[thawkth]

Edit: I was confidently incorrect. It was some OEM/volume license versions that did not require activation.

Only XP Home required this.

XP Pro did not need online activation.

That's likely why some people are saying they never had to do it.

[iso1631]

I remember a week spent working on a corporate helpdesk in 2004 when phoning up to activate windows was a thing. I think it was the volume license key that didn't need activation -- the one we used in the "gold masters". For some laptops which were off to places where the corporate network didn't reach, they had retail xp profiessional installed.

[thawkth]

I am sorry you are correct and I was mistaken.

[iso1631]

You're clearly not chatgpt then!

This morning it confidently told me that BFD packets from a cisco IOS device would be tagged EF. I asked if it were sure it wasn't CS6, then it apologised and said it was CS6. Then I asked if it was sure it wasn't AF31 and it agreed it was AF31.