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Windows 7 activation/Windows Updates


Sophy

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Windows Activation: I received instruction on this forum for doing a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit on this Dell dekstop, which was previously Vista Home Premium.  When I got to that last page where you put in your product number (from the OEM disk I purchased), I was told to put in the number but not to click on Activate (since I was disconnected from the Internet). 

I started putting in the product number and the screen flashed and went away. I did not accidentally hit something else because I was just using 1 finger to enter this number and wasn't even looking at the screen. I had entered about 5 numbers/letters when this happened. 

When I went to System, at the bottom it shows a Product ID number and when I click on the Change Product Key link it shows the screen I have attached. I'm a bit afraid of doing something wrong, so I am asking, should I go ahead and type in the actual Product Key I was given with this disk and then click on the Activate button on that screen?

Windows Updates: I clicked on updates last night after I finished and it ran and ran and ran. When I checked there were only two updates shown. I ran Belarc Advisor this morning and there are a whole list of updates that are needed. Do I have to activate before I can install the updates, or is there something else going on here?updates.PNG

Prod ID.PNG

Prod key.PNG

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You will need to activate eventually. You have 30 days from the date of install before the OS goes into Notification and disables Personalization. If you have connection to the internet now, you can type in your product key and activate online.

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  • xper changed the title to Windows 7 activation/Windows Updates

I did go ahead and activate at 1 a.m. this morning. It didn't work online, but I called the number given and the automated phone activation took 5-10 minutes and gave me the activation code. I was very happy.

Now I have two problems. One is the Windows Update which I already mentioned. I ran that this morning after I activated and just left it and went back to bed. It was still running 8 hours later (at 9 a.m). If there are no updates then it should have stopped and reported that Windows is up to date.

Secondly, I can't change the boot order back to the hard drive. Does this possibly have anything to do with keeping two of the Dell partitions from my Vista (following submix9c's directions)? Those would be the Dell Utility partition and the NTFS partition (type '07') of about 10 GB, which is used by the Recovery Environment and holds the Dell backup image. 

When I push the correct key (F12) it takes me to a BIOS page but it looks nothing like what I had before. On my Vista it was a brite blue page with white lettering. On the left I could page down to the BIOS setup, then page over on the right to the actual drives and change their order. Now I have a black screen that I believe said BIOS boot menu;  it showed my CD first, then my Samsung HD, then USB. But there was no way I could find to change that order. I could page down to the Samsung HD and then hit enter and boot, but without being able to change the order I will have to be right at my computer and watching so I can push that F12 key at the right time every time the computer boots or restarts.

EUREKA!!

I went to the Dell site, used my service code and went to drivers and downloads. I did a bunch of reading and then decided to try this thing with the BIOS once more. I am very happy and excited to report that I have my boot order back in order. So now all I have left to work out is the update situation. If you have any clues about that please share. If not, thank you for listening anyway!

Edited by Sophy
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JFYI, for a number of (TOTALLY UNCLEAR) reasons, Windows update has become a mess since several months, see here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175349-kb3083710-and-kb3102810-needed-for-windows-update/

Not earlier than three days ago, even after having run the "selfstanding" Windows Update referenced in the thread, a new install of 7 took more than 6 hours to complete the update list retrieving (before it took what seemed "forever" and I aborted the attempt).

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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Side Note - F12 is for going into the Diagnostics. You probably used the F2 to get in a "fix" it. Please confirm.

Also with the "Windows Updates" updates that jaclaz linked to (get them manually) you MAY get a better Windows Updates experience. I have a Clean Windows 7 sitting at the side with ONLY the WUA (Windows Update Agent) Version 7.6.7600.320 installed and Manually went to Windows Update to get JUST the necessary Updated Drivers. It was pretty quick. I blame Microsoft for clobbering their Update Servers for the sake of Windows 10.

Manually download and Install this (WUA v7.6.7600.320) and try again. You MAY get a bit further as it seems to help in the "redirect" that MS now uses.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2887535
Be aware that newer "WUA updates" exist (linked by jaclaz) but the FIRST one that needs installed SEEMS to be the v320 one as MS doesn't APPEAR to "offer" it whatsoever via Windows Update (anymore).

HTH

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Yes, I used the F2 key to get into my BIOS.

I was so afraid of this whole process; afraid I'd miss something and mess things up, afraid it wouldn't activate when I was done. When I couldn't get in to change my boot order back I was sure I had messed something up and everything was going to be a wash. I gave up a prayer of thanks when that worked out for me. Now I can't get Windows Update to work.

I read through all that stuff linked by jaclaz, but it just makes me dizzy and want to weep because I don't get this information the way you guys do and I've struggled and struggled. I have run so many things and done so many things recommended by Microsoft to try and get these updates to work. After I installed that update agent update you gave me the link for I was able to install one update that I had downloaded manually from the Microsoft Download Center and I was so thrilled. I thought it was finally fixed. So I downloaded a couple more updates and now it's back to not working.

Last evening when I ran the Windows Update Diagnostics, twice I got the error 0x8024402c. I just ran that again and got the same error. In every thing I found online about this error it says to go into Internet Explorer and make some changes, but I can't follow through the path they give me. Tools/Internet Options/Connections/LAN Settings/Advanced ... and this is where I'm stopped. I don't have any Advanced.

I have attached the Windows Update Diagnostics report i received for this error. If you don't wish to look at it perhaps someone else would take a look and PLEASE tell me how I can fix this issue.:wacko:

0x8024402C.PNG

WU diag report.txt

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(Aw shoot... I recognize that.) Hold off on Updates (i.e. turn it "off" for a while until I or another can check on it and give the solution. Pretty sure it was a dumb simple one, so don't fret.

Sorry, gotta go right now BUT will return tomorrow. Hopefully, someone else will clue you.

L8tr, Sophy...

@everyone - KISS as she's a real novice, m-kay?

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Thank you, submix8c. I'm so happy to tell you that Windows Update just started working about 20 minutes ago. Right now I have 252 updates sitting for installation. Again ... thank you, thank you ... for everything you've done ... so very much!

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:thumbup There's a Donate button somewhere floating around the main page. I know you have an extremely limited budget but anything you can give will help.

Not to scare you, but at first opportunity go to this Topic and read the first post carefully. It appears to be rather confusing but there are certain Updates you may not want. That is unless you WANT to wipe out your shiny new Windows 7 with Windows 10 "Free Upgrade". Be aware that several of them appear to be perfectly fine and directly relate to Windows Update. Avoid the GWX one like the plague!

Yes, it's in the Windows8 Subforum, but dencorso made a post in the Windows7 Subforum pointing to it as it applies to both Windows 7.x AND Windows 8.x (to avoid repetition). Again, take your time on reading it. Mainly (usually, unless MS changes Windows Update again) they'll be in "Optional Updates" so do NOT select them until you absorb the content of the looong thread. I personally had to install at least one of the Windows Update Client ones to get mine to stop "stalling".

Final note - Remember to get your Install backed up Offline (hope you have enough space left on your External) as soon as your satisfied with everything. FWIW, Windows7 has a Built-In Full Backup To VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) facility that can be easily restored from via F8 (works similar to other Partition Clone Software).

You're good to go now, Sophy! Glad we could help out. ;)

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Also (only as moral support) it is common enough to get dizzy when dealing with this late Update madness, as said there is seemingly not a "right" always working solution, noone has a real grasp on the root cause of it, maybe it is the combination (as someone has suggested) of "overlapping" updates that make the update program either fail or take a lot of time to compute or maybe (as someone else suggested) it is the good MS guys intentionally making the experience so terrible for Windows 7 users that - out of despair - they choose to be updated to Windows 10, surely it is a major and very common issue, and all this only because they decided that the periodical, cumulative, pre-assembled updates release (a Service Pack) was either too much work for them or too d@mn simple and working that they HAD to change it.

Someone should calculate the total amount of hours computers are "frozen" all around the world during these stupid updates (let alone the global bandwidth wasted) and make the comparison with that actually needed to download a "latest" service pack (BTW re-usable on n machines) and use windows update for just the small amount of later updates.
The hugeness of such numbers should give people an idea of the amount of damage this stupid approach causes.

jaclaz 
 

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