Did not activate Windows, now locked out

[HywelapRees]

My father in law was getting messages asking him to activate his copy of
windows. He ignored them because he believed they were spam since his xp
software came with the computer when he bought it. Now he cannot access the
computer at all. A window asks do you want to activate windows now? Click
yes, an empty white box opens. Click no, it goes back to the log in screen
and it circles you back. The only way the computer can be accessed is in safe
mode, but I don't know what needs to be done to fix it. Please help asap!
Thank you.

 

[Leonard Grey]

What's unusual here is that when you buy a pre-built computer from any
of the major companies - even the minor ones - the installed copy of
Windows is pre-activated. Therefore, I wonder where this computer came from.

The term "spam" is in the context of e-mail. Was your F-I-L receiving
e-mail asking him to activate Windows? That surely was spam, and
probably contained malicious software. Sometimes, just opening an
HTML-formatted e-mail is enough to infect a computer.

The other way to activate Windows is to call Microsoft and do it over
the phone. Ordinarily, the activation window contains the telephone
number to call - the particular number varies, depending on where you're
located. Does the activation screen not indicate a telephone number to
call? That would also be strange.

Are you sure this is a legitimate Microsoft activation request? It could
be phony - which means the computer is infected with malware.

 

[VanguardLH]

My father in law was getting messages asking him to activate his copy of
windows. He ignored them because he believed they were spam since his xp
software came with the computer when he bought it. Now he cannot access the
computer at all. A window asks do you want to activate windows now? Click
yes, an empty white box opens. Click no, it goes back to the log in screen
and it circles you back. The only way the computer can be accessed is in safe
mode, but I don't know what needs to be done to fix it. Please help asap!
Thank you.

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/cu_sc_prodact_master?ws=mscom#tab1

You have 30 days to activate. After that, the trial version expires. So
your inlaw kept getting prompted for a month and ignored it.

 

[Daave]

My father in law was getting messages asking him to activate his copy
of windows. He ignored them because he believed they were spam since
his xp software came with the computer when he bought it. Now he
cannot access the computer at all. A window asks do you want to
activate windows now? Click yes, an empty white box opens. Click no,
it goes back to the log in screen and it circles you back. The only
way the computer can be accessed is in safe mode, but I don't know
what needs to be done to fix it. Please help asap! Thank you.

Although you never directly stated it, it sounds like your father-in-law
recently reinstalled Windows. Is this the case? And if so, why? Did he
have malware? And again, if this is so, did he perform a Clean Install
or Repair Install from an actual Windows XP installation CD? Or was it a
recovery CD? Or a hidden recovery partition? What is the make and model
of this PC?