I have a desktop computer which comes with Windows Vista preinstalled but I’ve wiped the drive and installed Windows 7 activating it with a Technet license. A technet license is a genuine product key where I can activate Windows 7 legally but the license agreement states that it is only for testing purposes but cannot be used for playing games, email and etc. I also use Rollback RX, a software that is very similar to Comodo Time Machine to revert the PC back to the time when I created a snapshot. So every time after testing a software extensively, I would rollback to get a clean state of Windows 7 again. It is much better than Ghost because it takes less than a minute to restore with Rollback RX compared to Ghost which takes 4 minutes.
One weird problem I always encounter is after rolling back the system, Windows 7 will be deactivated and I will have to activate it again via online.
As far as I know, a single technet Windows 7 product key can be used to activate up to 10 different machines and there are no limits in activation for that 10 computers. Since yesterday I was having problems getting Windows 7 activated after rolling back the system.
Every time I click the “Activate Windows online now” button and waited for a few seconds, I get a window saying “Type a different product key for activation. The product key you typed cannot be used to activate Windows on this computer”. I then get 4 options to buy a new product key online, retype your product key, use the automated phone system to activate or contact Microsoft to help resolve this problem.
Clicking on the Show me details for the error that requires this change link tells me that the following information was found for this error: Code: 0xC004C008 and description The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used.
Since I have a technet account and I can generate up to 10 product keys, I generated a new Windows 7 product key and tried activating again but still failed. Finally I talked to Paul about this issue and he said he and some of his friends are having similar problems too and this happens once in a while when the Microsoft activation server are acting up. That explains why we have 3 days until the automatic activation starts again which by then Microsoft would have fixed their activation server.
Anyway I tried the 3rd option which is to use the automated phone system to activate Windows 7 and it worked! I called up a toll free number, keyed in the installation ID via the phone’s keypad and received an auto generated confirmation ID. Have you ever experienced such problem in your Windows 7?
mijn vraag is kan windows 7 niet activeren heb wel het product nummer v.b.d hartman
I have a laptop equipped with genuine windows 7 but i reformat it because the windows equipped with the laptop is just ‘memory hog’. Then i’m having the same problem stated in above article, but i’m too lazy to call microsoft asking for activation key. So, I just apply ‘removeW*T’ on my laptop…
Hi,
Raymond issue is similar to what I have. But in my case, it is Office 2007. I have TechNet license for Office 2007 where i can install on 10 computers (10 activations on single Key). Everytime i reinstall my OS, i need ot install Office 2007 and i get the activation issue(over internet). So i use the phone activation and successfully activate.
Can u please provide me windows 7 activation key.
just to clarify, I never had a Technet account. All of those were from working on other people’s computers.
I’ve experienced this a lot with Windows XP and Vista using HP/Compaq Restore methods and many times using the same product key that came with the machine (only on factor built machines; I’ve never experienced this on my hand built machines….quite odd actually lol). Using the phone method I’ve always been able to activate the computer when something like this occurs. Although the automated system really sucks and takes 4x longer than necessary to do this procedure.
My genuine Windows 7 sometimes deactivated but that was when I was changing the hard drives in my pc that’s all. (I know why it happens so no need to explain it)
my cousin did and also fot it from technet, what we did is just updated the system then it went gone :D
Canada’s activation server just came back online, yours should be up shortly. Let’s see how the sucker flies out, eh?
Oh yes, I’ve gotten it and had to call the automated line to get authorized. I was pretty nervous about being told my key wasn’t valid when I knew it should have been. Actually, I wasn’t aware that the Microsoft servers “acted up” at times causing this problem. Thanks for the great blogs Raymond, keep ‘em coming…
I got this error in Windows 2003 Server and called up Microsoft support many times and at last was able to activate my server.
I was just reading this articles when I noticed you said 3 days to activate. Generally speaking on retail copies they provide you with 30 days before activation. As far as I’m aware OEM copies only offer you the 3 days. Just something I noticed.
Windows 7 looks for the product id in a specific location (that’s why you have to reinstall it everytime you replace your drive from an image or evidently Rollback RX). Sounds like this sector has become corrupted on your image and won’t accept anything new.
From what I hear (not from *personal* experience of course ;) there are a multitude of Windows 7 loaders that will allow you to enter your own Product ID and will place such in the appropriate location; overwriting what’s present. I’d try that were I you.
jep i got windows 7 shortly after full release and got same error, but i just tried it with win 7 because i’m always activating windows products with this phone service. it’s a bit annoying with this loooong numbers, but always works fine!