Ok i bought windows vista home premium genuine for my dads comp..after the
installation everything works fine but my dad is old fashion and he wants to
downgrade to XP.

so again, i format it back to XP...and suddenly my dads XP tells me that the
XP serial key has been used multiple times. i was confuse with that new
features.

and again, i get the vista install to MY own computer and it asking the same
thing. I need to activate via automate phone call. ok so I did.



but then the robot tells me that my vista key has been used by another
computer. ok..it was from my dads comp before...and its already reformat so
no vista there already.

please help me to solve this, both XP(for my dads comp) and vista(for my own
comp). both XP and vista are genuine.

Yayie(MAS) wrote:
> Ok i bought windows vista home premium genuine for my dads comp..after the
> installation everything works fine but my dad is old fashion and he wants to
> downgrade to XP.

Fuddy Duddy! Is he a Republican?

> so again, i format it back to XP...and suddenly my dads XP tells me that the
> XP serial key has been used multiple times. i was confuse with that new
> features.

That is normal if you bought the 'upgrade' version of Vista. When you
install *and* activate Vista upgrade, your XP key will be invalidated.
An 'upgrade' will let you run Vista or XP, but not both.

> and again, i get the vista install to MY own computer and it asking the same
> thing. I need to activate via automate phone call. ok so I did...

That won't work because your Vista key was used to activate Vista on
your Dad's computer. Your only hope is to try a telephone activation
and explain your problem to a human -- the automated activation won't
work now. (Yes, this is all new with Vista.)

"Yayie(MAS)" <Yayie(MAS)@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:30A91A45-0A67-437B-8A61-D947B6980438@microsoft.com...
> Ok i bought windows vista home premium genuine for my dads comp..after the
> installation everything works fine but my dad is old fashion and he wants
> to
> downgrade to XP.
>
> so again, i format it back to XP...and suddenly my dads XP tells me that
> the
> XP serial key has been used multiple times. i was confuse with that new
> features.
>
> and again, i get the vista install to MY own computer and it asking the
> same
> thing. I need to activate via automate phone call. ok so I did.
>
> but then the robot tells me that my vista key has been used by another
> computer. ok..it was from my dads comp before...and its already reformat
> so
> no vista there already.
>
> please help me to solve this, both XP(for my dads comp) and vista(for my
> own
> comp). both XP and vista are genuine.


Solve what? You just need to do phone activation for both of them.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

"Don" <don195702@hotmail.com> wrote
> Yayie(MAS) wrote:
>> Ok i bought windows vista home premium genuine for my dads comp..after
>> the
>> installation everything works fine but my dad is old fashion and he wants
>> to
>> downgrade to XP.
>
> Fuddy Duddy! Is he a Republican?
>
>> so again, i format it back to XP...and suddenly my dads XP tells me that
>> the
>> XP serial key has been used multiple times. i was confuse with that new
>> features.
>
> That is normal if you bought the 'upgrade' version of Vista. When you
> install *and* activate Vista upgrade, your XP key will be invalidated.
> An 'upgrade' will let you run Vista or XP, but not both.
>
>> and again, i get the vista install to MY own computer and it asking the
>> same
>> thing. I need to activate via automate phone call. ok so I did...
>
> That won't work because your Vista key was used to activate Vista on
> your Dad's computer. Your only hope is to try a telephone activation
> and explain your problem to a human -- the automated activation won't
> work now. (Yes, this is all new with Vista.)

Don, installing Vista does not invalidate the XP product key. The Vista
license terms prohibit having a Vista upgrade version and the qualifying OS
installed at the same time but AFAIK the XP product key is not tracked on
the activation servers. MS doesn't know that that XP product key was used
as a basis for an upgrade. Heck there is a workaround to install and
upgrade version of Vista without XP being installed so it has no knowledge
of the qualifying OS product key.

The reason the OP needed to phone in activation for the XP install was
either because it is OEM version that's not BIOS locked, or it's a retail
version and it's less than 120 days since the last activation.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]