Windows XP Home OEM - Reactivation Limitation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Christo
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Christo

I have just tried to activate a reinstalled xp home OS. A message has come up
'number of activations exceeded with this license'. I am constantly
rebuiliding my pc. I permanetly update hardware, and because I run musical
software, am always reinstalling the OS.

I have never had this problem before. It is my understanding that, providing
the OS is installed on one PC. I can re-activate without limits. Am I right?
If so, can anyone kindly suggest a course of actiion?
 
Christo said:
I have just tried to activate a reinstalled xp home OS. A message has come up
'number of activations exceeded with this license'. I am constantly
rebuiliding my pc. I permanetly update hardware, and because I run musical
software, am always reinstalling the OS.

I have never had this problem before. It is my understanding that, providing
the OS is installed on one PC. I can re-activate without limits. Am I right?
If so, can anyone kindly suggest a course of actiion?
Click to expand...

Call the 800 number and you will be able to get it reactivated.
 
Christo said:
I have just tried to activate a reinstalled xp home OS. A message has come up
'number of activations exceeded with this license'. I am constantly
rebuiliding my pc. I permanetly update hardware, and because I run musical
software, am always reinstalling the OS.
Click to expand...


Why? There is usually no sound technical reason - other than a
physical hard drive failure - for reinstalling WinXP repeatedly. (And
certainly not for the two reasons you've mentioned.) When properly
maintained, even a Win3.x or Win9x installation could be made to last
for years. And WinXP is much more robust than they ever were. What
specific problems are you experiencing that are causing such a drastic
action? Wouldn't it be easier, in the long run, to just fix those,
rather than repeated reinstalling the OS?

I have never had this problem before. It is my understanding that, providing
the OS is installed on one PC. I can re-activate without limits. Am I right?
If so, can anyone kindly suggest a course of actiion?
Click to expand...


The error message you received is somewhat misleading. What it
really means is that you've activated "via the Internet too many times
within the last 120 days." Because there is no sound technical reason
for reinstalling and re-activating WinXP so frequently, the automatic
presumption is that the OS is being installed on multiple machines. I
really think Microsoft should fix this message, but it is, in reality, a
relatively minor "cosmetic" issue, so they're probably giving more
weight to some cost-benefit analysis more than they are the occasional
customer's confusion.

There's no limit to the number of times you can reinstall and
activate the same WinXP license (retail or OEM) on the same PC. Nor is
there ever a charge. Nor does a Product Key (so long as it's not an
evaluation license) ever expire. If it's been more than 120 days since
you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most likely be able
to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's been less, you
might have to make a 5 minute phone call.

Here are the facts pertaining to activation:

Piracy Basics - Microsoft Product Activation
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/basics/activation/

Windows Product Activation (WPA)
http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Christo said:
I have just tried to activate a reinstalled xp home OS. A message
has come up 'number of activations exceeded with this license'. I
am constantly rebuiliding my pc. I permanetly update hardware, and
because I run musical software, am always reinstalling the OS.

I have never had this problem before. It is my understanding that,
providing the OS is installed on one PC. I can re-activate without
limits. Am I right? If so, can anyone kindly suggest a course of
actiion?
Click to expand...

You can activate your license on the same PC (considering you said it was
OEM) as many times as you want to install it. The message is badly worded -
you will just have to activate by telephone.

However - your reason for clean installs is greatly lacking, IMHO. In other
words - I see no reason you should have to perform clean installations on a
system given the information you have thus far.
 
If the software you run is constantly corrupting win then the software is at
fault.
Updating hw rarely requires a clean installation.
I ran a win2k installation for 5+ years, through 3 different motherboards,
various drives, cpu's memory etc the installation was rock solid and only
had the initiall clean installation. I only clean installed laterly when I
installed a dedicated sata controler
 
Bruce Chambers said:
Why? There is usually no sound technical reason - other than a
physical hard drive failure - for reinstalling WinXP repeatedly. (And
certainly not for the two reasons you've mentioned.) When properly
maintained, even a Win3.x or Win9x installation could be made to last for
years. And WinXP is much more robust than they ever were. What specific
problems are you experiencing that are causing such a drastic action?
Wouldn't it be easier, in the long run, to just fix those, rather than
repeated reinstalling the OS?




The error message you received is somewhat misleading. What it really
means is that you've activated "via the Internet too many times within the
last 120 days." Because there is no sound technical reason for
reinstalling and re-activating WinXP so frequently, the automatic
presumption is that the OS is being installed on multiple machines. I
really think Microsoft should fix this message, but it is, in reality, a
relatively minor "cosmetic" issue, so they're probably giving more weight
to some cost-benefit analysis more than they are the occasional customer's
confusion.

There's no limit to the number of times you can reinstall and activate
the same WinXP license (retail or OEM) on the same PC. Nor is there ever
a charge. Nor does a Product Key (so long as it's not an evaluation
license) ever expire. If it's been more than 120 days since you last
activated that specific Product Key, you'll most likely be able to
activate via the Internet without problem. If it's been less, you might
have to make a 5 minute phone call.

Here are the facts pertaining to activation:

Piracy Basics - Microsoft Product Activation
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/basics/activation/

Windows Product Activation (WPA)
http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375
Click to expand...

Useful though those references are, both fail to mention that on a PC that
is considered dockable (generally a laptop), the number of required yes
votes reduces from 7 to 4 (because much hardware is always appearing and
disappearing). A PC is considered dockable if it has a docking port which
also includes a PC card slot (PCMCIA slot) or an Expresscard slot.
 
Christo said:
I have just tried to activate a reinstalled xp home OS. A message has come
up
'number of activations exceeded with this license'. I am constantly
rebuiliding my pc. I permanetly update hardware, and because I run musical
software, am always reinstalling the OS.

I have never had this problem before. It is my understanding that,
providing
the OS is installed on one PC. I can re-activate without limits. Am I
right?
Yes.

If so, can anyone kindly suggest a course of actiion?
Click to expand...

Re-read the message. You can re-activate, just not over the net. You'll
have to make a toll-free phone call, which will take about five minutes or
less. No problem.

HTH
-pk
 
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