reactivates with no changes to hardware

I have retail versions of Windows 7 Home Premium on two computers in a HomeGroup connected by an ethernet cable via a router. Both computers from time to time will give a message that the activation was successful.

If the computers are actually reactivating, why? And how do I stop it?

If reactivating, then I will likely run into trouble in the future with the Microsoft nonesense of activating too many and have to contact them or buy a new product key, etc.

Should I stop the computers from reporting to Microsoft to improve their product?

Has anyone else exeprienced this problem?

Note that one computer has a shakey Windows 7 965G driver that produces an error (and recovers) now and then. The other uses the latest ASUS ATI 3100 video driver instead of the supplied Windows 7 driver which results in errors.

Were both separately activated? The only reason i can think this behavior would manifest is if both are using the same license key and hop-scotch reactivating when connecting to the internet.

A retail license belongs to you for life, to run on the machine of your choice - but never on more than one machine. MS cannot steal it back, only enforce the letter of the EULA.

That said, the EULA does say it is locked to the underlying OS license, so if it is upgrading a manufacturer's OEM or builder's OEM Vista or XP, then technically it is not migratable to another machine as any retail license is.

However, this is not tracked - only that the Upgrade license isn't on more than one machine at a time. And the only way it would ever be in contention is if you are elevated to a person during activation and they inquire about the qualifying OS it upgraded. So keep the license keys for your underlying Vista/XP together with the Win7 upgrade key for life.

Gregrocker:

I have two separate upgrade licences and each machine was initially activated from it's own DVD and associated Key upon installation. The Dell was upgraded from an OEM licence and the subdirectory Windows.old was subsequently deleted. So that could explain reactivation. I'm not sure that Microsoft would rely on the Windows.old directory information to determine the locking to an underlying licence. Since this was a dual boot XP/Vista (XP installed first) I can always go back and re-install Windows 7 from XP.

The other machine was upgraded from a Vista retail version and I chose the "Cutom" option and essentially did a clean install (had trouble otherwise). There is no windows.old either.

What I am concerned with is the eventual ongoing reactivations triggering a contact microsft message or be shut down.

rockfarmer said:

Gregrocker:

I have two separate upgrade licences and each machine was initially activated from it's own DVD and associated Key upon installation. The Dell was upgraded from an OEM licence and the subdirectory Windows.old was subsequently deleted. So that could explain reactivation. I'm not sure that Microsoft would rely on the Windows.old directory information to determine the locking to an underlying licence. Since this was a dual boot XP/Vista (XP installed first) I can always go back and re-install Windows 7 from XP.

The other machine was upgraded from a Vista retail version and I chose the "Cutom" option and essentially did a clean install (had trouble otherwise). There is no windows.old either.

What I am concerned with is the eventual ongoing reactivations triggering a contact microsft message or be shut down.

MS has no way of locking upgrade keys to underlying OS or hardware, and only track that the Upgrade is not on more than one machine. Thus an Upgrade is effectively migratable.

Since you have two valid licenses and the activation is malfunctioning, then this is something which can be troubleshot by excellent MS tech support which is included with any retail copy.

Gregrocker:

Thanks for all your help. I think I know why there may be a problem with the machine upgraded from Vista retail.The registry became corrupted on that machine due to a utility recommended in Windows magazine. Rather than recovering a Vista image made before the initial installation, I did a reinstall from Windows 7 and chose the Custom choice. Perhaps an unusual reinstallation but it seemed to work OK. Had forgottten about the method until yesterday when I read your first post. I intend to do a reinstall on both machines, the Dell from XP and the other from Vista Home. Not much of a hardship since I keep all my data files on a separate drive. Just have to edit the XP registry so that Windows 7 installation can see drives D: and E:. Thanks again.