nice - windows desktop search, nero desktop search, google desktop search - are all serious memory hoggers. Google desktop search also creates huge amounts of cache files (2gb+). I'd uninstall it from add/remove programs, unless you really need that "slightly quicker search" functionality.

Edit: As for removing them, in msconfig, if you untick them, apply, and ok - it should ask you to restart. When you do, tick the box that says not to run msconfig on startup (if it comes up). That should be it.
Also check the "startup" folder in the programs directory, and things like quicktime and winzip have a habit of putting themselves back.
Right click quickpick in the taskbar and exit - it gives you the option of having it run on startup or not.
Check the quicktime preferences to disable the taskbar thing that runs on startup

derrick

toasterman wrote: »

There's a few things in that list I'd get rid of.

realsched (checks for updates to realplayer),

qttask (checks for updates to quicktime, and puts an icon in the taskbar),

nerocheck (checks for updates to nero),

googletoolbarnotifier (I think it checks for updates to google toolbar),

adobe reader speed launch (runs a part of acrobat reader constantly - meant to make it start quicker when you open a pdf but its a waste of memory)

winzip quickpick - winzip isn't even really needed on xp to be honest - windows xp has the functionality to zip/unzip files on its own.

Anything starting with "my websearch", I'd get rid of. Pointless email stationery, "funny" mouse cursors, etc. Also spyware.

I think I see "windows desktop search" installed there. While cached searching is nice - windows desktop search, nero desktop search, google desktop search - are all serious memory hoggers. Google desktop search also creates huge amounts of cache files (2gb+). I'd uninstall it from add/remove programs, unless you really need that "slightly quicker search" functionality.

Edit: As for removing them, in msconfig, if you untick them, apply, and ok - it should ask you to restart. When you do, tick the box that says not to run msconfig on startup (if it comes up). That should be it.
Also check the "startup" folder in the programs directory, and things like quicktime and winzip have a habit of putting themselves back.
Right click quickpick in the taskbar and exit - it gives you the option of having it run on startup or not.
Check the quicktime preferences to disable the taskbar thing that runs on startup

Thanks for that, I have successfully reactivated Windows.

When unticking the suggested items, how do I stop them from reticking of their own accord, as has been done before with items I have removed?
Do I tick the "selective startup" button,(that seems to be ticked now actually), as when I did that yesterday I had problems login on this morning and had to go into the start up menu and tick "normal startup".

toasterman

You should just untick the things you don't want. It changes itself to selective startup.
Things like qttask does put itself back if I recall. Thats why you have to change it in preferences.

I'd also go into the preferences of the iplayer or 4od, and turn off the thing that makes it run on startup.
"Khost" is linked to one of those.