Hi all, I have a Dell PC that I want to image as we will be purchasing several more of the same model. The PC comes with Vista Business preinstalled and activated, all ready to go. I've installed our applications, done all the necessary configurations and then sysprep'd it using my unattend file using the command:- sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:sysprep.xml I've then taken an image using imagex and restored it to another PC (same make and model). All worked fine except I'm not prompted for a Product Key and Vista says it's activated. I did a bit of searching and found I should be deleting the DigitalProductId registry value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software \Microsoft\windows NT\CurrentVersion. I did this, before I sysprep'd, and now I'm prompted to enter the Product Key. So I enter the key that's on the side of the Dell PC and the installation completes without any problems or errors. However, when you try and activate you get the error message:- "The Windows Vista Business product key you typed is invalid for activation" with several options for you to choose. One is to enter a different product key. If you select that option and enter the same product key Vista gets activated without errors. How can I change my installation so it accepts the Product Key during the installs and then automatically activates without having to enter the same key again? TIA Greg
Greg, You can run slmgr -upk from the command line before sysprep to remove the product key. Anthony, http://www.airdesk.co.uk wrote in message news:7ab3cc6a-0e01-451b-a400-d9468b2e8f5c@34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com... > Hi all, > > I have a Dell PC that I want to image as we will be purchasing > several more of the same model. The PC comes with Vista Business > preinstalled and activated, all ready to go. > > I've installed our applications, done all the necessary configurations > and then sysprep'd it using my unattend file using the command:- > > sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:sysprep.xml > > I've then taken an image using imagex and restored it to another PC > (same make and model). All worked fine except I'm not prompted for a > Product Key and Vista says it's activated. > > I did a bit of searching and found I should be deleting the > DigitalProductId registry value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software > \Microsoft\windows NT\CurrentVersion. I did this, before I sysprep'd, > and now I'm prompted to enter the Product Key. So I enter the key > that's on the side of the Dell PC and the installation completes > without any problems or errors. > > However, when you try and activate you get the error message:- > > "The Windows Vista Business product key you typed is invalid for > activation" > > with several options for you to choose. One is to enter a different > product key. If you select that option and enter the same product key > Vista gets activated without errors. > > How can I change my installation so it accepts the Product Key during > the installs and then automatically activates without having to enter > the same key again? > > TIA > > Greg
wrote in message news:7ab3cc6a-0e01-451b-a400-d9468b2e8f5c@34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com... > Hi all, > > I have a Dell PC that I want to image as we will be purchasing > several more of the same model. The PC comes with Vista Business > preinstalled and activated, all ready to go. > > I've installed our applications, done all the necessary configurations > and then sysprep'd it using my unattend file using the command:- > > sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:sysprep.xml > > I've then taken an image using imagex and restored it to another PC > (same make and model). All worked fine except I'm not prompted for a > Product Key and Vista says it's activated. > > I did a bit of searching and found I should be deleting the > DigitalProductId registry value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software > \Microsoft\windows NT\CurrentVersion. I did this, before I sysprep'd, > and now I'm prompted to enter the Product Key. So I enter the key > that's on the side of the Dell PC and the installation completes > without any problems or errors. > > However, when you try and activate you get the error message:- > > "The Windows Vista Business product key you typed is invalid for > activation" > > with several options for you to choose. One is to enter a different > product key. If you select that option and enter the same product key > Vista gets activated without errors. > > How can I change my installation so it accepts the Product Key during > the installs and then automatically activates without having to enter > the same key again? > Preserving the OEM pre-activation like you had in your initial image is a good thing. The reason you are having the problem activating with the key from the sticker (per http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457078(TechNet.10).aspx ) is that "In order to reduce a significant source of piracy, Microsoft has disabled online activation for COA Keys that are attached to PCs that have been pre-activated by OEMs." Regards, Dave
On Jul 29, 10:13 pm, "Dave R." <dwragle (at) drbsystems (dot) com> wrote: > wrote in message > > Preserving the OEM pre-activation like you had in your initial image is > a good thing. The reason you are having the problem activating with the > key from the sticker (perhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457078(TechNet.10).aspx) > is that "In order to reduce a significant source of piracy, Microsoft > has disabled online activation for COA Keys that are attached to PCs > that have been pre-activated by OEMs." > > Regards, > > Dave- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Thanks Dave, that explains a lot. Greg
