i think the problem is that he got a crack from a p2p network.
I had this same problem, because the crack didn't work properly, it only got rid of the small keys icon that was at the bottom of the screen.
It allowed you to use windows as if it were registered, (e.g allowed to join a domain), but after 30 days it broke...
My solution was that I had to re-install...
setting back the clock in the bios did give me a few more days, (but I was restoring from a ghost image so I don't know if this will work after the activation period is realised to be expired)...
Phoning Microsoft didn't work, because when the dialogue says do you want to activate now, I pressed OK, it says it's already activated and logs out!