I installed Vista Home Premium Upgrade. During the installation there was a
power outage. I called MS and was told to perform a clean install, which I
did. Now I cannot activate the Vista. I have 22 days left to activate. The
error message I am receiving is as follows.

Invalid Product Key

Code 0XC005 FO61

The software licensing servicedetermined that this specified product can
only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations.

I plan to contact MS help by phone again tomorrow, but wanted to know if
anyone else has experienced this problem. Is there a solution?
--
RBO

tufus1 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Invalid Product Key
>
> Code 0XC005 FO61
>
> The software licensing servicedetermined that this specified product can
> only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations.
>
> I plan to contact MS help by phone again tomorrow, but wanted to know if
> anyone else has experienced this problem. Is there a solution?

yes, it's been a surprisingly common problem, the best solution is to
get a Mac since Apple trusts its customers and doesn't require any
activation for OSX.

http://www.apple.com/

http://www.apple.com/macosx/

Open a command prompt and enter

slui 4

Then go through the prompts.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"tufus1" wrote:

I installed Vista Home Premium Upgrade. During the installation there was a
power outage. I called MS and was told to perform a clean install, which I
did. Now I cannot activate the Vista. I have 22 days left to activate. The
error message I am receiving is as follows.

Invalid Product Key

Code 0XC005 FO61

The software licensing servicedetermined that this specified product can
only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations.

I plan to contact MS help by phone again tomorrow, but wanted to know if
anyone else has experienced this problem. Is there a solution?
--
RBO

I followed your instructions. After I gave the code numbers to the system it
responded that it did not recognize my Vista as a valid product and that I
must either uninstall and reinstall vista or contact my retailer for a new
copy of the product. I believe the problem exists because I was at the 78%
point in the final installation of the upgrade when I experienced the power
outage. It appears that, at that point, my windows XP system had been
removed from the computer, allowing me to only perform a new clean install.
Now, the normal methods for activation are not working. I do not think I
should try to uninstall and reinstall at this point, since it would have to
be a clean install and the same problem would persist. Is there another
method by which I can activate Vista. The system is working beautifully at
this time and I don't want to lose it.
--
RBO


"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

> Open a command prompt and enter
>
> slui 4
>
> Then go through the prompts.
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows - Shell/User
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "tufus1" wrote:
>
> I installed Vista Home Premium Upgrade. During the installation there was a
> power outage. I called MS and was told to perform a clean install, which I
> did. Now I cannot activate the Vista. I have 22 days left to activate. The
> error message I am receiving is as follows.
>
> Invalid Product Key
>
> Code 0XC005 FO61
>
> The software licensing servicedetermined that this specified product can
> only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations.
>
> I plan to contact MS help by phone again tomorrow, but wanted to know if
> anyone else has experienced this problem. Is there a solution?
> --
> RBO

"tufus1" wrote:

> I followed your instructions. After I gave the code numbers to the system it
> responded that it did not recognize my Vista as a valid product and that I
> must either uninstall and reinstall vista or contact my retailer for a new
> copy of the product. I believe the problem exists because I was at the 78%
> point in the final installation of the upgrade when I experienced the power
> outage. It appears that, at that point, my windows XP system had been
> removed from the computer, allowing me to only perform a new clean install.
> Now, the normal methods for activation are not working. I do not think I
> should try to uninstall and reinstall at this point, since it would have to
> be a clean install and the same problem would persist. Is there another
> method by which I can activate Vista. The system is working beautifully at
> this time and I don't want to lose it.
> --
> RBO


Well, you can solve your own problem by uninstalling Vista and reinstalling
WinXP, and then following the upgrade installation for Vista. It needs to
see your WinXP on your machine to upgrade it.

It should work just fine so don't fear that you will lose anything other
than some time.

Or you can contact Microsoft Tech, which is over-loaded with support issues
currently. That might actually cost you more in the way of time.

I spent 6 hours on the phone today with microsoft techs (3). Still no
solution. I purchased a new HP computer in October, but there was no SP
installation disk. Hence, due to the clean install, I am unable to now
install XP after I uninstall vista. I was finally given a new product key.
I simply performed a new clean install using the upgrade Disk. It seems to
have worked, although I have not checked to see if the activation process was
successful.
--
RBO


"Ed Stoddard" wrote:

>
>
> "tufus1" wrote:
>
> > I followed your instructions. After I gave the code numbers to the system it
> > responded that it did not recognize my Vista as a valid product and that I
> > must either uninstall and reinstall vista or contact my retailer for a new
> > copy of the product. I believe the problem exists because I was at the 78%
> > point in the final installation of the upgrade when I experienced the power
> > outage. It appears that, at that point, my windows XP system had been
> > removed from the computer, allowing me to only perform a new clean install.
> > Now, the normal methods for activation are not working. I do not think I
> > should try to uninstall and reinstall at this point, since it would have to
> > be a clean install and the same problem would persist. Is there another
> > method by which I can activate Vista. The system is working beautifully at
> > this time and I don't want to lose it.
> > --
> > RBO
>
>
> Well, you can solve your own problem by uninstalling Vista and reinstalling
> WinXP, and then following the upgrade installation for Vista. It needs to
> see your WinXP on your machine to upgrade it.
>
> It should work just fine so don't fear that you will lose anything other
> than some time.
>
> Or you can contact Microsoft Tech, which is over-loaded with support issues
> currently. That might actually cost you more in the way of time.