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sdotbrucato
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2005
- Messages
- 1,722
I've used Joe Average's upgrade trick numerous times, but it seems to be failing on one of my repurposed HTPCs
when I type in "slmgr.vbs -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx" it runs the script and then Im told to "run slui.exe 0x2a 0xC004F061" when I do this Im told that "The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations."
This is my first time using an upgrade key with a SP1 disk, did they fix that with SP1? What now? Id really rather not have to do the upgrade install. =(
Here's Joe Averages tip, for those that are confused.
when I type in "slmgr.vbs -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx" it runs the script and then Im told to "run slui.exe 0x2a 0xC004F061" when I do this Im told that "The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations."
This is my first time using an upgrade key with a SP1 disk, did they fix that with SP1? What now? Id really rather not have to do the upgrade install. =(
Here's Joe Averages tip, for those that are confused.
Install the upgrade edition (as a full install) without using the key and during the initial parts of the installation pick the CORRECT edition, of course since if you don't you'll end up starting over, choose not to activate when online, and finish the installation.
Now, if you're not connected online yet because some NICs may not get detected by Vista, believe it or not, you will need to install them at this point because you must be online for this "trick" to work.
Once that's done, or if you are connected because Vista did have a driver for your NIC or your wireless card or whatever, fantastic, you're ready to proceed, but if not you can't do this without being online.
At this point you've installed the "upgrade" edition as full one, you didn't input the key when you installed it, and you chose not to activate online automagically. Next step:
You need to run an Administrative Command Prompt. Find Command Prompt on the Start Menu, under Programs - Accessories (I think, I'm not running Vista at the moment, sorry). Once you find the shortcut, right click on it and choose "Run as administrator..." - it'll pop up the UAC box (since this is a new installation you'll get the prompt).
If you did it right, you'll get a Command Prompt appear, but it's different than "normal" because it'll say "Administrative Command Prompt" in the title bar. If it does, great, move on. If not, then figure it out, you can't do this unless the Command Prompt has Admin privileges.
Final steps are the 3 commands (the first 2 are mandatory, the 3rd is optional but I recommend you do it anyway):
1) Type:
slmgr.vbs -ipk <your Product Key with hyphens> (then press Enter and wait)
So if your key looks like JMJTK-MFCDG-248TY-TYHPW-2C8KH you'd be typing:
slmgr.vbs -ipk JMJTK-MFCDG-248TY-TYHPW-2C8KH and then you'd press Enter. When you press Enter is runs the Visual Basic script which installs the Product Key you specified - i for Install, p for Product, k for Key, hence -ipk is the switch.
After a minute or two (this process takes a while so be patient and JUST WAIT for it to finish, seriously), you'll get a popup alert that tells you the key has been successfully installed. If not, then you're going to have a problem at this point - I've done this over 1500 times since Vista came out, and not one time has it ever not worked. The instructions I just gave you are the exact steps I follow up to this point, and it's never failed for me.
After that popup appears, click OK and we'll continue.
2) Type:
slmgr.vbs -ato (and then press Enter and wait)
Again, this fires up the Visual Basic script to activate online (activate oline) which is now possible since you just installed the Product Key with the previous command. And this process takes a minute or two also, so JUST WAIT for it to finish. When it's done, you'll get another popup alert telling you it's successful. If so, move on, if not then somewhere something is wrong or... well, I can't tell you what might be wrong because this process has never failed for me.
3) This step is option but recommended. Type:
slmgr.vbs -dli (and then press Enter and wait)
This last one fires up that Visual Basic script and displays the licensing info (d for display, l for licensing, i for info... neat how that works, ain't it?) of your current installation which, at that moment has a Product Key and was just activated by the previous command. A minute or two and the final popup alert will appear with the info you're interested in which is on the last line because it should say "Activated."
That's it, you're all set. You can thank me later...
Been telling people how to do the "full" install with an upgrade edition of Vista with just one installation since oh... October of 2006, but as I said the thread I had created long ago got lost in the forum rollback long long ago. Not many people get the upgrade editions when you grab a full OEM copy for about the same price more often than not.
Good luck...
