.......and to top it off, I forgot to back up my Tomb Raider saves......AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh.

Originally posted by AntiSnipe Long story short one or two of them made me feel.....unclean like they were interfering with my other software. I like a pristine registry. 😉

So I whip out my Drive Image backup (clone) of the that very install of Windows XP and restore it. Exact same hardware. Exact same drivers, updates, Windows XP version. The darn thing was never even shut down!

I'm not sure I what you mean by that last part. I'm guessing that you mean it was rebooted, but not actually turned off.

Then I install Glidos on it.......AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaagggghhhh!!!! Another new Glidos ID!

Despite you using an image of the drive, things will change after a restore and reboot. This is especially true for XP.

......and to top it off, I forgot to back up my Tomb Raider saves...

Well, I'm afraid you'll have to talk to the "man-in-the-mirror" about that.

Yeah, I just meant it was not even powered down like you would do to replace hardware, just rebooted.

I don't know what would change in XP during a restore from and image of that very Windows XP install that would cause Glidos to decide it needs to die! This is my point. I'd sure like to know exactly what it is that this thing is tied into so I can try to avoid hosing it every other day. My last keys died for no apparent reason at all, unless changing my Nvidia drivers from 30.82 to 43.45 killed it.

Jeeez, does Glidos just randomly die when you reboot or something? Maybe if you change your desktop wallpaper, that would kill it? How about creating a new shortcut in your start menu...does that kill Glidos? 😕

*pounds head violently against keyboard*

Originally posted by AntiSnipe Yeah, I just meant it was not even powered down like you would do to replace hardware, just rebooted.

Ok.

I don't know what would change in XP during a restore from and image of that very Windows XP install that would cause Glidos to decide it needs to die!

Kind of low on sleep, and I really don't know the OS well enough to say too much...I will say however that XP actively "looks" for changes of any type. Win9x and 2000 did this as well, but XP has taken it to a new level. Had I not changed my "profile" to that of a "Laptop" computer, the I almost certainly would've triggered activation due to my testing other hardware. (This is above and beyond the 3 or 4 times I had already triggered it before I realized what I was doing).

I could've also installed the SP1 "patch", but I decided against it due to some changes not being specified about how activation works afterwards...

Even if you remove a card, the install the same card again, the OS will go through an "auto-configuring new hardware" (even if it doesn't say so...) phase. That's not the technically correct description, but hopefully you know what I'm saying. I've actually set up my dual-boot to default to Win98SE so as to avoid triggering activation while testing hardware (since that was the cause for two of the "activation’s").

Even if it actively looks for changes, there were none! What's it going to do just uninstall and reinstall something at random? Drive Image puts it back right down to your desktop settings, explorer history, mouse sensitivity, everything. If you didn't defrag before the backup, the thing would put it back as un-defragged as it was before!

The only difference now and before the restore is 2 or 3 games are not yet reinstalled as they were installed after the original Windows install and backup. Does this mean Glidos can break just by installing a game or some other software? I'm not trying to be a smart A, but I really don't get this.

According to Paul, Glidos is not even tied to the sound or video card? So I could change them and not break Glidos? Yet it seems to break all by itself when nothing that I'm aware of has changed. I'm thinking back now to the last time it broke itself just a few days ago. I hadn't changed anything but my video card drivers.

The Windows install that this backup came from was only a week or two old in the first place. I got new Glidos keys then and they have broken twice now in that time. The only change from the previous Windows install before that was the sound card.....glidos broke then too and that's why I got the new keys after the Windows fresh reinstall (the one I made the backup from with the new sound card).

I may be able to send you a little app that displays the things Glidos keys on and then you can see which changes. This would be a hlep to me.

Originally posted by AntiSnipe Even if it actively looks for changes, there were none! What's it going to do just uninstall and reinstall something at random? Drive Image puts it back right down to your desktop settings, explorer history, mouse sensitivity, everything.

What I'm saying is that changes happen, even if the end result appears to be the same.

...but I really don't get this.

Well hopefully Paul's app will help you out. Might have to try it myself...*heh* Still think it's funny how I triggered the change by slightly enlarging one of my partitions.

I can play around with the app if you want Paul. Let me know if I should tinker with certain things along with it to test too.

I think we figured this one out though. The more I know what triggers change, the better I can avoid it.......or possibly "fix" it back when I do break it.

Thanks again Paul.