Windows Activation Problem

“Why can’t I activate Windows again? I just installed a new video card.” -John T.

There’s a ‘good’ reason why you can’t. Unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t take into account that there are a great many people who perform upgrades on their computers.

When you first install Windows, a special key is created that represents your specific computer. It makes a record of all original hardware that was present when Windows was installed. After you activate the operating system, all other attempts to activate Windows will be matched up to your initial hardware key. If anything has been changed drastically then you’ll get a message that you need to call Microsoft. Don’t worry about it…just call them. After a few minutes of you reading #’s from the hardware key back to them and an explaination that you changed out some hardware, they’ll give you another code to type and and you’re good to go. It just causes inconvenience on your part for having to waste another 15-20 minutes talking to someone on the phone to more or less ask permission to use the OS you bought a copy of.

~ by jhurst747 on 4 July 2007.