Re-activating Windows 7 OEM.

Call and talk to a real person.

 

I'd say use the restore disk, once loaded, backup certificate and license, then with your install media, perform a second clean install and restore the cert and license after that, very easy.

 

The key on the OEM COA sticker - in my experience over the past two decades or so - has never ever once actually worked, and that's using COA stickers for every OEM you can think of that's ever made a computer running Windows as an OS.

I've got a Dell Latitude laptop and while I didn't have the Windows 7 DVD (since Dell and most OEMs don't include them anymore), I knew that going in so I made my own installation DVD of Windows 7 Professional x86 and x64 (two different unique DVDs, of course). It takes seconds to add the necessary $OEM$ folder that has the proper info and files to reinstall that OS as many damned times as I please.

All you require when you reinstall the OS on an OEM branded machine - as long as that laptop had Windows 7 on it from the factory (meaning the BIOS has the proper SLIC 2.1 information in it - SLIC 2.0 is for Vista; 2.1 is required for Windows 7) - is the "royalty key" which is not the one on the sticker, unfortunately.

The "royalty OEM key" is tied to the OEM obviously, it's the key you'd get if you used something like the Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder or some other tool - and obviously if and when you do extract the OEM key from such an installation, it will never match the key on the sticker.

The COA sticker is the proof of license/ownership - not the Product Key printed on it which for almost all intents and purposes is absolutely useless.

If you have a real Windows 7 Pro OEM installation disc, and it's tied directly to that branded piece of hardware, aka a Dell disc for a Dell, HP for HP, etc, you should NOT need to input a key, ever. The necessary $OEM$ folder with the SLIC file, the xrm-ms digital license, and other OEM identifiers (like the OEM logo/bitmap file that shows up on the System Properties, that sorta stuff) are all inside that folder and that's all that's required.

If it's not a real Windows 7 Pro OEM installation disc tied to a specific OEM brand/manufacturer, you can make one using the contents of that disc and the $OEM$ folder for that specific OEM in a few minutes time - just requires making an ISO of the DVD, adding the $OEM$ folder to that ISO, editing the ei.cfg to match the edition of Windows you're installing (technically this isn't required but I suggest people do it anyway) and voila, burn the newly edited "patched" ISO and you're done. You will not be required to input a key - it won't even ask for one - and it'll be "pre-activated" when the installation is complete.

Pretty simple stuff but, I've done it like 10,000 freakin' times over the years so I'm old hat with this crap.

If you choose not to create an OEM specific installation DVD, all you require is the OEM branded royalty key which you'd use in place of the one on the sticker as well as the xrm-ms digital license. Use an Admin Command Prompt and the slmgr.exe command (do slmgr.exe /? for the list of available options)to install the certificate on the machine after the installation of the OS is complete, then activate with that royalty key and again voila, you're done. Takes 1 minute max to do both commands and get activated on a non-patched completely "normal" Windows 7 installation DVD, even Retail discs.

The royalty keys are well known and can be found in many places, most notably over at MyDigitalLife.info.

Good luck...

 

From my experience, OEM keys do not work with retail disks. You need a OEM CD to go along with your OEM key, they accept different keys. It may install with the retail disk, but it will constantly nag you about having a non-genuine copy and start the lock-down timer.

Also, 7 OEM keys do activate more then once. I've activated a single key twice already over the internet with no problem(installed on a new machine, had a HD failure a month later, reinstalled with a new drive A-OK).

 

If you have a brand new non-OEM tied board (that Intel one) and a plain old Windows 7 installation DVD (doesn't have to be any specific edition since you can alter that with the ei.cfg edit), then there's something amiss.

If you bought the board and the OS and built the machine yourself, you'd obviously have the appropriate key. If you've purchased complete working PCs prebuilt and with Windows 7 Pro preinstalled and activated, and now you're trying to use that same Windows 7 Pro installation DVD with the Product Key on the COA sticker that came with that PC from the builder/seller and it's not working, then whoever sold you the computer/Windows 7 OS is doing something fishy. There's just no getting around that little issue...

If it's a little PC shop of some kind or even a mid-tier OEM supplier that prebuilds PCs and sells them, they are required to provide you with the Windows 7 installation DVD and the appropriate installation Product Key. One way to verify this is checking the COA sticker - it should very plainly show "OEM System Builder Edition" someplace on the sticker to designate it as such.

If that sticker doesn't say that, then it's not a proper installation unless that shop is selling Retail copies of Windows 7 preinstalled, and as such - again - the COA sticker would reflect that info. The sticker has got to have one of the following on it:

Retail
OEM (with the branded OEM name like Dell, HP, etc)
OEM System Builder Edition (meaning for any little "Mom & Pop" computer shop, etc)

My instant belief right now is they could have - and I'm not accusing anyone of anything here, just pointing out potentials - used a TechNet license for such a build, even in spite of the COA sticker. The COA stickers are actually pretty easy to acquire (and fake, actually) so...

Look at the COA sticker and find out what it says, specifically - that will tell you the type of license. The ei.cfg file info related to the channel (Retail, OEM, etc) really doesn't alter much of anything to be honest. It's informational but doesn't actually control the way the OS is licensed aside from being able to alter the "no key provided" default OS (meaning the OS that gets installed by default when you choose to not put the key in).

Edit: Seems Microsoft has made some changes in the recent past (just this year, 2010) so the best way to verify COA authenticity or validity is simply by looking at the sticker you've got and comparing it to the info on this page:

http://www.microsoft.com/howtotell/content.aspx?pg=coa

 

If that's the case, that DVD they provided might have their own custom $OEM$ folder inside the \sources folder - you can alter that as you see fit, even disable the fully answered installation too and just use it for the purpose of entering the key you require. Look in that folder in the $$/setup/scripts folder and you should find at least 3 files:

oem.reg (for Registry customization)
OOBE.CMD (for running actual scripts)
slp.cmd (the cscript commands to install the xrm-ms license and then install the Product Key that computer builder is licensed for)

That Product Key in that file should not be the same as the one on the sticker, which is what's causing the issues. Even that small shop might have their own "royalty key" from Microsoft; check it and see what's up.

I would say it depends on the sheer number of machines those OEMs intend to sell. It seems Microsoft now actually makes a distinction between big OEMs like Dell, HP, etc, and the smaller ones because instead of calling them "OEM System Builders" now they actually have their own unique COAs as noted on that Microsoft page I linked to above. So that's at least one thing I've noted that is different from how things were done with XP and previous versions of Windows.

 

the vista key on my dell machine has worked to reactivate windows.

 

You're experience tells me that you've skipped Vista and Windows 7. That isn't the case anymore, as a disc is a disc is a disc. The only two differences are, is it full or upgrade...and is it x86 or x64.

 

No, with OEM Vista and 7. Most recently, I reinstalled a Dell OEM Vista code with a retail DVD, and the damn thing wouldn't activate. All that would come up where notifications about not having a genuine key, and a link to buy a new one. It didn't even offer the phone activation route. It's possible that Dell did some sort of customization to their install, but it certainly didn't work with retail media.

[Edit]Just to clarify, the retail disk accepted the OEM Dell code during setup, but once you actually get to the Windows Desktop the code would not activate. It was nothing but accusations of piracy and prompts to buy a new license. A phone call to Microsoft was less then helpful... If it's simply a Dell thing, then that's one more reason to avoid them I guess.

 

bigdogchris:

Humor me: did you look at the contents of that "OEM" installation DVD inside the \sources folder to see if there's an $OEM$ folder in there?

Mr. Perfect:

OEM installations of Vista and Windows 7 install an xrm-ms digital certificate/license during the installation; it's a transparent thing that you, the end user, never see happen but without that xrm-ms digital certificate installed and in place the activation isn't going to "stick" - that xrm-ms digital certificate is what ties the Product Key (the royalty one you don't see because it's inside a script file) as well as potentially being able to use the one on the COA sticker as well.

That's the issue here: it requires two parts, the xrm-ms digital certificate to be installed (and since you stated you've got a Dell, then it's the one Dell supplies, which is located in the folder I mentioned in the post above and keep referencing, as well as the royalty key which is inside a script (it's just a text file with two commands, one installs the certificate silently and the next activates silently using the royalty key).

The Product Key on the sticker is there only because they need a key on the sticker but every one of them is different - the royalty key for an OEM isn't different, it remains the same for every installation of that OEM's license.

None of this really applies to actual Retail installations, but so far neither of you is using an actual Retail installation. How do I know this? Because both of you have COA stickers that say on them either "OEM" or they'll list the OEM company name - Retail COAs don't have that info on them so you're not dealing with Retail level certificates or licensing. OEM is different and requires those two aspects, the xrm-ms digital certificate and the royalty key.

The cscript file has two lines passed as a batch file that look like this:

Code:

[I][B]cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ilc %windir%\system32\oem\OEM.xrm-ms
cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk 32KD2-K9CTF-M3DJT-4J3WC-733WD[/B][/I]

The OEM.xrm-ms gets installed by the slmgr.vbs -ilc command (ilc = Install License Certificate) and the second command installs the royalty key (ipk = Install Product Key). If you have an OEM installation disc from any OEM that has their name on the COA sticker you're going to find that slp.cmd batch file someplace on that DVD with that information as well as the actual xrm-ms digital certificate itself. That xrm-ms file must be installed first and then the royalty key installed second; it's a batch file that's done transparently without user intervention as noted).

Note: That's the Dell OEM royalty key for Windows 7 Professional so, don't think I'm giving away some secret or whatever, it only works on a Dell machine and the key is well known and public, also. Once you install the xrm-ms digital certificate you might be able to use the Product Key on the COA sticker - I never have, I always use the royalty key which has never ever failed for the given OEM but those damned COA keys always give me troubles. You might have better luck with them, who knows - personally I'd say just use the royalty key which is there for a reason.

Making any alterations to the ei.cfg file other than changing the edition you want to install will not have any effect whatsoever as I mentioned previously. You could change the word "Retail" to "OEM" to "WhatTheFuckIsThisShit" and it won't make any difference... the only variable that matters in the ei.cfg file is the edition name, the rest is there just for information purposes if someone takes a look at the ei.cfg file in a text editor - it's not actually used by the Windows installer, just the edition name variable is.

Once you get past that hurdle this all gets much easier.

To make it painfully clear: the xrm-ms digital certificate is the license the Product Key is tied to - if the license doesn't exist meaning it's not installed on the machine after the OS is up and running, you'll never get it activated regardless of what key you're attempting to use. The activation process will check the key, realize it's an OEM key, go looking for the xrm-ms digital certificate (the OEM license) and when it can't find it, it'll fail activation every time. "Hey, I've got an OEM key here but... where the hell is the license... oh well, activation = fail."

When you use a Retail class installation DVD that xrm-ms digital certificate is non-existent on that disc hence your activation(s) is/are failing - you have to install that license for the key to be legitimately activated.

If I take a plain old Windows 7 Professional ISO from TechNet (which is technically a Retail class installation DVD) and install it on my Dell laptop I don't use the Product Key with it since I have a Dell machine with a SLIC 2.1 table in the BIOS (this is a fully licensed Windows 7 Pro laptop with a Dell Windows 7 Pro COA sticker attached). The SLIC 2.1 table stuff is relevant on newer machines as well if they're big name OEM branded hardware; the xrm-ms digital certificate is intrinsicly coupled to the SLIC 2.1 digital signature in the BIOS... but that's another thread altogether.

Because I don't use the Product Key I got from TechNet (no sense wasting a license) all I have to do is:

1) Use the slmgr.vbs -ilc <Dell_OEM>.xrm-ms command (to install the Dell certificate/license; this file is taken from my Dell Windows 7 Pro installation DVD)
2) Activate it with the Dell royalty key I listed above in the cscript command with slmgr.vbs -ipk 32KD2-K9CTF-M3DJT-4J3WC-733WD (also found on the Dell Windows 7 Pro installation DVD in the $OEM$ folder)
3) Wait about 20 seconds and I'm done, with a fully licensed OEM installation of Windows 7 Pro

Can't make it much plainer than that...

 

I know you have explained it as easy as possible, but I'm a little confused at the steps I need to take to get a clean install of windows the laptop I recently bought. I've never done or read anything like this, so this is all new information for me.

Would it just be easier to contact Microsoft or Acer (I'm not sure which company would be best to contact) about reinstalling windows on my laptop? I was planning on using the key on the sticker on my laptop along with a windows 7 64-bit oem disk that I bought to use on my desktop computer. After reading the posts, It seems like my proposed method would not activate, so would just calling either company be the best option?

 

This can get difficult so I'll do what I can to make it as easy as possible (even for me and my entirely too long explanations, I just hate people coming back with "You didn't tell me that" ever so I give way more info than usually necessary).

NOTE: The following information is only applicable to installing/re-installing Windows 7 on an OEM branded machine, be it a desktop PC or a laptop, it doesn't matter - what matters is that we're talking about a machine that has an OEM branded COA sticker on it (Certificate Of Authenticity for those that may not actually not that acronym).

This is not a mini-guide for any Retail installs, period. It only applies to getting Windows 7 installed on OEM branded hardware and activated if you don't have the actual OEM installation media - this is getting much more common since almost every OEM nowadays doesn't provide the physical media anymore.

To do this you'll need 3 things primarily:

1) Installation files, aka the Windows 7 installation DVD. Doesn't matter if it's 32 bit or 64 bit, the info is the same for both, always.

2) You need the xrm-ms digital certificate/license file. They are OEM specific (a Dell xrm-ms won't work on an HP, vice versa, etc). The xrm-ms file is already on your PC if you still have the original factory installation in place (meaning you haven't actually wiped it clean yet but you intend to using this guide, perhaps). You need to do a search on your OEM machine (running Windows Vista or Windows 7, doesn't matter) for a file named *.xrm-ms - it's typically going to be found in the Windows\System32\OEM folder.

Again, I have to repeat this is only for OEM installations of any kind; the xrm-ms certificate doesn't apply towards Retail installations, the file simply doesn't exist since it's a license that ties the Product Key to a given OEM branding. If you have an Acer laptop that came from the factory with Windows 7 Home Premium on it, and you do a search for *.xrm-ms you're going to find that file someplace on that machine, typically where it should be in the Windows\System32\OEM folder.

I use the wildcard in the filename because not every OEM actually names the file OEM.xrm-ms so using *.xrm-ms is going to find it by extension which is .xrm-ms. If you actually do have the branded OEM reinstallation DVD by some lucky happenstance, it'll be located in the $OEM$ subfolder inside the \sources folder along with scripts, wallpapers, batch files, etc all related to that specific OEM brand.

3) The royalty Product Key aka royalty key for the given OEM (Acer for Acer, Dell for Dell, etc). This is a one-shot key meaning that even if Dell were to sell 100 million laptops each with a COA sticker for Windows 7 Home Premium on them and a unique Product Key on each sticker, the royalty key for Dell Windows 7 Home Premium is still the same for all of them; "one key to rule them all" you could joke.

If you still have the factory Vista or Windows 7 installation on the computer, the royalty key is the one you'd get by using a tool like the Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder - it'll never match the one on the COA sticker, as I mentioned before. The royalty key for any given OEM and a specific edition of the OS will always be the same. All Dell Windows 7 Home Premium machines use the same royalty key, period, same for HP Windows 7 Home Premium, etc. Think royalty key = master key for a given edition of Vista or Windows 7 for a specific OEM brand and you'll get it.

If and when you reinstall the OS using an actual OEM disc (like if Dell gave you a Windows 7 Home Premium DVD with your brand new Dell), all the information necessary to do the job, install the xrm-ms cert, install the royalty key, etc, is all there in that DVD in the $OEM$ subfolder and it's all done automagically for you when you do the reinstallation.

The issue that happens when someone with an OEM machine decides to reinstall the OS using a disc other than the one provided by the OEM if you even got one is that it's going to be missing the two crucial components: the xrm-ms cert and the royalty key. That's where most everyone gets stuck. You CAN use any Windows 7 disc to reinstall the OS but, it's not going to be activated properly and branded (the branding is the icons, the bitmaps, on the System Properties screen where you'd see the Dell logo, HP logo, that sort of thing). The branding isn't what most people care about, that's completely optional.

But the activation IS critical, obviously.

If you have an actual OEM disc, it's going to have an $OEM$ subfolder - Retail and TechNet/MSDN discs (either physical media or ISO files) will NOT have that folder since they're not licensed as OEM media. It's an important distinction, hence when people say "I want to reinstall Windows on my <insert brand name here> laptop but they didn't provide me a disc when I bought it, but I've got <a Retail DVD> or <I downloaded an ISO and I want to burn it and use that>" etc... That's where the problems come in because those don't have the files you need.

Yes you have that COA sticker, yes it has a Product Key on it but that Product Key is tied to the license. Where's the license? It's that xrm-ms file I keep harping about - without that you're not going to get that OEM machine's installation activated, period. If you had a Retail/TechNet/MSDN release with the appropriate key it won't be an issue since the activation doesn't cross-check that it's an OEM machine - the Product Keys are Retail/TechNet/MSDN class keys so there's no reason to do such a check ever.

But, when you're using an OEM class key on an OEM class machine, it's going to look for the xrm-ms license the key is tied to; if that xrm-ms cert isn't installed (the license) the activation will fail, each and every time regardless of what key you're using, even with the royalty key. The license must be installed first, the key second so the activation can check the license against the key, and you're done.

There's no need to call anyone, neither Acer nor Microsoft can help in that situation in the post above anyway. If you can't locate the xrm-ms file or the royalty key for any given OEM, head over to MyDigitalLife.info and search their forums for the info and you'll find it. I can't provide direct links since there are so many OEMs out there - at that forum, however, you'll find any of the following:

- the complete $OEM$ folders ready to go for each major OEM so you can make your own custom branded reinstallation discs where all you have to do is add that one single folder to the ISO and burn it, and it's a locked OEM installation DVD for the given branding
- just the xrm-ms certs for any given OEM (required for an OEM installation which is what this is all about; they are not relevant for Retail/TechNet/MSDN installation media)
- just the royalty keys for any given edition of Vista or Windows 7 for any given OEM (again, this is all about OEM stuff, not Retail/TechNet/MSDN installation media)
- a mix of all that stuff and a whole lot more
- instructions like this post that will show you how to create the discs or just get the OS installed again and activated

As I noted above, if I chose to do it I can take a clean TechNet ISO for Windows 7 Professional (without changing the ei.cfg at all since it's technically a Windows 7 Pro ISO natively), install that on this Dell laptop in about 12 minutes using a USB stick. Once that installation is done, and I get to the usable Desktop, I can install the Dell Windows 7 Pro xrm-ms cert in about 15 seconds using that command I already explained.

Once that cert is installed (and Windows tells me it's installed, which it does), I can then activate the Dell Windows 7 Pro royalty key by using the option to "Change Product Key" in the System Properties which takes about 45 seconds. Once that's done, I'm activated and licensed and official, the only thing left that I do is add the Dell bitmap and a custom Dell wallpaper I created a long time ago, and that's about it.

Simplest terms without even creating a new install DVD?

1) Install the OS (using the correct edition, of course), don't put in a Product Key when asked
2) Install the OEM xrm-ms cert for the given branded machine (Dell cert on a Dell, etc)
3) Use the "Activate Windows now" option on the System Properties screen and punch in the royalty key for the given OEM (might be able to use the COA sticker key here, I never do)
4) You're done

 

Thank you very much for the writeup. I never knew any of this existed before today, so because of you're hard work, I now know more than I did before!

 

For the life of me, I cannot find the xrm.ms file on my acer laptop. I did a search for all xrm.ms files on my c:/ drive, and had lots of files found, but I can't find one that looks like the one I'm looking for. None of the files have the word "Acer" in the file name, but is that what I should be looking for?

 

Is there a certain way I have to search for it? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

That is a fantastic post, Bahamut. It would make for a great sticky. If only I'd had it a month or two ago.

Tunnel Vision, do you have "Show hidden files, folders, and drives." checked in the folder options? Is "Hide protected system files." on? My guess it that this .xrm-ms file Bahamut is talking about is marked as either hidden, protected, or both.

 

Aha! Yep, changing the folder options helped. The xrm.ms file was indeed hidden or was a protected system file. Thanks for the help!

 

You need to get the filename right, that would be a start.

The filename is <name>.xrm-ms

The extension of the file is .xrm-ms - it's not your typical 3 character extension like .exe or .txt, it's the full 6 digits:

xrm-ms

Some OEMs name the file OEM.xrm-ms, others name it by their own brand name like SONY.xrm-ms or whatever. Do a search first for OEM.xrm-ms (copy and paste that into the Search box if necessary), then if absolutely nothing comes up that matches it, then do the wildcard search of *.xrm-ms but you'll end up getting more than a few hits off that one I guarantee.

Regardless, since you have an OEM installation on the drive currently, you should find that *.xrm-ms file inside that Windows\System32\OEM folder (and yes, my apologies, I thought I had mentioned that's a hidden system folder but I guess I left that out... oops...). With that *.xrm-ms file (whatever the actual name is before the extension) and the Acer royalty key you can reinstall to your heart's content, install the xrm-ms cert afterward, then activate using the royalty key without issues.

If necessary, as I stated above you can find those OEM xrm-ms certs over at MyDigitalLife.info, they have whole threads with those posted in the variety of formats I also mentioned (folder, individual files, etc).

 

That's what the slp.cmd file is for; that's what I quoted above with the Code tags. Same principle, it's what automates the installation of the xrm-ms certificate (first command/line) and then installs the Product Key (second command/line). All you have to have is the files in the right place (inside the $OEM$ folder) and it'll take it from there, after which the installation is "pre-activated" when it's finished.

If you don't have the specific $OEM$ file with all the necessary scripts, it's entirely possible to grab one of the "official" ones from Dell, HP, etc, and then just replace the necessary aspects (the xrm-ms file for your given OEM so you get the right certificate, the slp.cmd batch file and replace the royalty key with the one for your OEM, the wallpapers if you care about 'em, etc) and end up with your own "custom" OEM installation disc, sure.

I have one "generic" $OEM$ folder and when I need to create one for any given OEM, I just change those variables in the slp.cmd batch file (the royalty key), and make sure I replace the wallpapers and the OEM.xrm-ms file so it's locked to the brand of machine I'm creating the installation disc for. Takes 10 minutes tops to redo the ISO for a new OEM and burn it...

 

Back in the XP days, the magic file was setupp.ini (yes, with two Ps) You can take a retail/msdn image and add that OEM settings to turn a retail disk into an OEM. (Does not work the other way, however)

I found that I could make a custom OEM image for Thinkpads and use it on other machines - and then use the sticker on the bottom of the laptop for the key. In many cases it just worked. Every once in a while, I hit a machine that did not. For that, calling Microsoft to activate over the phone worked just fine. Never an issue. They more or less give you a key when you call in.