I am a final year computer science student and am working on a project to develop Midlet applications. I have downloaded the mobile emulator from Nokia's site. The requirement for the emulator is Windows XP with service pack 1a. I have XP as OS but not the service pack. I got the pack from the Digit CD but the pack stops the installation while creating inventory and displays the following error message:

"The product key used to install Windows is invalid. Please contact your system administrator or retailer immediately to obtain a valid Product Key. You may also contact Microsoft Corporation's Anti-Piracy Team by emailing piracy@microsoft.com if you think you have purchased pirated Microsoft software."

Do I need to have an original copy of the OS to install the service pack? Please suggest a solution.

Sachin Gupta

There is nothing wrong with the OS files. The problem lies with the key you have entered. Unfortunately the key you have used while installing XP happens to be in the list of the keys identified by Microsoft as `Not Valid.' Please refer Microsoft Article 326904 at <109,85>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q326904<109>.

To have this problem solved, you need not reinstall XP or worry about getting another Windows XP CD. All you have to do now is to `Re-Activate' Windows with a new genuine Windows XP Key and then run the SP1 installation. Assuming that you have got a new product Key, Here is the procedure to go about it:

There are a number of ways to do this, we will be using the `Activation Wizard' for this purpose. Before starting the Activation Wizard there is one thing you will have to do. You need to de-activated the key so that we will get a chance to Activate it. For this, please take the following steps: Open the registry editor and in the editor please navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents Double click the value OOBETimer, and change any one of the digit in its value to something else to deactivate Windows Activation.

For example, if you have the starting of the value as FF d5 ... etc, please change it to EE d5 or any thing like that. The idea is that when this value is changed, Windows will de-activate itself and we will have a chance to run the Activation Wizard to re-activate Windows with a new key.

Once this is over, please click Start -{gt} Run and type in c:\windows\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a,

In the dialog box that appears select Yes, "I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows", and then click Next, then click Change Product key and type the new product key in the New key boxes, and click Update, and then restart the computer. Once the system is up, please run the command c:\windows\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a again

You should get a message "Windows is already Activated." Now run the SP1 setup.

For more details, please read Microsoft article 328874 at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328874, You can also take a backup of your registry at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756 or create a Restore Point before doing all these as a precautionary measure. For this, please look up: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/ xp/all/proddocs/en-us/app_system_restore_createrp.mspx

Additionally here are some development tools for creating midlets that might be helpful http://developers.sun.com/techtopics/mobility/midp/articles/ emulators/

http://www.palowireless.com/java/devtools.asp most of these tools work even without the latest updates.

Solution by G. Rajah

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