naddie

Plus, mannyo, did you mean you installed your OEM on a PC, then installed the same OEM using the same OEM key on another PC and still able to use the online activation? No a different copy, I am slowly upgrading the 3 desktops in use at home. Ah, I understand now. However, I need to reinstall Vista OEM on my laptop (a fresh install) because it buggered out. It was activated before. So my question is if I re-install Vista OEM from scratch again, am I able to re-activiate online, or do I have to call? And of course, my original question was (so I don't have to keep calling when I have to reinstall from scratch) how can I back up the "activated" status of Vista so after a fresh reinstall, I can restore it without needing to jump through Microsoft's hopps?

Is this for Royalty OEMs? Because I'm speaking about a barebones laptop I built myself (what a fun little project THAT was...), so that means I may not have a SLC.dll. I will check it out though, thanks. I recall something about an XML file.

Thanks for restating my question. I think it got lost in the chatter. Although activation for OEM keys will work over online for now, it may not in the future (knowing MS's history). Plus, mannyo, did you mean you installed your OEM on a PC, then installed the same OEM using the same OEM key on another PC and still able to use the online activation?

That is the default key it uses for the 30-day demo. It applies this key when you do not input any key during the install. For proof, install without inputing any keys. Then use an elevated priv CMD prompt and type "slmgr -dlv". The resultant windows will come up in about a minute and show you the partial key, and that you have 30 days (actually it will say 29) left. The partial key should match the last digits of the key you just extracted.

This is much faster: 1) Hit "the button formally known as Start". 2) Type in "cmd" in the Search box. 3) Right-click on "cmd" that appears in the results and click "Run as administrator". Agree to run as admin, and have a nice day.

So online activation will still work for OEM keys as long as it is on the same hardware? I thought Microsoft disabled all OEM keys from being activated online, leaving the phone option the only viable solution. I know this was true of XP, but if it is working with Vista now, there is still a good chance where Microsoft will still do this for Vista in the future. I don't have a SLP OEM key. Mine is a self-built MSI barebones laptop (MSI-1013). Strangely, it's been working fine with the public betas, and even the 30-day trial of the final Ultimate Edition (tried this out before finally giving into my purchased license for Premium). So I'm not sure if the reason why you are installing fine without re-activating is because it is a SLP OEM (Toshiba is a Royalty OEM).

I believe you can download and install WMP on your own to get that function. That version just didn't bundle it in because of another country's law. It was a matter of giving other people a choice of media player (so other media player makers have a chance in the industry). My favorite non-Microsoft player that can play WMV and WMA files (unprotected) is Media Player Classic (freeware). It is modeled to look like the old Media Player 6.4 of yore but with much more features. WinAMP and RealPlayer also plays these files. However, I think you will still need WMP11 to play protected WMV/WMA files.

I just installed Vista Premium OEM and activated it on my laptop and started to do updates and install Symantec AV 10.2 (corporate edition). However, it would BSOD (like it flashes) and then reboots on me during start up (I've narrowed it down to Symantec AV 10.2, even though I installed the WIN32VISTA version). Unfortunately, I tried all the repair options on the Windows Vista DVD to no avail. Before I do something more drastic (do a install-over repair, or a fresh re-install), is there any way for me to back up the Activated status like you can with Windows XP? I read that Vista keeps the unique hash as a file somewhere just like XP did. I'd hate to have keep calling MS for activation if it crashes again. Thanks. PS: Is there a known issue with SAV and Vista 32-bit? I'd hate to shell out that kind of $$$ for SAV if it won't work with Vista on forward (and would have to resort to use AVG 7.5 free-edition since I already spent my money on Symantec).