Vista Reactivation

[Daniel L. Lieberman]

For office there was a small file which if saved permitted a reinstall on
the same machine with the same hardware after a hard disk reformat.

Is there such a file for Vista Business?

TIA

 

[Chad Harris]

Daniel--

I'd be interested in a link to info on this or knowing the file and the
Version of Office. I'm not sure what you mean. I've reinstalled different
versions of Office many times by simply installing them after a format or
say on many different Vista builds--but I had the CD or access to a download
during the days of Office Beta trials.

If you reformat on the same machine with the same hardware, I am not sure
why you would need anything special besides the Vista DVD.

I think you are asking because you bought a box with preinstalled Vista and
the manufacturer and MSFT cooperated to make sure you got no Vista DVD for
your hard earned cash. Am I correct?

CH

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Daniel,

No, there isn't. Think about it logically. If there were an easy bypass like
that, then the file would quickly be copied and passed around to the
millions of internet users so that no one would have to activate. If you
format and clean install, you merely need to reactivate, it's not like
you're not allowed to do that. And yeah, it may be a momentary hassle (2-3
minutes maybe if you have to phone it in), but it's not like it takes hours.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Rick Rogers]

I think you are asking because you bought a box with preinstalled Vista

and the manufacturer and MSFT cooperated to make sure you got no Vista DVD
for your hard earned cash. Am I correct?

I don't think this is Daniel's reasoning, Chad, as he's indicating that he
wants to be able to do a clean install without activating. If he has no
restore media, then he would have no means of doing so and having an
activation file would be meaningless. Even a restore partition is sufficient
for this process, though still requires reactivation. No, I think - and
Daniel can confirm or deny this - that he just wants to be able to clean
install without having to reactivate.

Strikes me as sort of odd that people are willing to spend an hour or so
reinstalling, and another hour (at a minimum, more like 3-4 in some cases)
reconfiguring and reinstalling software, but are not willing to spend the
few moments it requires to reactivate (and it's something that doesn't even
need to be done immediately in order to use the machine). While I'm no fan
of this requirement or Microsoft's perceived need for it, I don't find the
actual steps needed to accomplish it to be any encumberance.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Daniel L. Lieberman]

Chad,

You guessed wrong. I have the DVD. The issue is reactivating on the same
machine which might appear as though it was on a different machine.

Daniel

 

[Daniel L. Lieberman]

Rick,

Are you saying that I can reactivate on the same machine? That is all I want
to do. I thought that once you activated that License was used and could not
be reactivated on the same machine.

Daniel

 

[Daniel L. Lieberman]

Rick,

The Office file checked multiple factors such as hard disk size, memory,
network card etc and they had to match for the file to work.
It wouldn't work on a different machine. (It may have even obtained data
from the BIOS.)

Daniel

P.S. I see that this message answered the question posed in my response to
your first message, i.a. that a reactivation is possible over the internet.
All I want to avoid is talking to the people in India who aren't fluent
American English speakers.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

If it really is the same machine (no hardware changes) than you
can activate online, no phone call required.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Rick Rogers]

Yes, Daniel, you can reactivate on the same machine as often as you feel
like reinstalling.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org