Product Key not validated?

euglycaemia

I had a problem with my Desktop and so reinstalled the OS[Vista Home Premium]. When reinstalling , it was not able to recognise my Product Key.
I bought the system 4 years ago.

Does this Product key expire?

Is there any way to get this back...

Googled on this, couldn't find the right answer. Any help is much appreciated

aliEnRIK

You put in the product key thats wrote on the casing of your computer yes?

paddyrg

No, it does not expire, assuming it is a legit, non-pirated copy. Enter the code from the license, and you're good to go. If you have changed hardware at the same time you may need to get it reactivated by MS (although this is unlikely in 99% of cases).

If it was a pirated version, either buy a legal version, or install Linux Mint.

Browntoa

if for example it was a Dell PC with Dell OEM then any other manufacturers disk will give that error , Dell would need a Dell OEM , HP would need HP oem etc

JJ_Egan

Genuine key follow through the activation panel use phone activation that will either activate or follow through to a MS advisor just explain what you have done and they will activate it once more .

But you say during install that means wrong key for the disc used as has been said .

If it was an OEM machine then their is usually a recovery partition that will recover to factory state . OEM would have arrived without a Windows Vista disk .



jje

euglycaemia

Yes....I entered the key which is pasted in the CPU
Actually the key was meant for Windows Media Centre Edition on XP [free upgrade to Vista Premium]
I think I have to call MS and sort it.......