- How to activate windows xp with installation id serial numbers#
- How to activate windows xp with installation id serial number#
The check for the Product ID and Hardware ID doesn't happen only during the installation.Īt each login, Windows recalculates the HWID. What happens to the Windows activation when we change hardware? We need to provide this number through our phone keypad, and the automated telephone system will give us a confirmation ID to manually add for the Windows activation. The product ID and the HWID are combined to an "Installation ID", which is translated into a 63 digit decimal number. The telephone Windows Activation - to activate Windows without an internet connection - works similarly. If the Windows activation is successful, the confirmation is sent back to our PC as a digital certificate, signed by Microsoft.
How to activate windows xp with installation id serial numbers#
It is impossible to identify our hardware components' serial numbers from the information that is sent to Microsoft. The one-way hashing for the HWID guarantees our anonymity. This prevents the product key to be reused for Windows activation on a different PC. Through the Windows activation, the product ID (which represents the unique product key) is tied to the particular hardware ID on Microsoft's servers. This request contains the product ID, the HWID, the activation technology version, and the request header data, with a request ID that ties all the information together. On Windows activation through the Internet, a "handshake request" is sent to Microsoft. Only internal PC components count, not peripherals, such as the monitor, keyboard/mouse, USB devices, etc.įrom all the above Hash values, through an algorithm, an 8bit HWID is created. Hardware Hash version (version of algorithm used)
How to activate windows xp with installation id serial number#
Windows runs a mathematical formula on each serial number and creates a hash, in a way that it is impossible to find the original serial number from the hash (a one-way hash).īetween four and ten bits are used from each component's hash, depending on the part. HWID is a unique number that is tied to our PC's hardware, and it is also calculated during the Windows installation.Įvery component of our PC, from the CPU to the GPU to the Network Adapter, has a unique serial number. The second step for the Windows activation is the Hardware Identification (HWID).