Windows XP activation cracked – for those desperate enough to keep using it
The activation algorithm for Windows XP has been cracked, so those who are stuck unable to boot the ancient operating system can now do so – and yes, there are people still using this operating system.
Granted, this is a very narrow – negligible – niche of Windows users, and we’ll come back to that. For most of us, however, this is just a curiosity.
How Register reports, windows xp product activation encryption algorithm has been cracked and reimplemented with details provided by a small applications blog post.
This means that anyone can now generate a valid product key to install and activate Windows XP offline.
Microsoft has long since shut down the servers required to activate Windows XP, so you cannot use your original old product key to activate the operating system. Well, not online anyway, although from what we can see on Reddit, Microsoft continued to facilitate product activation over the phone in 2020 – and The Register believes that route still works.
Analysis: Desperate Times, Desperate Measures…
So, if you don’t want to call and convince Microsoft to activate Windows XP when you have a genuine product key that can no longer be verified online, you can just do it yourself at home (or office) without problems.
But why would you ever want to use Windows XP? Yes, it was undoubtedly a much-loved operating system for many reasons – mainly because it was a big step up in terms of performance and interface quality over its predecessor – but it’s obviously ridiculously outdated at this point.
However, some people need to stick with Windows XP due to older software or hardware that will not work with any newer Microsoft operating system. Most likely, these are companies that may, say, have staggeringly expensive machines that only run on XP-based software that hasn’t been updated forever.
In such cases, this crack can prove to be very useful, but apparently anyone using Windows XP exposes themselves to many potential problems related to vulnerabilities in the operating system. Therefore, if you are in this boat, whatever you do, keep your Windows XP installation offline for obvious reasons.
Now you wonder how many Windows XP users are still out there? According to a recent report by analytics firm Statcounter, XP accounts for 0.35% of the user base of all Windows versions (not that far behind Windows 8, Microsoft’s recently defunct operating system, which has 1.28% as of April 2023) .
Breaking old, rusty Microsoft operating systems seems to be quite popular these days. You may remember that Windows 95 activation (relatively weak) was recently hacked, with a twist – ChatGPT was tricked into generating keys that worked with the operating system (in a small number of cases).
