Ever since i installed Xp when it first came out, I have re-installed "Clean" about 8-10 times even with hardware changes and the activation went thru with no problems everytime. I was told 6 month intervals and theres no problems. But if you do 4 times in a week then thats where the fun begins.:)

>Randy ->> Here's a good explaination: >http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm>>DougThis doesn't explain what happened to me last night. I had built a PC for my kids about two months ago and started with a fresh install of XP. Last night I was using Spybot Search & Destroy and Trend Micro to remove spyware that my daughter downloaded through Instant Messenger. Suddenly, Windows XP gave me a message that essentially said due to the massive hardware changes made to the PC Windows re-activation was necessary. No harware changes at all have been made. Any idea what is going on here?

I have been using the same installation of XP (Year and a half) and FS2004(since it was released). I have never experienced code breakdown because of said use of any software program. If anything FS2004 runs better now then it ever has. Simple hard drive maintenance helps a lot in the long run, I get a kick out of people who reinstall XP on a regular basis. I once had a friend that lived next door to me and he would install Windows almost every other weekend, simply because he had some sort of minor problem that could have been solved with the click of a mouse.

Most likely that spybot tool thought it nice to make some major changes to the Windows registry or your filesystem, wiping out the activation information.Maybe it even removed your activation information completely...Wouldn't be the first program to corrupt Windows for obscure reasons, after which the programmers laugh while their users blame Windows...

>Most likely that spybot tool thought it nice to make some>major changes to the Windows registry or your filesystem,>wiping out the activation information.>Maybe it even removed your activation information>completely...Possibly. I'm leaning more toward one of the spyware programs causing the problem to the registry. My daughter had a MSDOS type of icon on her desktop called "tdinstall.exe" and It would not allow me to delete it stating the the file was in use by another person. I was only successful in deleting it from the desktop after rebooting in safe mode and then removing all cookies and running Spybot and Trend.

XP is very stable- but 95% of people out there get some sort of spyware and don't even know it. "Drive by" installs are common, and very annoying.You can keep it running well for a long, long time if you follow simple simple guidelines-1) Use a 3rd party tool to defrag- the built in defragger just isn't that good.2) Don't install anything you don't really plan on using. And make system restore points before you do.3) Turn off any services you don't need. If you are running a single PC with no domain controller, there are a bunch you can turn off (Even the home version has several of them by default)4) REBOOT IMMEDIATELY after installing something! This way you will know right away if anything got messed up!5) Set your internet security to high, and put only sites you REALLY trust in the trusted sites list, such as avsimBonus tip:Although most people don't have the means to acquire it (it's over $100) I recommend running Virtual PC and doing your browsing on a virtual machine. This way, all the spyware and viruses in the world won't do squat to your actual computer. Install 98SE on a virtual machine, make a copy of the .vhd, and browse to your heart's content. If the VM gets screwed up, just erase it, and copy the other over it. This is the equivilent of re-installing your OS in 30 seconds. I also install most of my software first on the VM to make sure it doesn't screw up the PC before I install it on the physical box.One great thing to do with it too, is to install your "essential" programs, like FSBUILD and many of the other ones on the virtual PC. Make a copy, and back it up. This way when you re-install the OS, you will still have the virtual machine set up and ready to go.