I've just spent hours being irritated over the fact that my Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit upgrade wouldn't activate, as it kept rejecting the Product Key I typed in.
In investigating the problem, I called several support numbers - never actually speaking to a person - and found some retarded article on Microsoft's site saying that if you want to upgrade from 32 Bit to 64 Bit, you have to first downgrade to Windows XP.
The fuck? What retarded monkey came up with that idea?
I'd gotten a deal on the upgrade - saved $90 - by purchasing it at the same time as I purchased a computer, so I thought, "Screw it; I'll just buy a damned license for it."
So I clicked on that option, which first had to validate my copy of Windows, and then thanked me for validating it and gave me no options to purchase a license.
I decided to try installing the upgrade again for the sheer hell of it, went through the whole process, typed in my Product Key - multiple times - and got the same error.
Then I saw it.
That wasn't an "8" after the "3" in the Product Key, it was a "B."
*Sigh*
Still, while it's apparently no longer true that you can't upgrade from 32 Bit Vista to 64 Bit Vista without first downgrading to XP, it obviously was at one point, so I don't feel quite so stupid.
(Actually, it may still be true; what I did was upgrade from within the un-activated install of 64 Bit Vista, so it may be that the lateral install allowed me to make an end-run around the downgrade requirement.)
1 comment:
I ran into the same license key problem with a friend's computer last week. I don't remember if it was the B/8 mistake, but it was one just like it if not. I'm of the opinion that all alphanumeric keys should either be presented in a font that can cause no confusion or those characters should be interchangeable (i.e., 0/O, 1/l, 8/B, etc.)
Post a Comment