Problem: “This copy of Windows must be activated before you can logon. Would you like to activate Windows now?” System hangs indefinitely.

Fix:

1.       Press f8 at Windows load to get into safe mode w/ command prompt

2.       Type explorer in command prompt to get windows explorer shell

3.       Create a new folder on desktop, name it “prep” (or whatever you want).

4.       Go to my computer

5.       Place XP disc in drive

6.       Navigate to cd drive and explore the disc

7.       There is folder “Support”

8.       Inside Support is “tools”

9.       Inside Tools is a “Deploy” cab

10.   Double- click Deploy

11.   Just to be safe, highlight all of those icons

12.   Right click on any of them and hit extract

13.   Extract them to the folder you created on the desktop

14.   Now navigate to the folder you created.

15.   Inside you will see those files now extracted

16.   Double-click factory (a new file will appear)

17.   Double click Sysprep

18.   Choose factory and restart

19.   You can now get to the desktop, but Windows may not be activated

If you can’t seem to get activation to work:

1.       Download and/or install IE8

2.       If IE is not working, use Firefox to download IE8

3.       After install, Windows should give the activation prompt.

4.       Activate windows.

If Windows updates aren’t working try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058  Allow the tool to fix it for you.

Note there no guarantees this will solve all problems. System may still be glitchy. Try a check disk or sfc /scannow command to work out other issues