Win7 Student Upgrade Activation

I have googled for this w/out satisfaction.Our daughter is a student at Emory University. For Christmas I decided to upgrade her Vista laptop to Win7 via the student Win7 Professional Offer. The DVD arrived with a Certificate of Authenticity, and had product codes but no key. I installed it and reset her email and statistics package, and when asked for a product key left it blank. Now it needs to be activated in 25 days. I fleshed out the key from the registry but when I tried to activate received the message - "This is a standard product key and cannot be used for activation".

Not the greatest Christmas gift. I am trying to avoid anger, but am frustrated. Is this something I need to take up with Microsoft directly, or is it some kind of scam?

frustrated father

I believe you might have erred in auditing the key from registry. This is normally only necessary with batch OEM keys stickered to computers.

Instead you should access the activation link at Computer>Properties and insert the Product key which is on the packaging you describe. If the activation fails, follow the prompts to attempt telephone activation, which may require elevation to a MS agent who can tell you whether the key is legit.

Where exactly did you buy this student offer? Let us look at the site for you.

The keys are alpha-numeric 25 digits in five groups called "Product key" and nothing else.

Let me try and answer all 3 of you. The DVD was obtained by my daughter by linking to a Microsoft site offering the Win 7 Professional for 29.95 and an offer for Office 2007 for 59.95 - The DVD was shipped in a disc mailer from Microsoft Corporation by way of 4600 Commerce Crossing Dr., Louisville KY.

The DVD was made in Puerto Rico and the Certificate of Authenticity says Win Pro 7 English Disk Kit D. THERE WAS NO PRODUCT KEY anywhere, just a product ID 770000426C10883453-SLOU. It replaced the Vista Home Premium (which was pre-installed on the laptop) so I don't know that product key. The key returned from the registry was HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487 but when trying to activate with it I get the message in my original post. If I try using slmgr -ato from the command prompt I get "Activation server indicates that key is blocked."

The actual DVD says Windows 7 Professional Includes Windows Anytime Upgrade.

The Windows 7 $29.99 student thing is a download by default. You assumably paid extra to get the DVD sent as well.

It would have been necessary to use a .edu email address to qualify for the offer -- assumably your daughter's.

The product key is emailed to that email address along with the confirmation / download link. I don't believe they provide it anywhere else.

Assumably your daughter has the key via her .edu email. If she deleted it, you may need to contact the storefront and ask them to email it again -- do be prepared to be persistent to get through to them, however.

(And the key you would have pulled from the registry is a default placeholder key that goes to all systems until you enter your individual one. It's essentially worthless to you. The discs do not magically install your individual key for you. The discs are the same for everyone. They keep their expenses down for the student thing by emailing keys like this rather than putting them on stickers and slapping them on individual discs they mail out, etc.)

So there you have it.

To all;

Yes, at the bottom of the confirmation email was the product key. Before that were links to download the .iso and other information, then a note saying the DVD would be shipped. Worried about downloading a huge .iso I told her to wait until the DVD arrived, so we never got that far. Probably a simple note with the DVD or putting the product key at the top of the email would have prevented me from looking like an idiot with this thread. I do want to thank all who did reply as this seems an excellent forum. I'm sure she is not the only non-CS student who had a similar experience.

I understand where you're coming from. We all quickly read thro' when we think we know what we're doing. In saying that the sticky in Install section does help.

I'm lucky in that I'm on a course which allowed me to buy the student upgrade to pro. I got the disk in a semi transparent slip cover but the activation code was on the back of the the cover. Maybe buying the disk without d/ling is the best way to go.................. plus always reading all contents of the possible email helps............ it's always great with hindsight