How to change license key in vista

[starbuck]

I have vista RC1 running on 2 pc's in the house.
When I installed the 2nd one, I accidentaly put in the product key for the 1st one rather than the seperate license key I have for the second version of vista. Any idea how I can change it on the second one to the correct key?

[The Codfather]

It should be okay as I think you're allowed to put Vista on 10 PC's using the same key (says so on the page where you get your key)

If you need to change it though, right click on "Computer" and it's somewhere around there at the bottom (can't be specific as I'm not at home using my Vista machine at the mo)

Hope that's some help.

[Parm]

Yup, Codfather's right, you can use the same key on up to 10 PC's.

I do have an off-topic question to add to the thread, is anybody using Vista RC1 as their primary OS now?
I'm running a dual boot with XP and Vista, but I'm very impressed with Vista and it works so well I'm contemplating removing XP all together and going with just Vista RC1.
The only thing that doesn't work yet is my Logitech webcam but that never gets used.

[mart_haj86]

Sorry to hijack the thread but i was thinking of installing 64-bit vista RC1 tonight. However my dad installed it the other day and he has a Sound Blaster X-FI platinum but he cant install it because there isnt any 64bit WHQL drivers available (or so he says). Apparently the issue is that you can not install any drivers into Vista that arent WHQL certified. Is this true and is there any way around it?

Thanks
Martin

[charleski]

Apparently the issue is that you can not install any drivers into Vista that arent WHQL certified. Is this true and is there any way around it?

Thanks
Martin

From the MS doc on driver signing here:

How to Disable Signature Enforcement during Development

During the early stages of development, developers can disable enforcement in Windows so that driver signing is not necessary. The following options are available for developers to disable kernel mode code signing enforcement temporarily so that Windows Vista will load an unsigned driver.

1) Attaching a kernel debugger. Attaching an active kernel debugger to the target computer disables the enforcement of kernel mode signatures in Windows Vista and allows the driver to load.

2)Using the F8 option. An F8 Advanced Boot Option introduced with Windows Vista—“Disable Driver Signature Enforcement”—is available to disable the kernel-signing enforcement only for the current boot session. This setting does not persist across boot sessions.

3) Setting the boot configuration. A boot configuration setting is available in the Windows Vista Beta2 release that disables the enforcement of kernel mode signatures to be persisted across boot sessions.

Windows Vista includes a command-line tool, BCDedit, which can be used to set the option in Windows Vista Beta2 to disable signature checks. To use BCDedit, the user must be a member of the Administrators group on the system and run the command from an elevated command prompt. An elevated command prompt can be launched by creating a desktop shortcut to cmd.exe, and then using right-click and “Run as administrator”.

The following shows an example of running BDCedit at the command prompt:

// Disable enforcement – no signing checks
Bcdedit.exe –set nointegritychecks ON

// Enable enforcement – signing checks apply
Bcdedit.exe –set nointegritychecks OFF

// Disabling integrity check on an alternate OS
// specified by a GUID for the system ID
Bcdedit.exe –set {4518fd64-05f1-11da-b13e-00306e386aee} nointegritychecks ON

[mart_haj86]

Thats great, thanks for that charleski its highly appreciated.

[starbuck]

I do have an off-topic question to add to the thread, is anybody using Vista RC1 as their primary OS now?
I'm running a dual boot with XP and Vista, but I'm very impressed with Vista and it works so well I'm contemplating removing XP all together and going with just Vista RC1.
The only thing that doesn't work yet is my Logitech webcam but that never gets used.

I use RC1 as my primary OS on my main PC and it runs fine. Had to install 32bit version instead of 64bit as not enough driver support for 64bit at the mo'.

pretty much no compatibility probs with 32bit though(apart from my dj console) and you can install any prog or driver, you just have to override the built in protection.

Been using it as my primary OS since Beta 2 and RC1 is a world away from the beta 2 version. It's a lot faster and very stable. Only prob I've had is with my audigy 2 driver as I get the odd slight break in sound but otherwise fine.