Is there a max number of times Retail can be activated?

Ritjesman · 11 Sep 2020

SIW2 said:

I back it up ( the backup only works for the same machine )

@SIW2 As mentioned above I've got two instances of W7: a "prod" which is my live machine and a "test" which is a VM. Both have their own Windows key. The test VM's guest "disk" was populated via a clone of prod. After booting the VM guest the key was changed from prod to test. The test VM guest environment is currently activated.

I made the mistake of doing a Windows update that seems to have negatively impacted VM performance & would like to get rid of the update by loading a fresh prod clone. (No, I don't have a Windows restore as I've relied on Reflect so the prod clone did not have Recovery turned on). My intent is to retain the VM "hardware identifiers"-OS license key relationship whilst eliminating the ill-begotten update.

I've followed your tutorial on backing up activation state using DISM++. The instructions assume restoring the the activation state following a fresh install. In my case I'll be cloning from my "prod" environment which has its own key and will need to change the key in addition to returning the activated status.

Will the DISM++ restore activation status work for my scenario?

Thanx for your help.

SIW2 · 11 Sep 2020

try it and find out.

Bree · 11 Sep 2020

Ritjesman said:

Is ".vhdx" Hyper-V nomenclature?

Hyper-V can use .vhd or .vhdx virtual drives, but the default is .vhdx.

VHDX (Virtual Hard Disk v2) is the successor format to VHD. Where VHD has a capacity limit of 2040 GB, VHDX has a capacity limit of 64 TB. For disk images with this newer format the filename extension vhdx is used instead of vhd. VHDX protects against power failures and is used by Hyper-V.[23] VHDX can be mounted like VHD.

VHD (file format) - Wikipedia

Bree · 11 Sep 2020

torchwood said:

@Bree
as there Retail keys does this affect the number of times you can use it to create a W10 VM

Activation doesn't know or care whether you are using the retail key to activate a VM or a physical machine. It just counts the number of times you've used the key and allows (or blocks) it accordingly. I'm not sure what the rules are for a retail key, but the type of machine you use it on is not relevant.

Once W10 has been activated on a machine of any sort (physical or VM) it has a digital licence tied to its HWID and stored on the MS activation servers. As long as there are no significant hardware changes a clean install of the same edition without using a key will activate from the digital licence.

'Significant changes' would be a motherboard swap on a physical machine, or creating a new VM. Changing the drive (virtual or physical) for a new one is not a significant change.

Ritjesman · 12 Sep 2020

SIW2 said:

try it and find out.

Yep, it works. On first boot the System screen showed nine days to activate; it activated almost immediately. Thanx again for the DISM process.

torchwood said:

There are 2 issues [1] they are both currently Activated but not Registered, pretty standard fix, install kb971033, then reboot twice for it to update the MS validaion servers.

KB971033 had actually already been applied. Out of curiosity I deleted the update, reran MGADiag and compared the results (only showing differences):

Is there a max number of times Retail can be activated?-mgadig-kb971033.jpg

Theoretically, the Admin Service should have gone to Registered status with update 971033 so why did it not I wonder. As an FYI, the link for downloading 971033 in the MS KB article was throwing a 404 when I tried to download and reapply the patch. Thankfully I do daily backups.

torchwood said:

[2] OF more concern, They both contain a 705 entry,
Windows Product ID: 00371-705-7245917-06288
Windows Product ID: 00371-705-7310703-06322

... these were primarilly issued to developers, known as MSDN keys and SHOULD NOT have been sold on...

This is very useful. I was tangentially aware of an entity called MSDN but since I've not been a programmer since mainframe COBOL/Assembler days I never paid it much mind. I suppose this is a legal grey area (presuming of course that my retail licenses did indeed originate with a MSDN subscriber) -- who is liable, the developer who sold them, the middle-man retailer who may have acquired them in good faith or the final customer who inadvertently purchased questionable goods? Yes, I did wonder about the low price but figured that there must be a market for fully depreciated (from an accounting perspective) software similar to that for fully depreciated hardware. A market for depreciated software licenses my exist but ...

I'm not comfortable in the grey area and am searching for replacements. (Once bitten, twice shy) does this look legit to you (I downloaded the MS volume licensing EULA & it doesn't look like Tralion (a German firm) is doing anything shady)?

Is there a max number of times Retail can be activated?-windows-pro-tralion.jpg

SIW2 · 12 Sep 2020

I haven't dealt with that particular company, however, the download version from their page here is cheaper, though some people like to have a box and dvd.
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional - Download 1 PC — tralion

Ritjesman · 13 Sep 2020

SIW2 said:

I haven't dealt with that particular company, however, the download version from their page here is cheaper, though some people like to have a box and dvd.
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional - Download 1 PC — tralion

Thanx (again).

torchwood · 13 Sep 2020

Hi

before i get into the reply proper.

Thank you for the info re kb971033 ----
I allready knew about the removal of the Mgadiag tool, now with KB being removed as well "smacks of" MS retiring the unofficial extended free upgrade period.
one of the caviates for an upgrade, NOT a clean install, was having a fully updated and genuine OS.
@SIW2 is it in DISM++
@wkeller and is it in Integrate7 script
@Brink for info re W10 free upgrade tutorial.

Ok back to your "problem"
The second way to resolve it, Call MS, from a run command type slui 4

torchwood · 13 Sep 2020

oooooooooooops

got carried away

As for responsibility, ends up in your bed.
There is a generally a returns period for any goods sold, whether in a shop or on-line, but i suspect your long past the standard 28 days.
MS do have systems in place to try and stop this kind of practice
How To Tell - Home
and more importantly in your case have been known to give out a free key

As for that company and those product details
I would be very wary -- thier quoting a Volume licence in the details, once again it goes against the EULA
not for resale.
(some countries however have legislated that the MS EULA is not binding, Germany is one)
Volume licences are either
KMS validates against a NON MS server every x days
MAK validates against MS server
Both also have a limited no of User Activations

If Dism++ or Integrate7 do not include kb971033, im pretty certain the Heidoc July2018 Iso does

Roy

Bree · 13 Sep 2020

Ritjesman said:

...FYI, the link for downloading 971033 in the MS KB article was throwing a 404 when I tried to download and reapply the patch....

torchwood said:

Thank you for the info re kb971033 ----
I allready knew about the removal of the Mgadiag tool, now with KB being removed as well "smacks of" MS retiring the unofficial extended free upgrade period....

A neat trick to download anything that MS have removed from their servers is to look up an archived copy of the relevant page in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and download an archived copy from the link there.

Wayback Machine | Description of the update for Windows Activation Technologies