evan_237

I bought a full retail version of Vista Home Premium (retail) when it was first released earlier this year. It has never been installed on more than one computer. Recently, I did some hardware updates to include a new graphics card, CPU, and power supply. I went through a clean install of Vista and checked the option that I wanted to reactivate via the internet during the reinstall process. Then when Vista was reinstalled, I got a message indicating that I must activate within 3 days (second time). I did so (through the internet) and windows vista indicated it was activated. Then a couple of days later, I got the silly pop up message that I must activate "again" because of hardware changes! This happened a couple of times. Now, everything "seems" fine and windows shows activated. However, after this process, I decided to call MS directly to "reconfirm" activation as stupid as that may sound. I called 1-866-740-1256. Someone in India told me that unless it was showing a need for activation at this time (which it is not) and unless I had the 16 digit number (which I don't) then there was no help they could offer. They referred me to technical support at 1-800-Microsoft. The representative at 1-800-Microsoft took down the information and told me the same thing that basically there was nothing she could do. I told her all I wanted to do was reconfirm this activation (even though it shows activated now). I advised I thought this was nonsense to have to worry about a continual activation problem and it could only be hoped that I would not be prompted to activate again! She said she was not actually technical support and that unless I was agreeable to pay the $59.00, I could not speak with a technical support representative. I told her I was not agreeable to do that as it sounded like they were unable to help and that again, I could only hope that I won't be prompted to activate this software again! The whole process is ridiculous! Has anyone else experienced this issue? Is there any way to ensure I won't be prompted anymore to reactivate? Any feedback is appreciated. P.S. Of course I havethe 25 digit product key. The system asked fort that the first time I registered but not on subseqent prompts to reactivate. Scott

After doing several upgrades to my machine (to include the video card and CPU), I decided to do a clean install of Win Vista. Two strange events happened. First, during the process of downloading all of my Windows Updates, I happened to notice that some of them were duplicates. In other words, some of them were being offered to me when I had previously downloaded them during this reinstall process. Some of the duplicates being offered included the following: Security Update for Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB936181) Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - November 2007 (KB890830) Atheros Communications, Inc (wireless card) These are just the duplicates I happened to notice. However, it was annoying to learn that I was being offered windows updates for specific updates that I had already downloaded with my reinstallation. In the case of the first update (listed above), it installed a total of 6 times on my computer. Crazy! The other issue was activation. This is a retail version of Win Vista Home Premium. While the registration process allowed me to do it sucessfully online (without any telephone calls), I got a message (one day later) indicating that because of some hardware changes, that I would need to register windows again. Keep in mind, I already reactivated Windows Vista Home Premium "after" the hardware upgrades so why was I being asked to register again. Will this registration stick or will I get the message again some time? Does anyone have any ideas on why these things happened. Any feedback on how to stop them? I appreciate any feedback. My PC specs are below: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz (Q6600) 1066 FSB 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs Two 250 GB Sata Hard Drives Philips DVD-ROM6316 TSSTCorp DVD+-RW TS-H553A 13 in 1 Media Card Reader Dell 1907 flatpanel (digital) EVGA nVidia GeForce 8800 GT Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 32 bit Vista Home Premium with Raid 0