How to Make Windows XP Genuine Forever

Remove Windows XP activation permanently with this handy guide

Author Info

Last Updated: February 10, 2023

Do you have Windows XP without the genuine serial key? Don't worry -- with a few clicks of the mouse and a little bit of cleverness, you'll be able to make your Windows XP genuine forever. See Step 1 below to begin.

Steps

Download Article

Advertisement
Click OK and close the registry editor.
"%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a".
It should be “Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows.” Click on Next.
15
Check whether your Windows XP is genuine (optional). Type the following command in Run without quotation marks: "oobe/msoobe /a".
- If a box appears saying “Windows is already activated," it means your Windows XP is genuine.
Select Permissions and set permissions to deny for all groups and users. After rebooting, the machine put the values back. If you deny permissions, it can't reset.

Community Q&A

Search

Add New Question

Question

Can we do this procedure in safe mode?

Community Answer

Boot up in Safe Mode with Command Prompt. At the cmd window, type "explorer" or "explorer.exe" and then go to the run box (WINDOWS KEY + R). Type the following exactly without the quotation marks: "rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk". This will renew the 30-day activation for Windows XP. Restart your computer after that.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Yes No

Not Helpful 45 Helpful 43
Question

I tried the procedure in safe mode. It worked three times, but doesn't anymore. The rundll.command no longer works. What can I do now?

Community Answer

This wiki is just resetting the XP Activation grace period, which you can only do 3 times and then XP stops working. You must enter a legit XP key and activate online or over the phone for XP to keep working.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Yes No

Not Helpful 14 Helpful 18
Question

What do I do if my Windows is unable to find %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe/a?

Community Answer

Put a space before the "/a" and see if that works, otherwise do the below: Run>CMD cd %systemroot%\system32\oobe\ msoobe /a And if that fails: Run>oobe/msoobe.exe /a

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Yes No

Not Helpful 20 Helpful 19

See more answers

Ask a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Tips

If you want your Windows XP to be always genuine and not get into any legal problems with Microsoft, you have to disable Microsoft Windows critical updates. Here's how to do it:
- Go to Start, then to Control Panel. (Be sure that the Control Panel is in classic view.)
- Go to Automatic Updates and double click on it.
- Select Turn Off Automatic Updates, and hit Apply. You are done!
- One more thing: It must be annoying to have alerts every 2 minutes that Automatic Updates is turned off. So to remove the annoying alerts, you have to double click the small "red" icon where the clock is situated in the extreme bottom right. The Security Center will appear and on the left there will be some options. Be sure to select the "Change the way Security Center alerts me" option and uncheck the "Automatic Updates" option.
Thanks
Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0