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Old 10-10-2008   #5 (permalink)
John Barnett MVP


 
 

Re: Retail Media + OEM serial (both legit) = No activation.

The E-machine I purchased last year came with Vista premium pre-installed as
yours did. E-machines also supplied drivers and other software on a hidden
partition along with a Windows Vista premium DVD for re-installing the
operating system.

The manual contained instructions for creating a recovery CD for drivers etc
but the operating system would have to be re-installed via the Vista DVD
supplied with the machine.

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--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com

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"JWhipple" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:062ead115f933be524bdc7e09fe6807e@xxxxxx-gateway.com...
Quote:

>
> My wife's EMachine PC came with an OEM load of Vista Home Premium
> installed on it. There was no media included.
>
> We had to install XP Pro on the machine because of some classes that
> she was taking. Now that said classes are over with, she wanted to go
> back to Vista.
>
> Unfortunately now we couldn't do a restore back to the original factory
> load - something got hosed up when we went to XP.
>
> Since I had the Vista serial number that was on the label on the back
> of the machine, I borrowed my friend's Vista Home Premium retail DVD and
> installed from that.
>
> To my dismay, now we can't activate with Microsoft - I assume because
> of the mismatch of OEM and retail.
>
> If I call Microsoft to activate, am I wasting my time? Will they
> actually be able to assist with this situation?
>
> Thanks everyone!
>
>
> --
> JWhipple
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