I have many friends who are getting notifications like this from Microsoft:

Many times I would shake my head when they bought their machines from a corner computer store – that had photo-copied licenses keys included with the machine. It was pretty obvious that the serial numbers were pirated.

With the Genuine Advantage push by Microsoft I get a call from a different friend almost every weekend now asking me what it means – I tell them they need to go out and buy a copy of XP.

A friend called me this weekend. She needed my help since she had no idea how to update the serial number without reloading the entire OS.

I looked up one of my old articles that had a script for updating the Windows XP serial number. I tried it out.

Hmm. It came back with an error code.

After searching the net, I found that Microsoft no longer allows you to update the serial number using this script. Modifications made by Service Pack 2 render the old scripts useless. They now have a new program for updating the serial number:

It can be downloaded from here

What is good about this new way of updating the serial number is that it will check the system files for anything that is out of order. This is important because many cracked versions of XP will have hacked system files that will keep important updates from being applied.

Once it is finished it will ask you for the new Key:

Enter the key click finish and it will make the change and reboot. Now that the serial number is updated you will no longer receive the warnings from Microsoft, and updates will be properly applied.