beelzebub_75

I just recently re-installed Vista after I formatted everything. This is probably my third or fourth time reinstalling Vista and I've been running on this installation for about three days. I just got a little pop up saying that my Product Key is already in use and I'd have to call the Phone Support to go that route for activation. Well this really sucks because I bought myself a retail copy of Vista (Ultimate) thinking that I would never have to call MS to activate my copy. In the past I bought an OEM version of XP and I hate having to call every time I format and reinstall. So I'm guessing I pretty much wasted money buying the retail version since I have to call up Support anyways.

Second complaint/find is that I called Support up and they said they were having "issues" with their Activation program (or whatever they use) and told me to call back in an hour. That actually made me laugh when Bill's cousin in India told me they were having issues. At least I'm not the only one! Ha!Ha! I'm wondering if that's why I had to call Support to activate my copy again.

Has anyone else, with the retail version, had to call Phone Support to activate their copy? I'm wondering what the purpose of wasting money on a retail version is when I could have saved a few bucks and just bought the OEM version.

dannyyboii

Lol..what made you think you wouldn't have to call? You made an assumption yourself and it turned out to be false. If you reinstall any copy/version of Windows, you will have to reactivate it by phone. usually the process only takes five minutes, no big deal.

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ericeod

I only had to re-activate after switching out a motherboard, and then again after switching out a video card. Just give them a call, I know it is a headache, but you wont have any problem re-activating it. The bummer is that you have to call up every time now...

Good luck!

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beelzebub_75

I know that it's not that big of a deal to call everytime I reinstall... the thing that gets me is that I forked out way too much money for a retail copy that I thought I wouldn't have to call to activate everytime. I remember reading on here numerous times that people were saying with the retail copy you wouldn't have the hassle of having to call... and that was the difference between OEM and retail. You could reinstall the retail version as many times as you wanted. My bad for listening to people I guess! Ha!Ha!

SgtSpike

Yep, same problem here. It's annoying....

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The Hundred Gunner

Welcome to windows...

This is evidence that anti-piracy only hurts the paying customers.

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HouseJhereg

Where in gods name did you hear that. welcome to windows it is going to be the same no matter what version you use. after initial activation you are going to have to call every time you reinstall. thanks to the piracy of win2k and 98 and if you think thats bad try to reinstall any version of osx on a mac intel system without the original dvd that came with it. it aint gonna happen and i found that out the hard and expensive way.

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phillipjos

well when its known that if you change the mother board it makes it a new computer,but changing a v-c or ram you shouldnt have to call,i was pi**ed off to,after upgrading a v-c,i told them that,he didnt want to here it he just activated it,he knows its wrong,and mine was oem to

Mr. E

I've been having to call to activate vista since a week after it came out. Kept flip flopping between xp and vista, then finally went dual boot lol

psun786

exactly, its funny to see that Microsoft went through so much trouble trying to protect their Vista from piracy but improved nothing compare to XP.