Contacting Microsoft to activate Windows 7 Ultimate

I have Win7 Ultimate, I installed it on a fairly newly built PC, I will admit I have had it on 2 previous laptops as well.

Anyway I got the error message to activate it, I did the usual rearm but that failed, then edited the reg to get the rearm to work again, that failed as well.

So I went online to activate it, get the screen that asks me to put my product key in but it seems to be to upgrade to Win10.

Then I got the online help, they just kept sending me back to the screen I was on after me repeating I was on there but it just kept sending me back.

So I thought I will phone them, then got a voice saying they are having problems and to go online grrr!

 

I don't mind paying for a new key if that is what is needed but getting one is a no go, any ideas please?

 

Col.

Update:

I managed to contact them, got an Indian gentleman, I had the PC built so got all the parts separate online.

Then he asked what motherboard I had, I told him then he said the hard drive should have windows installed, I told him I bought the HD separate and it was blank, he didn't seem to understand, I told him 3-4 times, then he finally got it.

He said I need to contact where I bought the motherboard and phone them back with proof of purchase then he can give me a new code to activate Windows, what a pain.

Bear in mind that Microsoft support for Windows 7 ends in January 2020 … no more security updates, and highly unadvisable to continue its use, especially if it's connected to the Internet. Hate to see its "end of life" - my own flightsim rig is still Win7, but that's the way of software and operating systems. Unless money is no issue, maybe not a good idea for anyone to be buying new Windows 7 license keys.

I think I may have goofed, I tried to buy win7 but there are so many websites offering different prices, I read some of the comments and people were saying it didn't work or some said they still got the windows not legal error etc and it put me off.

So then I looked at buying Win10 and the prices for that vary, MS wanted £120, on amazon it was around £73+.

I tried to format the HD but this is where I may have goofed, I ended up re-installing Win7 Ultimate, with the install there was a format option which I did, anyway I ended up installing Win7 again.

It installed OK but obviously everything I had before has gone, I just got the wireless drivers on and this enabled be to get online.

I've not got the windows invalid error yet, maybe because it is a new install, my main problem is I backed a lot of FS stuff up on the other 2 hard drives on the PC but when I click on the 'Computer' it only sees the C: Drive and the DVD Drive, it can't see the other 2 drives.

 

I've been here before setting up from scratch, in some ways it's good because it is cleaner again but other ways it not trying to find certain software again.

I remembered how to access the other hard drive but it found one not two, the one it found is now blank, I may have formatted it in the confusion, my mistake, but the other still not showing, maybe I did something to that to make it invisible lol.

 

So I'm back to square one, got the video drivers, wireless drivers, I'm dreading the rest.

I remembered how to access the other hard drive but it found one not two, the one it found is now blank, I may have formatted it in the confusion, my mistake, but the other still not showing, maybe I did something to that to make it invisible lol.

 

So I'm back to square one, got the video drivers, wireless drivers, I'm dreading the rest.

 

Did you use Windows Disk Management to find the drives?

 

You may be able to recover the partition and data on the second drive as long as you haven't tried to reformat it. Data recovery utilities such as Recuva or Zero Assumption Recovery (ZAR) can often find and recover data on formatted drives. Some can also restore the entire partition too.

 

One tip for the future is to completely disconnect all drives other than the OS drive when doing a complete reinstall. Helps prevent accidentally formatting the wrong drive.

Hi loki,

Yes I wanted to format the the main C:Drive to install a lower version of Windows, in trying to do that I think I formatted the wrong drive.

I got a program that wipes the drive, it was taking forever so I stopped it, yes a mistake, because now I think it made the drive invisible.

 

Moving on, I upgraded to Windows 10, so as I said above it's installing things again, all my FSX has gone, including the Orbx scenery that took forever to install, I can get that again as it is stored on the Orbx site. All my repainted aircraft has gone, along with some utilities, kind of puts me off doing it all again.

 

Col.

Yes, Win 10 is intrusive with periodic and sometimes unwanted updates. It also can take-over certain aspects of your PC while working in the background. But like everything else in technology, it's the current and future operating system (until MS wows us someday with Win11?).

 

But, FSX will probably operate more effectively with Win 10 installed (in spite of the above caveats).