Activation Issues with Windows Vista
I had an interesting service call the other day. I had previously installed Vista on someone's workstation and for whatever reason it was not activated when I was done. This was 30 days ago exactly. Of course now things are a problem because after 30 days Microsoft disables Vista until you successfully activate their product.
I wasn't really too worried when I got the call because I thought it would be an easy fix. Unfortunately I was unable to activate because of an incorrect product key. The PC originally had Windows Vista Home, I installed using Anytime Upgrade to Vista Ultimate. The issue is I have no idea where that original key went and I don't know what login or email I used to purchase it.
Now I had a real problem because this person had a lot of important work to do. Here is where I will share with you a great trick to allow you to use Vista after an expired activation, this will give you an additional 30 days and can be repeated 3 times and is totally legit! Microsoft themselves even showed me how to do this on a support call.
- What you do is when it asks you to activate, click on the link that says to use Windows in a reduced functionality mode.
- This will start Internet Explorer, hit CTRL+O and type EXPLORER then hit Enter. Yep - it starts Explorer, the Start menu returns. We aren't done, at this point almost nothing actually works. Click on start and type CMD, now right click on CMD above where you typed and select 'Run as administrator'
- Now type in slmgr.vbs - rearm
That's it - you now have 30 more days. Oh and don't even try after doing this 3 times, you won't be able to start the command prompt in administrative mode to do this. Enjoy.
There are no comments for this entry.
[Add Comment]