Clean Vista install WITH NO ACTIVATION

[gpalosu]

I just thought I wasn't supposed to use the key from the sticker because of the "Why not use the key on the bottom of the laptop?" part from the guide's faq.

[prroots]

My daughter has a Sony laptop running the OEM Windows 7 that can make very good use of a clean install. I don't have access to her computer at this moment, so I ran the ABR Version 1.7 Beta 1 on my Dell laptop. My laptop is running Windows 7 Home Premium with a family pack license. It's not the OEM XP that it came with. When I run ABR it generates just one file called 'backup-key.txt'. This file contains the COA of the family pack. My question is why didn't it generate two files as the directions indicated?

Update: I saw a similar post having this problem. I then run the program in a command prompt and it generated the error message, 'Could not find activation certificate !!!' Is this to be expected when running ABR on a non-OEM version such as mine?
Pete

[orev]

My daughter has a Sony laptop running the OEM Windows 7 that can make very good use of a clean install. I don't have access to her computer at this moment, so I ran the ABR Version 1.7 Beta 1 on my Dell laptop. My laptop is running Windows 7 Home Premium with a family pack license. It's not the OEM XP that it came with. When I run ABR it generates just one file called 'backup-key.txt'. This file contains the COA of the family pack. My question is why didn't it generate two files as the directions indicated?

Update: I saw a similar post having this problem. I then run the program in a command prompt and it generated the error message, 'Could not find activation certificate !!!' Is this to be expected when running ABR on a non-OEM version such as mine?
Pete

ABR only works with OEM versions.

[prroots]

ABR only works with OEM versions.

Thanks. I did call my daughter and had her download and run the program. It did generate both files. Also the key it generated did not match the COA which, as I understand it, is to be expected.
Pete

[sdjm]

I bought my HP Pavilion with preinstalled Vista x64 bit in Feb 2009 and proceeded to register and activate everything. I want to upgrade to 7 and while checking my amount of RAM, found a message stating i have 4days to activate my Vista. When I tried I received the above mentioned error code. I can't find a phone number to call Microsoft. The activation screen will not let me get to that point. I contacted Microsoft to reactivate my Vista but since it was preinstalled I must call HP to bypass the OEM key. Hp wants $100 to do this because my warrenty has expired. All this because I am want to upgrade to Windows 7 but i can't because my Vista is not activated. I have had this computer for 2+ years and never had a problem. Now because of auto updates, I have to reactivate. Is there a way to do this with out HP? Can I reset to factory setting to solve this? Can I upgrade to Windows 7 without this activation.

[orev]

Please start a new thread for this question.

[capsulej]

I did this and it worked, thank you so much.