Clean Vista install WITH NO ACTIVATION

OK, I added an F-A-Q on the 32/64 bit question.

 

Hello Butch N, My HP dv7000 died, I'm shopping for a replacement, and I find I must move to Vista. While looking for info on the HP dv9500t, specifically why I might want the 64 bit version rather than the 32 bit Vista, I found your post that you had successfully replaced the 64 with the 32. Could you tell me why you wanted to switch? (My usage is researching web sources for investing information and on-line trading, photo editing, and some dvd playing. Nothing very extreme, yet I like to have good gear: the next to fastest cpu, max memory, high disc rpms, etc. I'd like to be ready to do HDef when the formats settle out) I'm a retired HP guy (30 years). Thanks in advance for any help. It would be easiest if you could e.mail me: paul_storaasli @ hotmail.com Thanks, paul

 

Thanks for updating the first page orev! I just ordered a 64bit CD and I will let you know! Oh and another question, can I re-use the DVD for my laptop? I mean both of them have Vista installed already but just full of bloatware.

 

New to the forums. Read every post on thread so I know this has not been asked.
I have a new Toshiba X205 with Home Premium 32 Bit. Horrendous amounts of bloatware so I want to follow your guide and reinstall. Question: I want to upgrade to Vista Ultimate - 64-Bit.
What path should I take? Create Backup CD and install Vista Ultimate 64-Bit?
There are certain utilities that I want to keep that Toshiba packaged in their crapware, its just 98% that I want to chuck.

I would appreciate your opinion.

 

The main reason for going to 64bit right now is if you have more than 3GB of RAM. The 32bit version of Windows cannot access more than 3GB of RAM.

 

What about GeekSquads Computer Optimization service? I have basically no time to do this without it impacting my work. Is Geeksquads service (check it out right here) just as effective on every level as this awesome Clean Install guide or is it just manually removing the gunk but leaving registry crap behind?

Because if it is, then I would rather pay $30 bucks for it, although I do wish I had the time to do it myself.

 

The DVDs are all the same. As long as you have 2 separate licenses for both computers, the same DVD will work for both.

My recommendation is to start with the home premium and create the backup discs. That way you can get back to the factory install. Then use ABR to backup your registration, which will allow you to do a clean install on Home Premium in the future.

Then, you will need to purchase a license for Vista Ultimate, and if you use the Microsoft site for Anytime Upgrade, you will need to request the 64bit DVD. Once you receive the 64bit DVD and the upgrade code, you will need to do a full reinstall of Vista, as you cannot upgrade from a 32bit version to a 64bit version. This will cause all data to be lost, so make sure you back up. You will need to use the 64 bit DVD to first install Home Premium, and use ABR to restore the activation. Then you can use the upgrade code to upgrade your 64bit Home premium to 64 bit Ultimate.

Remember to change the "disc type" in the anytime upgrade site to "64 bit".

 

I don't know anything about the service, but I suspect you would have to leave your computer with them for at least a few hours, and you'd also have the travel time to get there and back. A reinstall shouldn't take more than 2 hours, maybe 3 at the absolute most.

If you are already using your laptop and have data on it, you'll need to add the additional backup time to that figure. In that case, the geek squad thing might help you, but it's not going to have the same results. If the laptop is just out of the box with no data on it, my bet would be that both options would take a similar time.

 

Cool thanks.
Makes sense. I hardly have any data on it. Just a few kilobytes of class notes and papers. No music, video, images, or anything worth keeping.

Now when I go through with the install. Can I selectively add back on certain Toshiba utilities. They have some function key stuff, trackpad, and fingerprint reader stuff that I would like to keep.

 

I'm not familiar with Toshiba, but most laptop companies keep all of that software in the C:\swsetup or c:\swtools, or something like that. You will need to find that folder on your own, and save it to a DVD or external hard disk before doing the install.

 

Do I have to create a backup disc since my laptop came with two discs:
1. Upgrade your Windows Vista Experience (CAn I upgrade to Ultimate 64 with
this?)
2. Toshiba Recovery and Application/Drivers Satellite X205 Series Home
Premium 32-bit
Is it redundant to have both discs? It seems like I have two OS discs?

 

I always recommend making the backup discs. It costs you only 2 DVDs (cheap) and some time. I am not familiar with the discs Toshiba sends you, but it sounds like the "upgrade" disc is the anytime upgrade disc, and the recovery discs may already be your recovery discs. Please see the main guide for an explanation of the differences between recovery discs and the upgrade discs.

 

i completed the clean install and am trying to download the drivers from HP, but I cannot connect wirelessly. Should I connect via broadband and download the proper drivers, or should i theoretically be able to connect wirelessly?

 

You will probably need to wireless drivers. You can install them from the SWsetup folder that you saved, then you can download the rest. If that doesn't help, connecting with a wire should work.

 

I followed the guide running ARB beta 3 on my new dv9500t and did a clean install with a retail Home Premium 32bit disc. When I first followed the guide and ran activation_restore, I checked System information and think I remember seeing that it was Activated.

Now, a day or two later, I'm looking at my System information and it says "28 days to activate." I just tried running activation_restore (as admin) and it ran without any errors, but it still says "28 days to activate."

I did switch one 1GB stick of ram for a new 2GB stick, otherwise I haven't changed any hardware (unless installing a mouse driver or using an external drive counts). I'm not sure that should flag the system for re-Activation.

Any ideas? Should I just click "Activate Windows now"?

Thanks.

 

After you run activation_restore, make sure you close and then re-open the system control panel. Also try a reboot. If that doesn't help, let me know.

 

Yes, I did those things before I posted above.

 

Has anyone noticed that when you do a fresh install of Vista, and after you have finished installing Quickplay drivers and Quickplay for Windows, the MUTE button will not turn amber when you tap it? Although the mute still gets muted but I wont be able to tell if it's muted or not. On the taskbar the speaker does gets muted. I was trying to figure out the problem but I could never found the solution, so I decided to use the Vista that came preinstalled, after which I cleaned tons of bloatware. The preinstalled Vista does work when you tap the mute button and it turns amber.

 

My mute button doesn't change colors either, but I didn't really test the Quickplay buttons before the clean install, so I didn't notice until your post.

 

The mute button does work correctly on my system. You need to make sure you have both the quickplay software, and the quick launch buttons drivers installed. Other than that, make sure you have the sound drivers installed.

 

You can try the "plan b" method for activation: (quoting stallen)

1. Click on the Vista Orb (Start Button) and type: "cmd" (without the quotation marks) -> right click cmd.exe -> select "run as administrator".
   
2. Type in: "slmgr –ilc d:\abr\backup-cert.xrm-ms" (without the quotation marks) where D:\abr is the path to the abr files.
   
3. Then type: "slmgr –ato" (without the quotation marks)
   
4. That should do it. REBOOT- You should be activated.

 

Thanks for your help. I tried this a few times, rebooted and tried again, but it always fails on step 3.

2. License file c:\abr\backup-cert.xrm-ms installed successfully. (Also tried directly from the flash drive path.)

3. Activating Windows(TM) Vista, HomePremium edition (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx) ... Error: Product activation failed.


I used a full retail Home Premium install disc rather than an OEM or Anytime Upgrade disc, would that make a difference? I followed all the steps of your guide exactly.


My System > Product ID: XXXXX-OEM-XXXXXXX-XXXXX

Should I "Change product key" and input the ABR key? ABR key is: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX. Or is that a completely different number?


Can you let me know if there are any Registry keys or something I can look at to help you troubleshoot?


If all else fails and I have to activate online or call to activate, what numbers do I give them? The Key number in ABR and Product ID in my System info? Or should I use the numbers from the sticker on the bottom of the notebook?

 

Try to change the product key, and type in the one from ABR. Then try to run the slmgr again. The XXXX-OEM-XXXX key is not related to the key in ABR.

 

I entered the ABR product key in the System control panel, then it started Activation, but I got a Windows Activation Error, Error Code 0xC004E003 (The Software Licensing Service reported that license evaluation failed.).

Then I had the same results as above with slmgr (activation failed).

I ran activation_restore again, just to see what would happen. I didn't work, but I noticed at the "Uninstalling product keys..." stage, there are 6 different keys being removed. Is this normal? The error message I get when running slmgr -ato only mentions the 5th key when it fails.

Code:

Installing activation backup certificate...

Uninstalling product keys...
    Removed key for: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    Removed key for: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    Removed key for: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    Removed key for: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    Removed key for: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx (*5th key shown in slmgr -ato error)
    Removed key for: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Installing product key...

Are there supposed to be 6 keys or did ABR pull extra keys? Is there some way to try one of the other 5 keys or to figure out which is the right one?

 

The clean install went great Orev!! Thanks! I posted in the Clean Vista....Better Performance? Thread on what the difference was before and after the clean install if anyone wants to know.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=178784

 

I just wanted to thank Orev for posting this thread. This is my first laptop (actually it's for my wife) but I'm an experienced PC guy. I knew I wanted a clean install but wasn't sure how I'd do it without a Vista Home Premium disk. I also would have assumed that I'd need to call MS, although I have done that in the past and it wasn't a huge deal.

Just in case this is news, I was able to do a clean Home Premium install using my Windows Ultimate OEM DVD while I wait for my "Anytime DVDs" to ship from CompUSA. That would have never occurred to me that it would work but it did in case anyone has 2 vista PCs.

 

darrow, just call MS to activate Vista. It's a pain but it would be a lot faster than what you're doing now.

 

You shouldn't be "starting activation" anywhere. The process is to enter the product key, then run slmgr. If you click on any links or start the "official" online or any type of microsoft activation, that could cause a problem. Is that what you are doing in that step?

As far as i know, all of those discs are the same, so it should not matter.

If you do need to do this, you would first change your product key to the one on the bottom of the laptop, then call MS to do the activation.

ABR will remove anything it sees in the system. It runs through all types just to make sure it got everything. In most cases, it's only one of them on your system.

Let me know if any of those things apply. I'm still mulling over anything else it could be.

 

I'm glad the guide was useful to you.

Yes, the retail disc is identical to the anytime upgrade disc, so they both work. The important part is the license, so as long as you have one, the source media doesn't matter so much.

 

Well just so you know, in the System control panel, there are 2 links: one is "XX days to activate. Activate Windows now." and the other is "Change product key". I clicked "Change product key," then entered the ABR key. After that, the only button to press is "Next," and the result of pressing "Next" is "Starting Activation."

I did leave my Recovery Partition intact. Is there anyway to extract the key again from there (to double-check my ABR key and cert) without actually going through the Recovery process? I don't have time to do a full recovery and otherwise the system is running ok and I have almost everything transferred over from my old notebook.

Well, I spent some time searching and tried a bunch of different sequences and combinations of the commands below, but nothing worked.

slmgr -rearm
slmgr -rilc (Re-install system license files)
slmgr -cpky (clear key from registry)
slmgr -upk (remove key)
slmgr -ilc c:\abr\backup-cert.xrm-ms
slmgr -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (add key)

I found these posts on a Microsoft forum:

From those posts, it sounds like "slmgr -ato" shouldn't work (and it doesn't for me). I'm not sure why restoring the backup cert and product key don't automatically confirm my status as activated, unless my backup cert is somehow incomplete.

Yeah, you're right, I'm just about ready to do that. I still have 20+ days to activate though and just wanted to see if I could get ABR working. I thought it might come in handy if I want to do another clean install later or change to a dual-boot system.

 

OK, I wasn't sure if that's what it was doing. My bet is that trying to activate online could cause a problem.

No, the files in there are encrypted, as far as I know, so there's no way to get into them.

A few more things to do:

1. Copy the ABR files to another folder so you don't overwrite your original backup files and run the backup again.
2. Look at the .xrm-ms file and see what the size of it is.
3. Send me a PM with the first 6 digits of the product key in both the original and the one you just did in step 1. Also the contents of the xrm-ms file would be helpful

There might be a few activation keys in there left over from the few attempts you already made, which might be confusing the system. I'd love to figure out what the problem is, but if you prefer to call to activate, that's perfectly understandable.

 

Followed the instructions with my new toshiba x205-S9349 and it worked perfectly. The only problem I foresee is that I could not find the c:/swsetup files or their counterpart on the Toshiba. I did download all of the most current, critical drivers prior to the reinstall so everything is working fine atm. Hopefully I wont have any problems utilizing advanced functions of the machine - camera, etc.

So far so good - machine is noticeably faster for everything.

Question...If I am only using this notebook for gaming, word processing and occasionally sending e-mail - do i really need to slow it down with anti-virus crap? I will use my old computer for web browsing, etc.

Thanks Orev for this guide - well done!

 

Glad the guide worked for you. It's really a good idea to have some sort of AV. I highly doubt that you will NEVER connect to the internet with this machine. You will always need to get on for some reason, and use the web. AV really does not take up huge resources, and especially with a dual core system like you have. Just don't use Norton, which is terrible. I suggest free AVG or free Avast.

It's not like you have a Pentium 90 where every bit of performance would count.

 

Thanks, you have PM. There is one obvious problem I noticed which I describe in my PM. I also wonder if there might be a flag for a certain number of failed activation attempts (to force a phone activation).

 

This is just something I observed, I noticed that if I installed Vista Home Premium, the drivers for HP Webcam will not get installed properly. However, if you install Vista Ultimate, the HP Webcam driver gets installed correctly and works. I don't know the difference between Home and Ultimate but Ultimate seems to install the drivers correctly.

 

Can you define "not installed properly"? I don't know of any reason why the version of Vista you installed would change the hardware support, unless one was 32bit and the other 64bit?

 

When I install Vista Home, everytime I boot into Vista, it'll ask me to install the HP Webcam, so I simply choose ignored. So I testd Vista Ultimate, and when I check the device manager, the HP Webcam is already installed. That's all I can say.

 

I'm still waiting for my laptop to arrive. When I first read this thread I thought for sure I would be doing a clean install. But now after reading about all these drivers issues I'm not so sure. My laptop will have webcam/fingerprint reader/bluetooth... you name it. The last thing I want to do is give up funtionality of my brand new laptop.

I've installed plenty of O/S'es on PC's before and I'm comfortable with installing drivers. However, this is my first laptop, and it seems like the integrated peripherals and things like QuickPlay are alot more difficult to get working correctly with a clean install. It really is too bad companies don't let you have an option to NOT have all the crap put on for you.

 

As long as you save the C:\swsetup folder, you will have all of the software and drivers that are already installed on the system when you first get it. Most of the driver problems reported here are anomalies. The webcam problem in particular (works in Ultimate and not Home Premium) I strongly suspect has nothing to do with the version of Vista installed. It could be other software causing a conflict or a hardware problem.

Also, you will have made your recovery discs, so you can go back to the factory install whenever you like.

You have to remember that people complain when there are problems, but don't say anything when there are not, so you only ever hear about the complaints.

 

alrite... i installed the quick play button driver off hp's site and my buttons are still not makin sounds.. and my quickplay shortcut key doesnt work nor does the DVD one. does anyone know what the problem is?

 

Did you install both the Quickplay software and the quickplay button driver? QPW and QLB. Also, the button sound can be set in the BIOS, so take a look at that.

 

yep, just dont know what i did wrong..

i just downloaded them off HP's site (HP QuickPlay Web Update3.20 A 113.23M, and Quickplay buttons).. but when i press the quickplay button on the touchkey to run the quickplay software it doesnt load it up so how do i get it to do that? :S

 

orev - Quick question - Can your ABR utility be used in this case - I got 2 laptops (dv6500t) with the same specs. I loaded one of them with all the software that I need. I want the same s/w on the other one as well. So, if I use Ghost to make a complete backup, and then restore this complete system backup on the other laptop, and then use the ABR to restore this laptop's product key, will it be the same effect as installing everything on the 2nd laptop?! If yes, that would such a HUGE save of my time! Please let me know. Thanks!

 

I finally reformatted my computer after waiting nearly 2 months and the results are phenomenally awesome.

Not only did it speed up my computer, it also fixed my lightscribe drive and i can play cs: source now on Anti-aliasing mode

The ABR worked perfectly and i had no problems with the drivers what-so-ever at all but there is a few things i noticed:

- The quicklaunch button for the mute (orange/blue) is actually controlled by the Conextant Audio driver not the Quick Launch Buttons drivers. So people that are actually having problems with the color changing this might help.

- I ran the Windows update and downloaded about 90mb worth of security patches and fixes. After it was all installed i noticed it slowed down my system a little.

Thanks for this

 

Will this delete everything on my second hard drive when I reinstall vista?

 

Yes, that should work just fine.

It should not delete anything on the second hard drive as long as you don't touch it during partitioning. However, I STRONGLY recommend that you perform a complete backup of that drive before you do it. Better safe than sorry.

 

Three almost identical DV9500T's, all came from the factory with the same product ID's. Orv's clean install guide and ABR applied on only one of them, then ghost 2003 to make 2 clone disks. Disks are now interchangable between any one of the three machines. No problems.

Two notes:

1) Modify to Vista to get it to run from a cloned disk (else it wil detect the difference, and will fail to boot). Before making the clone with Ghost 2003,
get a command window:

c:
cd c:\Windows\System32
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot


2) Of course, you should have the approprate number of licenses for any software cloned, and you might want to change the serials for each disk to match the licenses.


Joe

 

Thanks - that will be such a HUGE save of time & effort!

 

Joe,

Good to know you have done it too. Though I am not sure I entirely follow what you said in 1) - but it sounds critical. My plan is to do a complete system backup from fully installed and loaded laptop to an external drive; load just Norton Ghost on the other laptop; and then do a complete system restore from this laptop using the image stored on the external hard drive. Can you please explain a bit more if I will still need to do what you mentioned, and what exactly that will achieve. Or is that required only if I do the install using Norton restore CD?!

Btw, I will not be switching the hard drives around, as one laptop is for my brother who does not live with me. Do I still need to do those steps in 1)?!

As for 2) yes I do have licenses for the sw that I am cloning. For those that I have single licenses I will load those once I have done this backup & cloning.

Thanks!

 

The comments from joechect are correct though. Before you clone, make sure you prep windows for it. You used to have to run sysprep, and maybe other things for vista.