I echo the sentiments of this message. There HAS to be a way. I've found all the earlier 'advisers' to be either wrong or incomplete. And there are valid reasons for wanting to circumvent the activation. I have ALWAYS used a clean out and replace technique of fixing problems which I created. MS will not allow that as 2 or 3 activations is the limit. From then on, phone calls and 'mucho hassle' is needed. WINLOGON.EXE does not contain the 11 bytes of code presented as the panacea. And "ActivationRequired" does not exist for the register changes suggested. And does not work when I add that key. I know some of these things do work else so many would not be recommending them. But I also find many times that number saying "it doesn't work". Someone has the 'straight skinny' and I sure wish they would share it. Thanks.