Vista Activation

[Mike]

I had to reinstall Vista after it was activated.

When I try to activate for the second time
in less than a month, will I have to call India
and give a long set of numbers, and explain
why I am reinstalling ?

I have not changed any hardware at all.

Please help me to understand what causes
an activation to fail.

Thanks
Mike

 

[Rock]

I had to reinstall Vista after it was activated.

When I try to activate for the second time
in less than a month, will I have to call India
and give a long set of numbers, and explain
why I am reinstalling ?

I have not changed any hardware at all.

Please help me to understand what causes
an activation to fail.

Reinstalling triggers activation. Yes, you'll probably need to call.

 

[Guest]

If you have the same drivers installed, or at least drivers that make the
hardware look the same as when you last activated you will activate over the
internet. If there is longer than 4 months between activations it forgets
what your previous hardware was and activates over the internet (essentially
you are a new user). Anything else requires telephone activation.

 

[Alias]

Reinstalling triggers activation. Yes, you'll probably need to call.

Well isn't that special. Even on the same hardware one has to call?
Makes you wonder if the what MS pays the overseas clerks, anti piracy
programmers and money lost from this bad PR is greater than what MS
recoups from "casual pirates" because it most certainly doesn't stop
real pirates.

Alias

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:09:27 +1000, <.> wrote:

If you have the same drivers installed, or at least drivers that make the
hardware look the same as when you last activated you will activate over the
internet. If there is longer than 4 months between activations it forgets
what your previous hardware was and activates over the internet (essentially
you are a new user). Anything else requires telephone activation.

....but is this XP-era info that is known to still apply to Vista,
Vitsa-era info, or is it XP-era info that we hope still applies?

Are there any URLs particular to "the rules" in Vista?

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Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!

 

[Guest]

Still hope it applies. This basic info should be in Help. We've gone back to
95 style help. All platitudes.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Well isn't that special. Even on the same hardware one has to call?

No. Re-activation over the Internet should work if the hardware is
the same.

 

[Rock]

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:09:27 +1000, <.> wrote:



...but is this XP-era info that is known to still apply to Vista,
Vitsa-era info, or is it XP-era info that we hope still applies?

Are there any URLs particular to "the rules" in Vista?

Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!

That's the problem. Activation in Vista is an unknown entity. There is no
documentation available to say what changes there are in it, so right now
most is just speculation.

 

[Rock]

No. Re-activation over the Internet should work if the hardware is
the same.

Have you done it? Or in other words how do you know this to be true? Not
trying to argue, just trying to get some facts.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Have you done it? Or in other words how do you know this to be true? Not
trying to argue, just trying to get some facts.

No, I personally haven't tried it, but I've read reports of people who have
done so successfully. Others who reported failure did the reinstall to a
different hard drive.

 

[Cal Bear '66]

I've reinstalled Vista on a freshly reformatted drive on the exact same hardware
and internet activation completed successfully.

 

[Rock]

No, I personally haven't tried it, but I've read reports of people who
have
done so successfully. Others who reported failure did the reinstall to a
different hard drive.

I restored a previously activated image on a new drive using ATI 10, and had
to phone in activation. I had read that Vista puts greater emphasis for
activation on the drive where Vista is installed. The process was simple,
the total time was 13 minutes on the call.

 

[Rock]

I've reinstalled Vista on a freshly reformatted drive on the exact same
hardware
and internet activation completed successfully.

Have you done it? Or in other words how do you know this to be true? Not
trying to argue, just trying to get some facts.

Ok, thanks.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Thanks for that confirmation.
The naysayers have been proven wrong again.

Gary VanderMolen

I've reinstalled Vista on a freshly reformatted drive on the exact same hardware
and internet activation completed successfully.

 

[Lilo Lentz]

To Cal Bear '66
You say it's possible on a freshly reformatted drive... very good, but was
that drive partitioned before the reformat?

I'm asking, because right now I have Vista on a 3rd partition of my main
harddrive.
If I should choose to reformat it all and repartition it again, will I be in
trouble?

Lilo

 

[Guest]

Cause you won't. Why would you think that. It based on if you stole the OS
or not. The computer may think that you are sus, but then you get to talk to
a human.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Sun, 1 Apr 2007 20:18:31 -0700, "Gary VanderMolen"

Thanks for that confirmation.
The naysayers have been proven wrong again.

Not really, no.

The test I'm after is where you are obliged to image your Vista
installation from one physical HD to another. Does Vista accept this,
or toss its cookies and force you to activate? If the latter, can you
do so via 'net, or do you have to talk to a human? Either way, is
there a limit to the number of times you can do this?

"Cal Bear '66" <[email protected]> wrote in message

I've reinstalled Vista on a freshly reformatted drive on the exact same hardware
and internet activation completed successfully.

Nice to know, but generally one prefers to avoid having reformat and
re-install when a HD goes bad (assuming you can evacuate the HD while
it is still alive; that's what SMART and surfaces testing are for)

And as claimed earlier, that should work; OK

Context is everything, but lost to the single-pass reply process in
the case of top-posting ;-)

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The rights you save may be your own

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

The test I'm after is where you are obliged to image your Vista
installation from one physical HD to another. Does Vista accept this,
or toss its cookies and force you to activate? If the latter, can you
do so via 'net, or do you have to talk to a human? Either way, is
there a limit to the number of times you can do this?

You will be forced to call in. The reason is that the different
drives' serial numbers don't jibe.

 

[Rock]

On Sun, 1 Apr 2007 20:18:31 -0700, "Gary VanderMolen"


Not really, no.

The test I'm after is where you are obliged to image your Vista
installation from one physical HD to another. Does Vista accept this,
or toss its cookies and force you to activate? If the latter, can you
do so via 'net, or do you have to talk to a human? Either way, is
there a limit to the number of times you can do this?



Nice to know, but generally one prefers to avoid having reformat and
re-install when a HD goes bad (assuming you can evacuate the HD while
it is still alive; that's what SMART and surfaces testing are for)


And as claimed earlier, that should work; OK

I imaged the Vista drive with Acronis True Image, then restored it to a new,
larger drive. It prompted for activation. Would not activate over the
internet. The last previous activation was in November of last year, more
than 120 days. During the phone call it wouldn't do it just by punching in
the numbers, was transferred to a live person. Asked just one question,
whether it was installed on more than one system (this is a retail version
of the OS). He gave me a series of numbers to enter and it activated.
Total time was 13 minutes.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

"cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)"

You will be forced to call in. The reason is that the different
drives' serial numbers don't jibe.

You see, that points to a substantial change that needs documentation.

Under the old XP component monitoring model, HD volume serial number
and hardware identity were tracked as separate "lives", which breaks
the "we only look at hardware" assertion (a volume serial number is a
software installation construct that is invalidated by format or
conversion of the file system, neither of which are hardware changes).

Again, under the XP model, 4 "lives" had to change before the pin was
pulled out of the Product Activation payload.

So now you are telling me that changing 1 out of n component lives, is
enough to trigger the payload? That's a big change from 4 out of 10.
Is the value of "n" still 10, and/or have the list of monitored items
changed? Where are these changes documented?

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The rights you save may be your own