[SOLVED] Vista OEM won't let me register?!?

[rune0077]

I'm sure this has come up before, but nothing showed up in the search. I have a full Vista dvd purchased as OEM software. I removed it completely from my hard disk and merged the freed-up space with my Ubuntu partition. The idea was then to run Vista on VirtualBox.

This was not the best of ideas, because now I can't register Vista, which means it'll stop functioning in twenty-something days. Installation went fine, it's just the registering that causes issues (it basically says that my version is already registered to another machine). It's the same god damn machine, though, and as far as I can tell I haven't broken any license, right?

So my two questions is: is it either 1) possible to work around this issue with registering, or 2) possible to make my host-Vista actually recognize my real motherboard rather than the virtual one?

I need Vista for a few basic things (most specifically my banking), but I'm sure as hell not paying for a new license, and Microsoft refuses to offer support for OEM versions.

[Nem1976]

Honestly this is has been an issue with MS since XP Activation. I have a legal copy of XP but reload every 6 months or so. You should have an option to contact MS regarding the activation if they ask you if you have activated before tell them yes but you and reinstall the OS because your HDD died or something. I have done this countless times and its still legal and your not going to have to hack your Vista to get the activation issue fixed.

[Joeb454]

Phone Microsoft and explain that it won't allow you to register.

I did that because it refused to register my key, and they told me to put in a code and then all was fine

It's a free phone number too (or at least it is in the UK)

[rune0077]

Yeah okay, I guess I have to call them. It's a really annoying issue, though.

[dcstar]

I'm sure this has come up before, but nothing showed up in the search. I have a full Vista dvd purchased as OEM software. I removed it completely from my hard disk and merged the freed-up space with my Ubuntu partition. The idea was then to run Vista on VirtualBox.

This was not the best of ideas, because now I can't register Vista, which means it'll stop functioning in twenty-something days. Installation went fine, it's just the registering that causes issues (it basically says that my version is already registered to another machine). It's the same god damn machine, though, and as far as I can tell I haven't broken any license, right?
..........

There is a thread in these forums that specifically states that some Vista licences forbid use in a Virtual environment:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...4&postcount=10

[Nem1976]

Wow Interesting I didn't know that about vista. Just another reason not to use it I guess.

[David Ostrom]

What is Vista? Is this a new OS, is it any good? I don't get out much.

[SidewinderPro2]

It doesn't even compare to the stability and reliability of XP in any way, shape, or form. Its extremely buggy and prone to crashing and blue screening. The only real benefit that I have found is DirectX10. Otherwise it is a pig on resources and an overall nuisance. Itunes or something just owned my Vista drive, so I may have to reinstall it. When I do I plan on removing everything that I don't need and just installing my PC games. Ubuntu is now going to be my primary operating system for everyday things. Vista will be my gaming platform of course.



Just give Microsoft a call and make sure you don't mention anything about virtualization unless you really need to. Make those nuts in Redmond work


Anyone else remember the good old days of Windows 98 Second Edition? DOS games ran well and the system ran fast. No DRM and no invasive MS stuff to interfere with programs and computing. I guess Linux is bringing the peace of mind back to me...

[rune0077]

It doesn't even compare to the stability and reliability of XP in any way, shape, or form. Its extremely buggy and prone to crashing and blue screening. The only real benefit that I have found is DirectX10. Otherwise it is a pig on resources and an overall nuisance. Itunes or something just owned my Vista drive, so I may have to reinstall it. When I do I plan on removing everything that I don't need and just installing my PC games. Ubuntu is now going to be my primary operating system for everyday things. Vista will be my gaming platform of course.

When I ran it on a seperate partition, it actually ran surprising well. There were some hardware issues in the beginning, but those where quickly fixed. It remained 100% stable and I have yet to see a single blue screen. And it looked great. That being said, I practically never used for anything other than accessing my netbank (which has to be done through a Windows or Mac machines, no Linux support), and I found the dual-booting very annoying.

But problem has solved it self. When I tried to activate it again, Vista popped up a phone number I could call to activate the product over the phone. This included typing in a lot of numbers, then receiving a code that also consisted of a lot of numbers and entering them in those ever popular windows-boxes. The nice machine-voice at the other end of the line refused to give me the code unless I "pressed 1" to confirm that I had accidentally deleted my OS and didn't actually have it installed on another system already. I did, got the code, typed it in, and Vista is now activated in VirtualBox. Good to see MS isn't entirely unreasonable.

[David Ostrom]

Make those nuts in Redmond work.
Thanks I liked that