# What happens if I don't register XP? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 15, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334 "2004-10-15T06:01:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/1 "2004-10-15T06:01:18Z")
Okay, shoot me if this has been asked and answered. I installed Windows XP about two weeks ago. Now I am getting little annoying messages every time I log on asking if I want to register it now, or later? Online, or by phone? I have XX days left. What the hell is THIS? I PAID for it. (In many, many ways.) If I could take it off and go back to the way things were two weeks ago (ME), and get my money back, I would do it. However, that doesn’t look like an option. So, meanwhile–what’s it gonna do? Shut me off in XX days? ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/2 "2004-10-15T06:31:59Z")
> [@Cicada2003](#): > > So, meanwhile–what’s it gonna do? Shut me off in XX days? Yes, that’s **exactly** what it’s going to do. Welcome to the wonderful world of Microsoft in the 21st century! ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/3 "2004-10-15T06:33:39Z")
> [@Cicada2003](#): > > So, meanwhile–what’s it gonna do? Shut me off in XX days? Yep, pretty much. > [@](#): > > If Windows XP reaches the end of its one-month grace period without being activated, it simply locks you out, period. After login–even as Administrator–instead of seeing the normal desktop, you’re shown a message: > > “This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate Windows now? (Yes/No)” > If you answer yes, you’re taken through the activation process, after which–if your system successfully completes its activation–you can resume computing normally. But if you answer No or if your machine is unable to complete the activation process, you can’t continue. You’re stopped cold, completely locked out of the operating system. You can’t do anything with XP, even if you have Administrator rights, until and unless you successfully complete the activation process. (Resetting the system clock to an earlier date via your PC’s BIOS setup program won’t let you regain access to a locked system. Once WPA is triggered, your system stays locked until it’s activated.) From [here](http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020117S0002). ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/4 "2004-10-15T07:45:11Z")
Any chance of getting the money back, given that Cicada didn’t register it yet? Who’d deal with that, the vendor or Microsoft? ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/5 "2004-10-15T07:50:00Z")
If you paid for it, registering it with MS shouldn’t be that much of concern… they just want to make sure that Windows won’t run if you didn’t pay for it. Activating is easy and relatively painless. It’s also here to stay. Office XP had it, Office 2003 has it and Longhorn will have the toughest security yet. If I were you, I would activate. MS will not have any sympathy for you otherwise and good luck getting your money back. Having legal software is the way to go these days, even if it means going through a few extra steps along the way. Pretty soon the unlicensed massess won’t be able to download anything from MS at all. See: [http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/whyValidate.aspx](http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/whyValidate.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/6 "2004-10-15T11:32:14Z")
There’s registering it, where you give Microsoft your name, address, and some other details for whatever you might get in return (just like registering any other piece of software), and then there’s activating it. Activation does not send any of those details, however, it does take a snapshot of your computer configuration and send that to Microsoft so that if, for example, you built a new computer and threw away the current one, it would not activate automatically because too many things would be different from the snapshot and then you’d have to call MS support to get the thing activated. _Activation does not equal registration._ You must activate it, or the software will either not run or run crippled (depending on the software) after thirty days of first use. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/7 "2004-10-15T14:08:47Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Activation does not send any of those details, however, it does take a snapshot of your computer configuration and send that to Microsoft so that if, for example, you built a new computer and threw away the current one, it would not activate automatically because too many things would be different from the snapshot and then you’d have to call MS support to get the thing activated. Another annoying feature is that you can be forced to reactivate the operating system if you have upgraded or replaced too many parts of your computer. This happened to me after I had been running XP for a while. I upgraded the video card and got a nasty message about “reactivating or else” the next time I booted the computer. What happens when I replace some more hardware and Microsoft decides that they don’t believe me or that XP is an obsolete and unsupported product? ---
**Author:** ![badmana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@badmana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badmana)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/8 "2004-10-15T14:47:40Z")
> [@mks57](#): > > Another annoying feature is that you can be forced to reactivate the operating system if you have upgraded or replaced too many parts of your computer. This happened to me after I had been running XP for a while. I upgraded the video card and got a nasty message about “reactivating or else” the next time I booted the computer. > > What happens when I replace some more hardware and Microsoft decides that they don’t believe me or that XP is an obsolete and unsupported product? Well, unless MS goes down, they’ll still have to maintain the activation website/phone support forever. I hope MS understands that now, because I use older OSes on my older computers. I own a legal copy and had to call them to get it working after some upgrades. PITA. The last time though was activated online without a call required. And no software security is perfect. Longhorn (if it ever makes it to market) will be cracked months before it’s release like XP and Office was. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/9 "2004-10-15T14:53:53Z")
> [@badmana](#): > > Well, unless MS goes down, they’ll still have to maintain the activation website/phone support forever. I hope MS understands that now, because I use older OSes on my older computers. It’s more likely that they will release a patch that will get rid of the activation. People keep using older OSes and older computers and can you imagine the outcry if Microsoft stopped supporting XP without removing the activation? ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/10 "2004-10-15T15:16:07Z")
> [@mks57](#): > > What happens when I replace some more hardware and Microsoft decides that they don’t believe me or that XP is an obsolete and unsupported product? You switch to Linux of course. 😉 As MS’s liceinsing gets more and more restrictive, Linux looks better and better. Though I wish Linux had more gaming support; that is the only reason I am booting into Windows these days. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-dont-register-xp/269334/11 "2004-10-15T16:56:16Z")
Actually they won’t have to keep the database forever. Every product has an expected “use life”, after a cetrain time activation will simply disable itself. This cannot be skirted by messing with your date/time settings because when you activate yuour date/time will be compared against the server that is issuing the activation. Activation is a very fast process online and with a new piece of software on a computer happend in under 30 seconds with most connections.