[Gllug] (off topic) Windows Activation

[general_email at technicalbloke.com]

On 18/08/10 16:13, John Edwards wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 03:21:14PM +0100, general_email at technicalbloke.com wrote:
>    
>> On 18/08/10 12:13, John Edwards wrote:
>>      
> <snip>
>    
>>> Practically you *may* get away with it but the move
>>>        
>>>> will trigger re-activation so you will need to speak to MS on the phone
>>>> and sweet talk them: the only excuse they ever accept for this is that
>>>> you had a failed motherboard which you had to replace.
>>>>
>>>>          
>>> It's all done by an automatic phone service now, no need to talk to
>>> anyone. Considering that changing three bits of hardware requires you
>>> to re-activate, it is not going to be worth Microsoft paying real
>>> people to answer the phone when almost all the people that use it
>>> have already paid and so do not generate any money.
>>>        
>> Again you are wrong, you will get nowhere with their automated service
>> if you have changed motherboards. You CAN get it reactivated by
>> speaking to a person, I know this for a fact because I have done it
>> several times, the last being no more than 2 weeks ago. If you can
>> transfer the license/install to another machine before it has been
>> activated you may be in with a shot but if it is already activated you
>> need to speak to a human being at Microsoft (press * several times
>> while on the phone to the automated service to transfer to an
>> operator) to reactivate it on a different machine, there is no other
>> way.
>>      
> It is possible, I did this twice last month with machines that had
> major hardware that needs to be replaced including the motherboard.
>
> The first time worked with the online re-activation. The second time
> required a phone call which was answered by the automatic system where
> I had to type in (slowly) the OEM license key and it gave back (even
> more slowly) a new activation key. My colleagues who normally deal
> with Windows machines have similar experiences.
>
> This was Windows XP. With Windows 7 I have only had to do the online
> re-activation and have not needed to phone.
>
> It may be that Microsoft are stricter with newer versions of Windows,
> or that there was a long gap (a year or more) between the original
> activation and the re-activation. Or maybe I was just lucky.
>
>
>    


Interesting, I've had the automated system work for me when changing a 
couple of bits of hardware but never when changing a whole motherboard. 
Maybe there's a cut off which depends on the number of devices with 
UUIDs that have changed and some motherboards contain more devices than 
others e.g. some having onboard graphics and networking etc and some not.

I think pro is more tolerant than home in that respect too as I used to 
regularly add and remove random bits of hardware from my old XP pro 
retail box and never managed to trigger reactivation whereas I've seen 
it triggered by simply changing graphics cards in an OEM home system.

Phew, just writing that has reminded me how happy the switch to an open 
OS has made me !!! :D

Roger.



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