I suspect you may be using the first release of XP. I've been doing a lot of this lately, bit normally I do all the update first before I try to activate. Go to the following and download XP Service Release 3. I suspect you'll be able to activate after installing that. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-xp George. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Brofman Sent: 03 October 2012 09:30 To: 'Blind sysadmins list' Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] reactivating xp home Have you tried rto activate by phone -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 3:33 PM To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] reactivating xp home Hello, I've got a machine here that had it's copy of xp home reinstalled. Let me emphasize this is a legally purchased valid disk and with a key. Now it's screaming about activation. It's been activated before once. When I try to activate it now it's saying that xp home is no longer available. This is not going to be welcome to the system's owner, who does not want to go 7 at this time. Is there a painless way I can get this system activated so I can use windows update? I'm needing to get MSE on it. Thanks. Dave. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins