Re: Verification Required - Virus/Real?

"Bobbyaro" <Bobbyaro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:73EB4B61-C426-41FF-A842-5CB5ED2FEB7B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi all,

I have XP sp2 running and I logged on last night fine. I Rebooted and when
the login screen came up the mouse froze and nothing would happen, so i did a
hard reset. This time an error message came up with various addresses, sorry
no details available, I clicked ok and a further error box appeared saying,
"this version of windows needs to be verified to continue" I click ok and get
a windows effect box asking for me to choose my method of verification
(Web/Phone/do not continue), I click web and a screen some up asking for my
product key.

At this point the mouse freezes again, so I reset, again the mouse freezes
on loading the login screen. It is at this point I get suspicious, because on
the next login, it goes straight through and lets me log in fine.

Now however, it is asking for verification again. If I don't provide the key
it logs me back out, but the fact that I bypassed this by resetting makes me
wonder if it is actually an MS verification or is some malware trying to
hijack my product key, or something?

The product is a legal purchased version that has been running for about a
year and has been verified in the past. Is this just something that happens
every so often with XP?


Verification, validation, registration, or activation. Which one is the dialog actually asking for? If it is activation, rerun the Windows validation program. Use Start -> Run and enter:

%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe

By the way, msoobe = Microsoft Out Of Box Experience. If it is registration, you don't have to register your copy of Windows with Microsoft. It is optional.

Also read:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924166/en-us
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/wpa_activation_vs_registration.mspx
http://www.technibble.com/windows-xp-activation-explained/

.