Problems with WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage)

Recently a customer of mine was experiencing problems with WGA under Windows XP with SP3. Upon boot-up and login WGA some of the PCs would state that the Windows installation was not legitimate. This was odd as I had recently reinstalled Windows XP on these machines with the correct volume license key.

Comparing the actual product key (using Belarc Advisor) I found that it differed from what it was supposed to be… very odd. So how to remedy this? Here we go:

Step 1:

Start | Run | regedit
Go to: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\WPAEvents
Right-click OOBETimer and choose Modify
Change at least 1 digit of this code

Step 2:

Start | Run | %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a
This runs the activation wizard. Choose Yes I want to telephone… and hit Next
Choose Change product key
I entered the correct product key and hit Update
Choose Remind me later

I think a restart was then required… can’t quite remember.

I read somewhere online that if Step 2 gives trouble then you should restart, hit F8 and choose Last Known Good Configuration. I didn’t have to do this so I can’t vouch for this.

This did the trick for me, I hope it works for you.

Comments

Where are SCANPST.EXE and/or SCANOST.EXE?

I sometimes have to deal with customer computers whose Outlook PST or OST files have become corrupted. Very often the fix is to run SCANPST.EXE on the offending PST/OST file. However, every time I go to do this I forget where the two executable files are. Here is where they are on a Vista machine running Office 2007: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 I hope this helps.

WSUS Issues

Was configuring WSUS on a Server 2016 VM for a customer recently and found the performance to be very sluggish and most of the time the client PCs would time-out and throw an error message when trying to check for updates. After much digging on different forums I came across a fix that worked nicely: Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and click on Application Pools Then Right-Click on your WsusPool instance and choose Advanced Settings Scroll down to Private Memory Limit (KB) and change it from the default of 1843200 to 0 which means unlimited. Then right-click and stop the WsusPool and then start it again. Hope this works for you.

APC PowerChute Network Shutdown - Authentication Phrase

Was installing APC PowerChute Network Shutdown (PCNS) on a customer’s server and couldn’t find a record of the Authentication Passphrase that I set ages back on their Smart UPSes Network Management 2 Card. So I went to reset it on the card and start anew… it took a lot of digging to find it on their particular release of firmware: Go into the UPS tab, then into “shutdown” inside the “Configuration” category: You may then need to change the passphrase being used on other servers. To do this, open up PCNS in your browser and click into the area shown below:

Artifact Weblog

Search This Blog