Unable to activate Win 7 Pro

[sorcerer]

Sorry guys, my Google-fu has deserted me this morning so I have to ask the hive mind.

Customer has a new Windows 10 laptop but also wants/needs Windows 7 Pro, so I installed VMWare and installed Win 7 in a virtual machine.

All went well until it came to activation, where it would throw an error. I also tried the automated phone activation and that would only allow Win 10, so I called and spoke to a person who was very difficult to understand but the upshot is that they have decommissioned the Win 7 activation system due to the OS now being obsolete.

OK, I understand about the OS being obsolete but if it wasn't for the fact that his previous laptop now lies at the bottom of Lake Windermere he would still be happily plodding along using it without problem. I'm assuming that in 28 days time when the counter reaches zero, it'll throw a hissy fit and stop working. Is that correct? If so, is there anything that can be done?

 

[Markverhyden]

Where did the key come from?

 

[sorcerer]

Where did the key come from?

He apparently bought it retail in the days when you could buy physical discs at your local computer store about 10 or 11 years ago.

 

[Phillip Manning]

If you can get the phone activation key you can google the phone number and activate it over the phone. The last time I tried to install windows 7 I could not get it to show the activation numbers on screen to be able to phone activate it. This only left the option of ringing the activation number ant talking to a person and trying from there. I was only testing something so did not waste my time with that.

 

[sorcerer]

I've tried entering the key onscreen/online and that didn't work but it did give the phone number and the 9 banks of characters so I tried activating by the auto phone system and that didn't work. I ended up talking to someone from Microsoft who said that they have no tools at their end to allow Win 7 activation anymore, only Win 10. I've had no problem with phone numbers, licence keys or anything like that - the problem is that MS seem to have taken the activation servers offline as far as Win 7 is concerned.

What's going to happen in 28 days? Will it continue to work but just keep nagging that it's not activated or will it completely cease to work? Or is there some registry hack that can fool it into thinking it's activated? It's all genuine, paid for, and legitimate - just seems that I can't get anyone/anything to agree that it is and activate it.

 

[backwoodsman]

It's all genuine, paid for, and legitimate - just seems that I can't get anyone/anything to agree that it is.

And they can't say it's not genuine and legitimate either; they just remove the ability to use what you legally own. In a case like that, I would consider downloading and using a pre-activated ISO. Archive.org has several. You'll want to do a thorough malware scan the first time you install an ISO.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks Backwoodsman

 

[britechguy]

And they can't say it's not genuine and legitimate either; they just remove the ability to use what you legally own.

If you think that you have, ever, owned a copy of any version of Windows, rather than owning the right to use it via license (and, by implication, as long as its maker continues to support it) then you've not read the EULA.

Anyone who believes that Microsoft, or any company, is going to actively support, and allow the use of, software they no longer make in perpetuity is hopelessly unaware of history in the world of software.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I would advise against downloading a pre activated copy. You are placing you and your client in a very bad legal position. You simply inform your client that due to EOL of Windows 7, you are unable to virtualize it.

Client will need to change whatever app or issue that requires 7 in the first place.

 

[sorcerer]

I think we're all aware of the legalities. What irks most is that there are many hundreds of thousands of people around the world still happily using Windows 7 (even XP come to that) as indeed my client would be, if his kid hadn't had an accident and dropped the laptop in the lake.

If MS really didn't want people using it beyond EOL then they should send a 'self-destruct' command so that no one in the world can use it, or keep the activation servers up so that everyone who wants to, can continue to do so. It's this 'half in-half out' thing that annoys me so much.

 

[alexsmith2709]

It doesnt help your problem, but this link https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/15083/windows-activate-windows-7-or-8-1 was updated on 29th July this year seems to suggest you can still activate, so unless its a very recent decision to turn off the activation servers it seems the Microsoft employee was BSing.
What error code were you getting?

 

[Markverhyden]

He apparently bought it retail in the days when you could buy physical discs at your local computer store about 10 or 11 years ago.

What did you use to build the VM?

If he had the actual retail product, as in that little colored paper with the key printed then it's almost certain it's real. I've not heard anything about M$ suddenly, as in no notice, turning off something like an OS activation. Historically they've always been very communicative, as in months of notice, when they do something that big. Like when they cut off TechNet or drop update support for an OS.

My last W7 activation was several months ago using a TechNet key and it worked. A Dell one couple months before worked. I'd venture a guess you just got someone who didn't know what's going on. Many times resources like that aren't actual employees but contractors with very limited access to M$ resources. I'd just give it another whirl to see what happens. Since it's a VM you can just remote into the W10 instance and do that remotely.

 

[sorcerer]

Thank you for being the steadying influence chaps

It was a double whammy of my own failing and also a genuine problem. The error was 0x80072F8F, which according to Google was most likely a date/time thing. The VM (using VMWare Workstation 16) had the correct time and even 17th October, but thought it was 1980 instead of 2020.

I corrected that but it still wouldn't activate automatically, so I had to call the 0800 number and punch in the nine blocks of numbers - and this is where my own stupidity came into play. I've used this system many times but not for quite a while. It transpires that I should have listened to the menu choices instead of just always choosing 1, 1, 1 etc., like I seem to remember doing in the past because those choices now direct you to Win 10 info and to activate something else you need to choose an alternative.

In my defence, the 'Microsoft operative' I spoke to last night just added to my confusion - that's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it

Thanks again folks.

 

[bdoggman]

Bios mod will do the trick

 

[Your PCMD]

Activating Windows 7 is dead simple. I did it 3 times this week on 3 different systems because the software the company uses will not work on Windows 10 and is no longer produced and their too lazy to switch to something more modern. Not my problem though. Anyway, I input the key and they activated with no issue once connected to the internet.

And yeah, I sold them the keys because I bought 30 copies of Windows 7 Pro from my distributor about a year ago. Good thing is, is that the keys STILL activate Windows 10 Pro.

 

[britechguy]

Good thing is, is that the keys STILL activate Windows 10 Pro.

I don't foresee a time where this will change. Microsoft has not only had the opportunity to discontinue this, but they have even said that it was being discontinued, but for several years since it's still working.

I think they want for it to remain as easy as possible for anyone using Windows 7 or later to transition to Windows 10.

I have also found very, very little software that will run under Windows 7 that will not run under Windows 10 with compatibility mode enabled, and often that's not necessary. It's not zero, but I have had to fiddle around on occasion to get stuff that doesn't "just work" to get to the point where it will.

 

[Markverhyden]

I don't foresee a time where this will change. Microsoft has not only had the opportunity to discontinue this, but they have even said that it was being discontinued, but for several years since it's still working.

I think they want for it to remain as easy as possible for anyone using Windows 7 or later to transition to Windows 10.

I think they've realized that the marginal cost of chasing around that ghost, W7, far exceeds the revenue of forcing people to convert. It's all about cloud and how you get there these days. They've finally admitted, after decades, that they can't do the Internet browser thing and farmed it out to Chromium.

 

[theobsession]

can that app just be ran in compatibility mode? thats what i have been doing for all the legacy software