Windows wants to activate before you can log in

Here is a problem that you may run into when you perform a Windows XP repair  On the Windows restart, you are required to activate Windows before you can log on, but the activation screen does not appear. So you are stuck. You cannot activate or log in to the computer.

• Start in safe mode 
• Fire up a command prompt
• Type this in exactly as shown: rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk (only one space and do type the capitals as well)
• Press Enter and wait a few seconds. You won’t see anything change although the screen may flash briefly.
• Restart the computer in normal mode
• You now have 30 days to activate Windows again.
• Now your original problem is that the XP repair will put you back to IE6 but you will have IE7 or IE8 files floating around. You will need to reinstall IE7 and IE8 and if it still doesn't work uninstall 7 and 8 and reinstall them

If you were just lazy – like me – then you now have time to install drivers etc before activating.