I had to ring Microsoft - does everyone else

[RonaldoGomez]

Hi,

I've been using nLite for ages now. Love it! Great program.

I'm a frequent reformatter. I have a legitimate OEM copy of Windows XP Pro SP2. This I have nLited.

I recently re-installed Windows and then tried to activate it. It said I had to phone some number which I did. My copy of Windows is activated again but the woman on the phone said that I'd have to do this each time I re-installed Windows.

Is this really the case? And why has it only happened now after so many years?

If it is the case, then I'll be back on Linux straight away.

Thanks.

Ronaldo.

[jkey]

That would be most stupid reason to switch from XP to Linux

[RonaldoGomez]

That would be most stupid reason to switch from XP to Linux

Spending 15 minutes on the phone every month promising I'm not stealing something I've paid for isn't a stupid reason to make the switch back in my books.

Now... can anyone answer my question?

[Madhits45]

jkey honestly that was lame.

M$'s WGA & BS registration process wastes a lot of time. I completely agree with Ronaldo linux is the good choice. I have been reading a lot about M$'s future plans with WGA and the lot and from here on out its only going to get worse for the legit user.

Microsoft's last days are upon us. Versions of linux are coming ever so close to windows desktop ease of use. If apple ever releases a version of there OS on the PC look out as horrids of PC users would quickly jump ship.

I'm sorry Ronaldo but you have no options about the evil empires reg process for now. Give it time and they will either pull back or feel the consumer wrath.

[RonaldoGomez]

Cheers Madhits45. Looks like it's back to Linux then.

Pity. I quite like XP.

[machopeewee]

Just back up your activation file after you activate and you wont have to worry about that. Search in the forums and you will find out how.

[Speeddymon]

Hi,

I've been using nLite for ages now. Love it! Great program.

I'm a frequent reformatter. I have a legitimate OEM copy of Windows XP Pro SP2. This I have nLited.

I recently re-installed Windows and then tried to activate it. It said I had to phone some number which I did. My copy of Windows is activated again but the woman on the phone said that I'd have to do this each time I re-installed Windows.

Is this really the case? And why has it only happened now after so many years?

If it is the case, then I'll be back on Linux straight away.

Thanks.

Ronaldo.

The problem is that you activate windows a certain number of times on one machine, and then it wont let you activate it over the net anymore. Your only option is to switch the license to a new machine (meaning put linux on that machine and just build yourself a new machine that is somewhat different from the one you are using and you can activate over the net again)...

Micros***'s strong-arming is annoying at best. If you dont want to build a new machine, then search your drive for *.dbl and backup any you find in system32. Move them to $OEM$\$$\System32 on your CD and it will be copied into place during setup.

[Madhits45]

Gosh what a hassle.. All to use a legit license.

[ZileXa]

I have a valid license as well, but I don't like the whole Activation thing AT ALL.

So I've been using some sort of *crack*, wich I apply silently, unattendedly

Goes a lot faster, send a pm for info, not for the crack ofcourse.

[bledd]

use rockxp to backup your activation files (tells you how to restore them too)

http://www.rockxp.org/

-probably dont need to do it in safemode if you've got SFC disabled

[scarslilpyro]

the woman on the phone said that I'd have to do this each time I re-installed Windows.

When I used the SONY recovery from my dad's pc, and then took the hard drive out and put it in my computer, I had to do that...

[chris.b]

You all should know that all kind of OEM CDs have to get activated over phone since MS decided that too much stolen OEM keys were activated over the net.

They will annoy people till we all order free ubuntu cds over the net...

[redxii]

What, are you using nlite to integrate hotfixes, and instead of installing them on your current install, you reinstall Windows in order to have the hotfixes applied? They're called hotfixes because you don't have to integrate them into the installation source and reinstall the OS.

I'm writing this on an install of XP done in June of last year and hadn't had to reinstall/repair/recover or reactivate for various hardware changes. Heck, when I changed out the master hard drive with Windows, I didn't have to reinstall. I used my imaging software to clone the old disk to the new disk and not a peep out of Windows.

I have Slackware installed but I don't use it all that much.. and I hear the exact opposite of people not using their Windows install much with a dual-boot.

Edited December 24, 2006 by redxii

[dcyphure]

has anyone actually ever gotten the activation files to work correctly? i used rockxp,tunup and followed online instructions manually put the files back in safemode and even tried commandline and it always....always ends my 30day trial asking for immediate activation, despite nothings different than it being a fresh install.

i usually just image it all after i activate a fresh install, then use deepfreeze to keep it prestine like new condition

there really should be no excuse as to why anyone should have a necessity to do a complete install once a month but if so use an image for godsake..its the same dam thing other than you have to manually apply hotfixes....something which takes less time to do than integrating it in nlite

also heres a tip...when on the phone, talk incoherently to the computer a couple times and it will give you the option to talk to the representative saving you some time of going through all those numbers

i did it again today and the whole process took maybe 5 minutes at the most

[Siginet]

If you are using a royalty oem machine you can easily make a disk with pre-activation files on it. Search for oemscan here at msfn. If you are using a dell, hp, gateway, etc... system, this is the easiest and best method to bypass having to call microsoft.

You can get some integrator addons I made using oemscan here:

http://siginet.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=61