Activating windows then ghosting - will it need activating on restore?

[koocha]

Hey

If I install say...the OEM Vista Ultimate, activate it then ghost it, when it comes to restoring it will it already be activated?

Does it check the PC date or anything like that?

[BlindMelon7]

Ghost it?

[koocha]

make an image in Norton Ghost

[chuckskull]

Unless it's changed a lot from XP then the activation will be fine unless you've changed motherboard and even then you're in with a good chance.

If you're just ghosting, for backup, not swapping anythign about then it'll work fine, windows wont even notice the change.

[sTrAnGeFrUiT!]

If you keep the HDD in the same pc youve ghosted it with then yes

if you put it in a completely diffrent pc then no

[directhex]

does it matter?

[koocha]

does it matter?

It would if I had to reinstall, wouldn't it? Windows would ask me to re-activate it wouldn't it?

Plus it's much quicker to Ghost. I've got my computer as I want it now so I won't be changing anything for a good while yet.

[this_is_gav]

With XP you could copy a file so it didn't need to reactivate - providing the hardware stayed the same.

If you copied the file C:\Windows\System32\wpa.dbl somewhere before formatting and then copying it over the new one after installing XP it wouldn't need activating. No idea if a similar system can be used for Vista though.

[evilb]

is vista worth putting on? is there a stable version out there?
i was toying with the idea of trying it...
if you ghost the image it shouldn't want reactivating when you put the image back on the same pc.....

[fat jez]

I always install windows and my apps and then ghost it. I then can restore whenever I have a problem. Never need to activate it unless the hardware has changed.

Cheers,
Stephen

[excalibur2]

is vista worth putting on? is there a stable version out there?
i was toying with the idea of trying it...
if you ghost the image it shouldn't want reactivating when you put the image back on the same pc.....

Where have you been, about 6 weeks ago you could have downloaded RC1 Vista from MS and given a key.

[evilb]

i missed that one m8 :-(
damm!!!!!!!!!!!!