Activation odysee sucks

[Guest]

I have a vista installed and activated, which I use mainly for testing.
Today I booted it after 2 weeks, and I was forced to activate again. Why???
Only because I have added an additional USB LAN?? Well I often have to add
and remove HW to do testing. But CPU and HD remains the same. So why again a
NERVING and time waisting activation???

I tried to activate online. This did not work, because I have disabled the
network last time I booted, because I do not want that computer always being
connected with the internet.
But it was not possible to active the network connection, so I was forced to
activate via phone and first listen to a long message 'do you want to
particiate ....'
And then type in the bunch of digits, although I had activated that windows
before.
And after activating at the right bottom there is still printed 'This
windows has not been verified....' WHY????????
I called again the activation hotline, but they were not able to help me,
and told be to call a number, but they are no available after 6pm. :-((((

This was not the first time I had problems to activate windows vista.
Another time even the support was unable to help me activating a french
windows vista. Finally after 1 hour trying to solve that with the support, I
installed it again. Why can't this be made user friendly and working
reliable.


This is REALLY extremly nerving. I have to work with the computer and not to
activate it again and again and waisting time with that!!!! Who pays me the
time?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Telephone activation takes about 6 minutes...less time
then it took you to write your rant.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

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

:

I have a vista installed and activated, which I use mainly for testing.
Today I booted it after 2 weeks, and I was forced to activate again. Why???
Only because I have added an additional USB LAN?? Well I often have to add
and remove HW to do testing. But CPU and HD remains the same. So why again a
NERVING and time waisting activation???

I tried to activate online. This did not work, because I have disabled the
network last time I booted, because I do not want that computer always being
connected with the internet.
But it was not possible to active the network connection, so I was forced to
activate via phone and first listen to a long message 'do you want to
particiate ....'
And then type in the bunch of digits, although I had activated that windows
before.
And after activating at the right bottom there is still printed 'This
windows has not been verified....' WHY????????
I called again the activation hotline, but they were not able to help me,
and told be to call a number, but they are no available after 6pm. :-((((

This was not the first time I had problems to activate windows vista.
Another time even the support was unable to help me activating a french
windows vista. Finally after 1 hour trying to solve that with the support, I
installed it again. Why can't this be made user friendly and working
reliable.


This is REALLY extremly nerving. I have to work with the computer and not to
activate it again and again and waisting time with that!!!! Who pays me the
time?

 

[Guest]

Telephone activation takes about 6 minutes...less time

then it took you to write your rant.

I would have not writen this because of less 6 minutes.
But if I had to activate it again and activation did not work properly and
installing the french windows took 1 hour!!!

 

[Guest]

i reactivated over the phone AGAIN
I think there is a MS issue they are NOT telling anyone either

 

[Kevin D. Butler]

So, does this also apply to KMS installations/activations?? We have our KMS
server active, but havent hit the required 25 installs. I am assuming that
we will need to contact the 8xx number and manually activate until we
surpass the 25 requirement, correct??

 

[Seth]

So, does this also apply to KMS installations/activations?? We have our
KMS server active, but havent hit the required 25 installs. I am assuming
that we will need to contact the 8xx number and manually activate until we
surpass the 25 requirement, correct??

No, just build enough machines within 30 days to get over the 25 limit. If
you call to activate, you are not using KMS, but rather MAK. Each one you
activate with MAK will not register on your KMS server and your count will
never grow.

My agreement with Microsoft, we aren't paying by the KMS count, but rather
SMS inventory at a yearly "true-up". SO I just had my staff building and
rebuilding a few machines until the count got to 25.

 

[Joe Morris]

My agreement with Microsoft, we aren't paying by the KMS count, but rather
SMS inventory at a yearly "true-up". SO I just had my staff building and
rebuilding a few machines until the count got to 25.

I wonder if there are any VLA customers planning to use a KMS that *haven't*
done that. It's amazing how long it seems to take to reach that magic
number (especially if you have to rely on a different department to provide
the current n-count).

Speaking of which...has anyone run across a good utility that takes the KMS
event log file and generates a report spreadsheet showing the hostnames and
timestamps for requests for activation? (Yes, I'm aware that MOM supports
KMS and has a report module for it, but I'm looking for a standalone program
that can read the KMS event log file and spit out a spreadsheet file.
Failing tht, is the KMS event log entry format documented somewhere?

Joe Morris

 

[Seth]

I wonder if there are any VLA customers planning to use a KMS that
*haven't* done that. It's amazing how long it seems to take to reach that
magic number (especially if you have to rely on a different department to
provide the current n-count).

Speaking of which...has anyone run across a good utility that takes the
KMS event log file and generates a report spreadsheet showing the
hostnames and timestamps for requests for activation? (Yes, I'm aware
that MOM supports KMS and has a report module for it, but I'm looking for
a standalone program that can read the KMS event log file and spit out a
spreadsheet file. Failing tht, is the KMS event log entry format
documented somewhere?

Data is stored in the EventLog on the server. View it there, or use the
tool of your choice to dump the log to a file and then parse it.

 

[Joe Morris]

Data is stored in the EventLog on the server. View it there, or use the
tool of your choice to dump the log to a file and then parse it.

Yes, it's stored on the server, since that's where the KMS is.

I don't have (and for separation-of-duties reasons, should not have) access
to the server, but I can get the server group to dump the raw event log and
send it to me. That's why I was asking about a tool that is capable of
interpreting the data in the raw file. Do you have a recommendation for
such a tool, or do you have a citation that documents all of the data (both
text and binary) in the log file?

Joe Morris

 

[Seth]

Yes, it's stored on the server, since that's where the KMS is.

I don't have (and for separation-of-duties reasons, should not have)
access to the server, but I can get the server group to dump the raw event
log and send it to me. That's why I was asking about a tool that is
capable of interpreting the data in the raw file. Do you have a
recommendation for such a tool, or do you have a citation that documents
all of the data (both text and binary) in the log file?

Just homegrown stuff (once the log has been dumped).

In VB, I read the log file dump in line-by-line. Each line has, properly
separated, the different columns of the eventlog so that part is easy. The
last field is what you need to parse into the various fields that you are
looking for. Here is an example of the contents of that field...

An activation request has been processed.
Info:
0x0,25,machinename.domain.local,b2aabfbd-87ae-4296-90b3-9aeea36f424f,2007/8/29
3:0,0,2,42967,cfd8ff08-c0d7-452b-9f60-ef5c70c32094


So, the pseudo code would be (I can't give you the actual code as that is
the property of my employer and it wouldn't apply cause I wrote it for
capturing a different event, but everytime I have modified it to a different
event it's been pretty much the same)...

DumpEL to export the eventlog

open dump file for read
open a CSV file for append

read first line
capture date, time and Description fields into variables
Parse through the Description field plucking the parts you want into
separate variables (They're all comma separated)
Print all the variables, comma separated, into the CSV file
Loop until EOL

Close open files

Now you can import the CSV file into whatever you want (Excel, Access, SQL,
whatever...) and has the data anywhich way you want.

 

[Ted F]

Bull...!! I doesn't take 6 minutes...Try over two hours to get someone live
and then you can't even understand the person your talking too.

No one shouldn't have to go thought this process after paying good money, I
mean a lot of cash for this vista operating system. Also, costing more
money to call MS.

 

[Leythos]

Bull...!! I doesn't take 6 minutes...Try over two hours to get someone live
and then you can't even understand the person your talking too.

No one shouldn't have to go thought this process after paying good money, I
mean a lot of cash for this vista operating system. Also, costing more
money to call MS

Without exception, the few times I've had to phone activate, because I
reused a key by accident, it's taken less than 10 minutes.

--

Leythos
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
(e-mail address removed) (remove 999 for proper email address)

 

[Matthew Harrison]

Without exception, the few times I've had to phone activate, because I
reused a key by accident, it's taken less than 10 minutes.

I've been paying for MS software since year dot, up to Vista - I never
had to spend a single minute stuffing around with asking permission to
use what I bought.

Since Vista has cursed my desktop and laptop, I have had nothing but issues.

Tonight, I was having compatibility issues, so I did as suggested (by
MS) and ensured I had up to date BIOS.

BIOS updates, reboot machine - and it ADDs to my existing problems by
now telling me it is going to shut down in 3 days.

So I have to ring up like a little kid begging to be allowed to continue
to use the software I bought.

Jeez Microsoft - do you really think treating your customers like
criminals is going to endear them to you.


Oh - I forgot, the software pirates I run into all the time who don't
have genuine advantage ... they NEVER have to go through this crap.

So you treat us WORSE than criminals.

 

[Matthew Harrison]

Telephone activation takes about 6 minutes...less time
then it took you to write your rant.

1 hour 30 minutes from the 'wtf' to having activation back again.

And this assumes you have a phone available, can understand the
operator, that you can hear and see.

And your comment is beside the point.

Having software I have to beg to use every few months - even if it takes
10 seconds ...

Fix it so I can reactivate on the computer.

20 Years ago IBM got as arrogant as Microsoft are now ... be careful, or
you will follow the same path to insignificance they did.

My hundreds of hours fighting with Vista over the last 6 months has
convinced me to end of life Microsoft within 2 years.

The extra thousands I spent to get it working, and Microsoft still has
us begging to use the software.