Windows Vista activation questions and reinstalls/formats

I am a hardware enthusiast who upgrades and maintains is hardware maybe 3-4
times a year. Include motherboards, hard drives ect. I also clean my system
at times with a full format due to unforseen issues ((such as viruses that
sometimes occur))

I recently bought two full copies of windows Vista Ultimate. ((Full
Installs)). One for my laptop and one for my desktop. I have heard alot of
incorrect ((or correct)) information about activation limits. Ect. And I am
wondering how much of this is true? I have a new hard drive in 2 days which
will require a full reinstall and reactivation of Windows Vista. Will this be
a problem? Am I limited on how many times I can do this?
What about my laptop if it gets a virus? Will I have to worry about it not
activating due to my already activating it?

I am asking these questions because I simply dont know what to expect when
these situations arise. I payed "alot" of money for two copies of windows
Vista Ultimate and I'd like to assume I have the flexibility to do full
reinstalls when my hardware changes or I am forced into a reinstall for
whatever reason.

Chris

Chris,

If you purchased the Retail editions of Windows Vista, installed them
yourself, and are just upgrading the hardware within the same PCs, then the
worst that you should encounter (and probably will) is that you will have to
telephone the activation clearing house and explain what you are doing.
Provided you are not installing a single instance of Vista on multiple PCs,
then the clearing house should help you activate. That is one of the
advantages of purchasing the retail version. Vista is licensed to you (the
person) not tied to the hardware, which is why you can update the hardware.

OEM is a completely different matter. Vista is not only licensed to you (the
person) but also tied to the hardware. Certain hardware components can be
changed on an OEM supplied PC without difficulty, but others cannot. On an
OEM PC, if the hardware "expires" then so does Vista (Windows XP behaves the
same way).

John Baker

Hi Chris--

This is not too difficult a problem. We gave a lot of direct feedback to
MSFT when they first announced their original Vista EULA, because as
written it would have stood in the way of a lot of us who are hardware
enthusiasts and those of us who like to upgrade systems from time to time.
They modified their EULA to accomodate situations like you describe. It
should not be a problem. I can't give you a firm number on how many times
you could theoretically install a new hard drive--and it might vary, but it
shouldn't be a problem because if you were having a problem activating legit
Vista, you could call the MSFT activation number provided in
setup/activation and they would make it happen--the wait should not be long
and you tell them what you added and they will get you activated should you
run into any problems with hardware additions and upgrades.

See this article from Nick White, Product Manager, Windows Marketing
Communications that addresses your concerns directly that Nick posted on the
Vista Team blog:

News: Revision to Windows Vista retail licensing terms
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/wi...ing-terms.aspx

If you should have to format your laptop (and this is rarely necessary) to
remove a malicious script (virus, blended threat, worm) you aren't going to
run into any activation problems.

Your questions have been asked a lot. You should be fine. If you run into
any problems, and I doubt you will because a phone call could straighten
things out, then post up.

Good luck,

CH


"ChrisRay" <ChrisRay@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1712BF3A-CD0D-4F5F-A6C4-DC13F371D196@microsoft.com...
>I am a hardware enthusiast who upgrades and maintains is hardware maybe 3-4
> times a year. Include motherboards, hard drives ect. I also clean my
> system
> at times with a full format due to unforseen issues ((such as viruses that
> sometimes occur))
>
> I recently bought two full copies of windows Vista Ultimate. ((Full
> Installs)). One for my laptop and one for my desktop. I have heard alot of
> incorrect ((or correct)) information about activation limits. Ect. And I
> am
> wondering how much of this is true? I have a new hard drive in 2 days
> which
> will require a full reinstall and reactivation of Windows Vista. Will this
> be
> a problem? Am I limited on how many times I can do this?
> What about my laptop if it gets a virus? Will I have to worry about it not
> activating due to my already activating it?
>
> I am asking these questions because I simply dont know what to expect when
> these situations arise. I payed "alot" of money for two copies of windows
> Vista Ultimate and I'd like to assume I have the flexibility to do full
> reinstalls when my hardware changes or I am forced into a reinstall for
> whatever reason.
>
> Chris

I'd like to thank both of you for the answers. They were very helpful and
relieving. The two copies of Vista are infact retail Vista Ultimate boxes and
contain both the 32 bit and 64 bit software. So from my understanding is
worse I will have to do is call Microsoft up and explain what has happened
and why?

Is this telephone service available 24/7 or will I be limited at times I can
activate? I only have 2 installations. For the two PCS. ((per EULA)) so I
believe I am perfectly within the EULA in this case.

Thanks for the answers to the questions.

Chris

Chris --

It's been my experience that you could call *anytime* if you were having
problems activating, and get help, but depending on how the calls are
routed you might be confined to starting at 9AM EST (US) until about 10PM.
The worst that could happen is that you call them and tell them you added so
and so, read them your PK from whichever Ultimate you're dealign with.

You have a very good chance you won't have to call them, but if you do it
will be painless.

CH


"ChrisRay" <ChrisRay@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B80C3397-B34A-4BBF-865F-E25A14E43C21@microsoft.com...
> I'd like to thank both of you for the answers. They were very helpful and
> relieving. The two copies of Vista are infact retail Vista Ultimate boxes
> and
> contain both the 32 bit and 64 bit software. So from my understanding is
> worse I will have to do is call Microsoft up and explain what has happened
> and why?
>
> Is this telephone service available 24/7 or will I be limited at times I
> can
> activate? I only have 2 installations. For the two PCS. ((per EULA)) so I
> believe I am perfectly within the EULA in this case.
>
> Thanks for the answers to the questions.
>
> Chris

"ChrisRay" <ChrisRay@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
>I am a hardware enthusiast who upgrades and maintains is hardware maybe 3-4
> times a year. Include motherboards, hard drives ect. I also clean my
> system
> at times with a full format due to unforseen issues ((such as viruses that
> sometimes occur))
>
> I recently bought two full copies of windows Vista Ultimate. ((Full
> Installs)). One for my laptop and one for my desktop. I have heard alot of
> incorrect ((or correct)) information about activation limits. Ect. And I
> am
> wondering how much of this is true? I have a new hard drive in 2 days
> which
> will require a full reinstall and reactivation of Windows Vista. Will this
> be
> a problem? Am I limited on how many times I can do this?
> What about my laptop if it gets a virus? Will I have to worry about it not
> activating due to my already activating it?
>
> I am asking these questions because I simply dont know what to expect when
> these situations arise. I payed "alot" of money for two copies of windows
> Vista Ultimate and I'd like to assume I have the flexibility to do full
> reinstalls when my hardware changes or I am forced into a reinstall for
> whatever reason.


Chris to add to the other posts, reinstalling on a new hard drive will
trigger activation, and I would expect since it's been less than 120 days
since you last activated that copy of Vista, you will need to do the phone
activation.

I did this recently where I imaged Vista with Acronis True Image and
restored to a bigger hard drive to replace the smaller one for a copy of
Vista Ultimate retail. I had to call to activate. After entering the
numbers it wouldn't activate automatically, and I was transferred to a
person. They asked one question, was the copy of Vista installed on more
than one computer, and then gave me a sequence of digits to enter. The call
was 13 minutes from start to finish.

With a retail version you can reinstall as many times as wanted and transfer
it to a different computer as many times as wanted.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]