Vista Tutorial - Product ID Number incorrect ?

I posted the following in the Windows Update forum but received no responses:

"Using H/Premium and tried to update 14 (incl. 6 critical) patches last week.
All showed as "successful" and I thought that's fine.
Got back again yesterday and my computer tells me that I have 16 updates
waiting for me, which, when I inspected them, included the 14 which I did
last week.
I looked at INSTALLED UPDATES and sure enough NONE had installed last week.

I have now downloaded these 14 updates to my desktop, and I have tried to
install them from there but failed as well. Again they show "successful" in
'update history' but don't show up under INSTALLED updates.

Has anyone seen a similar problem and found a quick fix???

I would really like to have an answer because it is driving me crazy.

I am the sole user of this computer and have UAC turned off!
I am also using Firefox as my main browser. "

So, I tried to send an e-mail to MS support and was asked for the "Product
ID". Followed the instructions and typed the product ID as shown in CP
"System" but received the following automated response:

"The product ID number you entered is not valid or is not in the correct
format. Please enter a valid product ID number and try again. Make sure the
product ID number is of the form: 12345-XXX-7654321-98765."

I know that I have a genuine registered CD, what can I do about it or where
else can I find the Product ID number?

There are several numbers on the CD case but non look like the type or
format that is requoired to ask for assistance.

Pleaser help as soon as possible. THANKS!

Hi hansh,

Have you tried restarting the computer yet? Sometimes the updates do not finish and need to restart to finish installing them. Especially when you have a few of them installing at one time.

You might try using the product key number instead of the product ID to see if that is what MS is wanting instead.

Product Key Number

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi hansh,

The product ID can be found if you click 'View computer details' in the
'Welcome Center'. If you don't have this available, then click on the start
orb and type 'welcome center' into the search box and press enter. At the
bottom of this screen, under 'Windows activation', is the number you require.
I notice that you use Firefox and there is nothing wrong in that, but some
updates assume that you use IE7 and will only install correctly if you do
indeed use this browser. Try changing temporarily to this browser and see if
you can successfully download and install these updates. You can check the
status of these updates by downloading and installing the latest version of
the 'Belarc Advisor', link given below.
Dwarf

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

"hansh" wrote:

G'day Dwarf,
Yes, that is where I did find the number which I entered in my request form
to MS, and which was rejected on the basis that it is invalid!

Anyway, today after 5 days of searching for an answer to my original
problem, ie. "unable to install downloaded updates", I have found the
solution and I will post the findings under the heading of Windows Updates!

Thanks my friend for trying to help! :-))))



"Dwarf" wrote: