P2Plife Forums: Noob has Windows an activation problem - P2Plife Forums

I ran a Malwarebytes scan like I normally do and it found WPA.kill. I didn't know what is and it's never been picked up by Malwarebytes before so I thought it was a virus and told it to quarantine it. It did and now my laptop is caught in a continuous loop. It boots up and asks tells me “This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on.” “Do you want to activate Windows now?”
If I hit yes it takes me to a screen that states, “Windows is already activated.” Click Okay to exit. When I do that, it takes me back to the welcome screen, when I click my name the dialog box with the “This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on.” “Do you want to activate Windows now?”
If I hit “No” on the dialog box when it asks, it takes me to the welcome screen and the Dialog box pops up with the same message.
I’ve tried the system restore option (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449) to no avail. I still get this goofy loop. It asks me for a either my profiles password or the Administrators password. It tells me that the admin password I put in is wrong. I've never set up the admin password.
My copy of Windows XP Pro came from a good disk, I’ve never even heard of WPA.kill before this. I did install some MS updates right before I did the scan.
Is there anyway to get out of this mess? EDIT: I have SP3, it's been installed for quite some time.
Thanks, CM.

This post has been edited by corporate_monster: 28 March 2011 - 12:45 AM

WPA Kill is a crack used to fool the Windows Activation process. It would be found only on a computer running a non-genuine version of XP that needed activating. Your only hope is to find a way of getting Malwarebytes to re-instate the file from its quarantine. If you can boot in Safe Mode then that might be possible.

snodger, on 28 March 2011 - 09:17 AM, said:

snodger, how would I do that? When it comes to this stuff, I really am a noob.

The first thing you need to do is gain access to your desktop, or at least to the files on your computer. I don't know whether you can by-pass the activation screen by using Safe Mode, but it is worth a try. There are two possible versions of Safe Mode you can try.

• Start your computer, depressing the F8 key before Windows boot-up begins. Keep F8 depressed (sometimes pressing it quickly and repeatedly works better) until the list of boot options appears. If this does not appear, but instead you get the activation screen, start again. It is not uncommon for several attempts to be needed to bring up the boot option screen.
  
• Use the arrow keys to move up and down the list so that you select Safe Mode.
  
• If this leads to the activation screen, you should start again at the beginning, this time selecting Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

If you have been able to by-pass the activation screen then you should open Malwarebytes and view the list of quarantined files. There should be an option to re-instate a selected file as well as an option for Malwarebytes to ignore that file in future.

Opening Malwarebytes is easy if you gained access in Safe Mode, because you would have your desktop available, although in an unfamiliar form.

If you gained access using Safe Mode with Command Prompt then opening Malwarebytes is slightly more complicated. You will not have your desktop, but instead you will see a command prompt. Type in explore.exe and press enter. This will give you access to Windows Explorer. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and look for the shortcut to Malwarebytes. If you can't find it, look in C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Start Menu\Programs. When you find the shortcut, click on it to open Malwarebytes and proceed as described earlier.

If you are still unable to gain access then report back and we'll try something else.

snodger, you are my internet hero. I tried the second option first and no dice. I went right into safe and bam I'm in. Restored the files and the laptop was back the way it was and all within 10 minutes. I don't know where you're at but I owe you.

Thanks, CM

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm glad it worked.