Windows Activation Problems

Hello All,

I have been having this peculiar problem with regards to windows activation ever since my hard disc crashed. See the problem started after I got a new hard disc and reinstalled windows all over again and instead of activating windows after that i clicked on the skip button. I really do regret doing that as I did not know what I was doing then as I have only reformatted my PC once. Anyhow to cut a long story short, windows started acting up after I skipped the activation process all my windows updates mysteriously vanished so did other vital windows applications. Is there a way to solve this problem and reactivate windows yet again over the internet without me having to reinstall the entire OS all over again ? Calling the centre is out of the question as I am not in the USA. Please do help as I am at my wit's end here & many thanks in advance.

 

Hello and Welcome to Wilders!

You can start up the "Windows Activation" wizard by going to

Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Activate Windows

This will give you the same screens you skipped the first time.


Hope that helps

 

Thanks I just checked it out and apparently it has been activated already but why isnt the windows update packages and patches not shown in the add/remove window when I look at it ? I have it ticked on at show updates but for some unknown reason they have all been deleted by windows they were listed prior to this. Has anyone had this problem before ? How do I get windows to download those updates again and why did it have to delete them in the first place ? All this seems rather odd as they were there before until recently.

 

if windows update doesnt offer the updates anymore, a possibiity is that the uninstallers for the hotfixes are gone

 

Sounds as if something may have gotten corrupted, so if it were me, I would definitely do a fresh reinstall of Windows...

Also, the first time you attempt to download updates, MS will want to install their 'Genuine Advantage' authentication program in order to validate that you are running a legitimate copy of Windows. If you do not allow that to be installed, you won't be able to download updates for Windows.

 

For those who don't like to spend the extra time validating their Windows from Microsoft, you can download the most important updates from www.softwarepatch.com

 

I know that you have activated now but - calling is possible toll free in Europe - I've done it a few time in the UK.

Activation should not cause these problems. corruption / virus or something else might


You could try enabling updates from the security centre. On my machine the ie based update does not work becuase I have stopped the activeX but but the background update still works.

 

Hello All thanks for all the very valuable feedback.

Apparently I suspect that CCleaner deleted all my hotfix files along with all the windows updates and hotfix update installer as i ticked on the advanced tab on Hotfix Uninstallers.

Is there a go around to this problem ? Will I be able to download a "exe" file from someplace that will rectify this problem ? Anyone that has experienced before do let me know what you did and how you managed to solve this problem, my PC is incredibly vulnerable at the moment as its entire guard system is down.

 

You didn't mention whether you received any error messages or not, so there may be something for you in the step's listed here.
If no joy, try Kelly's Korner - "Why can't I download updates?" < You'll need Java enabled >

EDIT: For the record, are we talking about Product Activation on Windows XP?


GF