Windows 7 Activation
I laughed when I saw this:
Windows 7 activation error: 0xC004F061
If you receive error “0xC004F061″ when trying to activate Windows 7, it means you’re using a product key for an upgrade version of Windows 7 and a previous version of Windows wasn’t on your computer when Windows 7 was installed. To install an upgrade version of Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP must be installed on your computer. If you formatted the drive before starting the installation process, you won’t be able to use the upgrade product key to activate Windows 7. To activate Windows 7, you’ll need to install your previous version of Windows, and then reinstall Windows 7. For help with the activation process, go to the Microsoft Support website.
Seriously? Is that what you call customer service? Rather than giving your customers an option to enter their XP/Vista product key you want them to reinstall the old operating system only to reinstall Windows 7…. Does anyone else see something wrong with this? So if you don’t want to reinstall two operating systems there is a registry fix to get around this.
- Open up regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
- Backup (Export) the folder just in case
- Change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0
- Open up a command prompt running it as Administrator
- go to C:\Windows\system32
- > cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -rearm
- Reboot your computer
- Enter your product key
Hope this helps
Windows 7 Activation
Here is that site I was telling you about – the registry hack is ‘Method 2′
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
There are a few other methods listed in case that doesnt work either.
This is the procedure Microsoft Technical Support talked me through.
So – it’s an official work around, but took a while to explain to the good chap(s) I spoke to what I was trying to do.
I did a fresh install as I had Vista Business / XP Pro available, but wanted W7 Premium installing.
I expected it to ask me for a previous qualifying serial number.
MS were kind enough to walk me through this.
So… Upgrade = Full version (no… really!)
You sir, are the best :) !
This bit of handy-know-how is going to be printed and stored somewhere safe.
Thanks to you, I won’t have to waste my time on another 2 Windows installs.
Gavin, you are absolutely right, why doesn’t Windows ask for the product key of the previous copy of Windows? Surely the product key would be in the Microsoft database and can check if the previous OS has been valid in the past (or just run a PC check again if an OEM key was used)?
Keep up the good work!