XP Activation LOOP

[Guest RJ.W.H.]

When prompted to call microsoft durring activation, I complete the

registration and then I get stuck in this loop. Those of you who are here,

understand the loop I am in. I am restoring an image with intricate software

installations that can not be easily duplicated for several businesses and I

manually update the OEM product key everytime I use the image.

 

I am TRYING to do this legitamately and now I FAIL! The MicroSoft support

people cant/wont help me legitimize this copy of windows, and I do not want

to take a chance on sending illegal copies of windows into the field. The

enitre process is now being held up because changing the product key through

a tool provided by MicroSoft has FAILED and I am stuck in this loop.

 

Is there anyone at MicroSoft willing to help?

[Guest RJ.W.H.]

RE: XP Activation LOOP

 

So, even though the wonderful tech's (who are actually just sales people that

know nothing about operating systems) could not figure out why the "changing

of a product key" from one copy of Windows XP to another copy of Windows XP

caused this ever ending loop, I was able to determine the hardware

manufacturer has origanally been shipping us "Windows XP Pro Embedded", and

now had converted to shipping "Windows XP Professional".

 

This is the reason for the everlasting continuous loop that can not be

recovered from. Once the correct Product Key was obtained and the machine

was reimaged, everything was back to normal.

 

All this frustration just because I was trying to do the right thing and

make sure my customers had gotten the correct Product Key updated. Other

orginizations would just have shipped the dang thing out as is because the

people at MicroSoft have no idea (unless of course if you give them a credit

card number, in which case that agent would simply tell you reinstall windows

from scratch and spend another 2 weeks installing all the additional

softwares and drivers EVERY time another system was purchased).

 

If you can't tell, I am quite disappointed in the support at MicroSoft, and

again, it's all because I just wanted to do the right thing.

 

"RJ.W.H." wrote:

> When prompted to call microsoft durring activation, I complete the

> registration and then I get stuck in this loop. Those of you who are here,

> understand the loop I am in. I am restoring an image with intricate software

> installations that can not be easily duplicated for several businesses and I

> manually update the OEM product key everytime I use the image.

>

> I am TRYING to do this legitamately and now I FAIL! The MicroSoft support

> people cant/wont help me legitimize this copy of windows, and I do not want

> to take a chance on sending illegal copies of windows into the field. The

> enitre process is now being held up because changing the product key through

> a tool provided by MicroSoft has FAILED and I am stuck in this loop.

>

> Is there anyone at MicroSoft willing to help?

[Guest Shenan Stanley]

Re: XP Activation LOOP

 

RJ.W.H. wrote:

> When prompted to call microsoft durring activation, I complete the

> registration and then I get stuck in this loop. Those of you who

> are here, understand the loop I am in. I am restoring an image

> with intricate software installations that can not be easily

> duplicated for several businesses and I manually update the OEM

> product key everytime I use the image.

>

> I am TRYING to do this legitamately and now I FAIL! The MicroSoft

> support people cant/wont help me legitimize this copy of windows,

> and I do not want to take a chance on sending illegal copies of

> windows into the field. The enitre process is now being held up

> because changing the product key through a tool provided by

> MicroSoft has FAILED and I am stuck in this loop.

>

> Is there anyone at MicroSoft willing to help?

 

RJ.W.H. wrote:

> So, even though the wonderful tech's (who are actually just sales

> people that know nothing about operating systems) could not figure

> out why the "changing of a product key" from one copy of Windows XP

> to another copy of Windows XP caused this ever ending loop, I was

> able to determine the hardware manufacturer has origanally been

> shipping us "Windows XP Pro Embedded", and now had converted to

> shipping "Windows XP Professional".

>

> This is the reason for the everlasting continuous loop that can not

> be recovered from. Once the correct Product Key was obtained and

> the machine was reimaged, everything was back to normal.

>

> All this frustration just because I was trying to do the right

> thing and make sure my customers had gotten the correct Product Key

> updated. Other orginizations would just have shipped the dang

> thing out as is because the people at MicroSoft have no idea

> (unless of course if you give them a credit card number, in which

> case that agent would simply tell you reinstall windows from

> scratch and spend another 2 weeks installing all the additional

> softwares and drivers EVERY time another system was purchased).

>

> If you can't tell, I am quite disappointed in the support at

> MicroSoft, and again, it's all because I just wanted to do the

> right thing.

 

You still blame Microsoft for a problem caused (by your own admission) by

ther hardware manufacturer you chose to go with...?

 

The process you are choosing to go through (using OEM licensed images to

distribute to many computers) is not supported by Microsoft. In fact - for

the most part the OEM part means you get your support *from* the people you

bought it from (the hardware manufacturer I assume.) That's why it is less

expensive - the OEM has opted to provide support in order to lessen their

cost for the product and make more money off you (as they can sell more with

lower prices.) Right or wrong - it's fact.

 

I might suggest you look at these two web pages - they may have an

unattended method that will work more efficiently (not faster - imaging is

by far the fastest) for you...

 

http://unattended.msfn.org/

http://unattended.sourceforge.net/

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3BD8561F-77AC-4400-A0C1-FE871C461A89&displaylang=en

 

In any case - glad you resolved your issue (for your sake) - while I don't

agree with who you seem to be blaming for your troubles, it is still good

you figured out what was going awry.

 

And before you start saying that I am defending Microsoft - there are many

things Microsoft sucks at - it is your particular complaint I am confused

by. ;-)

 

--

Shenan Stanley

MS-MVP

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