Vista - Vista Home Premium Activation

In February 2007 I bought a new PC built with XP Home installed with the
right to upgrade to Vista Home Premium. In April 2007 my Vista CD arrived
and I installed it. With the accumulated small annoyances resulting from the
early Vista-barely-compatible applications and hardware drivers, and then a
crash I couldn't recover from, I felt that the time had come to reinstall
Vista. As a matter of normal good housekeeping, I reformatted my drive and
reinstalled the critical and recommended Windows updates along with my
various applications. Now, a week on, and just as the system is settling
down nicely, up pops a message saying I have 24 days left inviting me to
activate Vista. So I entered my product key and up pops a further message:

! The following failure occurred while trying to use the product key:
Code: 0xC004F061
Description: The Software Licencing Service that this specified product key
can only be used for upgrading, not clean installations. [OK]

Any suggestions as to how best to proceed. The thought of spending another
week rebuilding my system is disquieting. I live in the UK.

Hi Doug,

Was your vista cd an upgrade or a full version ?

Has vista accepted your product key ?

If it hasn't all you need to do is is run setup again from the cd entering
your product key this time, and do an upgrade,
this will not wipe out anything you have done already, once the upgrade has
complete, you should then be able
to activate windows.


"Doug" <doug@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eqHBg%23ZLIHA.1184@xxxxxx

Hi DX

My Vista CD was an upgrade from XP.
On my initial installation in April 2007 Vista accepted my product key. On
this recent installation activation failed as indicated. I see that one of
the reasons given in MS FAQ for this behaviour is reformatting the hard
drive. Perhaps some hidden file has gone that was needed? Or does one of
these upgrades from XP expire after a few months?
Doug


"DX" <DX@> wrote in message news:OaEpfnaLIHA.1208@xxxxxx

Officially you cannot do a clean install from an upgrade disk.

However if you install Vista Home Premium without entering a product key,
then re-installing it on top of the new installation as an upgrade (entering
the product key) it will activate ok, that's why I wondered if it had
remembered your product key when you tried to enter it, if not you could
just run the installation again as an upgrade on top of your currently
installed Home Premium entering your product key on installation and windows
should allow you to activate.


"Doug" <doug@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23oNwT$aLIHA.2432@xxxxxx

Thanks - am trying it - here's hoping! -Doug

"DX" <DX@> wrote in message news:%231vi2ObLIHA.4228@xxxxxx

Doug

What you might want to try in your case (maybe it will work) is to call and use the Telephone Activation and explaining to a real live person the issue that you are experiencing. It just might work but you need to give it a shot over the phone.

You will find the phone number on your activation screen and when calling hang in there until you get a live person on the other end.

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"Doug" <doug@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:eqHBg%23ZLIHA.1184@xxxxxx

Hi DX

Thanks so much for your help and encouragement. The upgrade worked perfectly
and the installation shows up as activated. I had to reinstall ESET Smart
Security which claimed that its files had been corrupted, but that was
hardly surprising and and easily corrected.

Supplementary question - do you think it safe for me to delete the two
hidden folders dated 23/11/2007 named $INPLACE.~TR (680MB) and $WINDOWS.~Q
(1.16GB)? Though, come to think of it, I probably did that last time and
maybe that's what messed up my previous install-followed-by-upgrade
procedure (?) - Doug.

"DX" <DX@> wrote in message news:%231vi2ObLIHA.4228@xxxxxx

Hi Doug,

Glad it worked!

According to some text I have just read they can be removed, apparently the
disk cleanup tool will remove them
automatically for you.

If you are unsure you can always delete them and keep them in the recycle
bin for a bit if your like.

"Doug" <doug@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OndurCeLIHA.1168@xxxxxx

Thanks, Peter, for another approach. I am not good at thinking when
telephoning and fear that I might have too easily succumbed to a verbal
instruction to pay for a new activation code. The activation failure had
already led me straight to their pay-up-or-else page coupled with endearing
references to software pirates: a bit abusive I felt, having paid for XP
plus the extra fee for an upgrade to Vista! - Doug

"Peter Foldes" <okf22@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Oqu0XidLIHA.1164@xxxxxx
Doug

What you might want to try in your case (maybe it will work) is to call and
use the Telephone Activation and explaining to a real live person the issue
that you are experiencing. It just might work but you need to give it a shot
over the phone.

You will find the phone number on your activation screen and when calling
hang in there until you get a live person on the other end.

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"Doug" <doug@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eqHBg%23ZLIHA.1184@xxxxxx