Microsoft Windows Vista Activation Secrets (Part 1)

Windows Vista is the shiny new Operating System(OS) from Microsoft. Its what makes every one who uses it a PC ("I'm a PC!" wheee, whatever that means, duh?). To the naive Vista has more robust 'activation features' compared to its predecessor Windows XP. But then there are secrets Microsoft has kept from the "I'm a PCs".

What is activation

Activation is the process of registering the Microsoft Windows OS licence together with your computer configuration with Microsoft. This allows Microsoft to validate your copy of windows as genuine and also enforce their licence terms so you cannot use the same copy on more than one computer (if you are not authorized to).

This means you cannot happily hand over your genuine Windows CD to your near and dear friend to install as they will not be able to use it (they can install it but cannot activate it, because you already did). Activation was introduced since Windows XP and most people believe it was made better in Windows Vista. Sounds fair, read on...

Buying Vista

If you go out in the market to but a new laptop or desktop you will most probably get it with pre-installed and activated Windows Vista (whether you want it or not). Technically you have paid a licence fee for that Vista copy which is hidden away in the price of the hardware you buy. But where is the installation disk for this OS? What if you want to re-install it? Unless you are very lucky (i.e. you paid a lot more than your computer is worth) you will not receive any installation disk for Vista. You may get several recovery disks, but no installation disk. I recently purchased a laptop and was quite unhappy that I was not provided with installation disks for software I had paid for! So I decided to dig out the secret of this disk.

Well there are several secrets I found.

Crazy licensing

The licence terms of Vista that comes pre-installed on a computer are insane and I believe not fair1. They allow you to use only one copy of the OS on just the computer you bought and on just the partition it came installed on. Which means according to the licence you cannot uninstall the thing form one computer and install it on another. You cannot install it twice on different partitions of the same computer, nor can you install it to another partition of the same computer deleting it off from the original. The recovery disks ensure that the windows always gets installed to the same partition and therefore enforce this licence. If they were to give you a proper setup disk you would go berserk installing windows everywhere (in your toilet, on your bed in your pasta sauce) wouldn't you? - after all you are a PC! If you want to do anything inventive with Vista you have to buy it (again).

Vista setup disk

The persistent will find that ISO images of the original vista disks are available on many torrents and hopefully you can find one and download it. If you have some non-bootable vista disk or your manufacturer has put vista setup files on your hard-disk, you may be able to create a vista bootable disk from them. Once you have the disk, you should know that the disk contains all flavours of vista. So the same disk contains Vista Ultimate, Vista Business, Vista Home and the rest of the league. But you can't install all of them because what you can install depends on the type of licence key you have. This key is usually printed on a sticker stuck to the computer and can be used to re-install Vista wherever you want (taking away the partition and device restrictions), but you will need to re-activate your installed vista.

But because the Vista DVD contains all flavours of Vista, is there any way to install a better flavour of vista than what came pre-installed? We try to answer that in Part 22.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational and informational purpose only.

• 1. Read: What is wrong with Windows Vista
• 2. Part 2 is only available to authorized users so make sure you Log In to read it.