Hello,

I downloaded Windows 2003 Server and as you all may know, it needs to be activated before a month or so. My main intention is not to make a crack for it, but to learn another way in cracking and not just crack an ordinary application.

I was thinking which files I should "manipulate/crack" in order to avoid the activation license...I also tried to install SoftIce but no luck. THe problem is that for me, I have no clue where to start at, because this is not like a normal program that needs to be cracked. The patch could be in any module inside the OS, I think.

Any directions about where to start "attacking" to get rid of the Activation?

Thanks a lot.

You should be able to get hold of quite a lot of information about this protection with google. Start there and see where it leads.

When you activate your windows XP/2003, your activation key is store in the %systemroot%\system32\wpa.dbl

I think it's winlogon.exe which control if the key is valid (not verifiied) and I think the key file doesn't work on another Windows without the same hardware (harddisk id, graphic card id, motherboard id,....)