Hi, We had some strange issue recently....Windows 2008 R2 was installed in month of March and it was activated. All of a sudden it got deactivated and it was showing that Windows is deactivated and also we were not able to find the link to activate again. When i discussed with couple of folks i got a mixed feedback, one says that it might trial version and we need to reinstall the OS with proper media. I also got to know that due to some registry key deletion/change this got deactivated and MS was able to recover it but not ahred any root cause. Could you help to simulate and find the root cause for such issue ? Is this due to some bug ?Regards:Mahesh

Can you provide output from: C:\Windows\System32>slmgr.vbs -dlv I have seem odd behavior on occasion when system has bad CPU or something along those lines where Windows detects hardware changes etc but I would think that is fringe case. Also, you can use VAMT to audit and track some of your systems during your investigation.Dave Guenthner [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. http://blogs.technet.com/b/davguents_blog

Hi, The re-activation failure issue occurs because the installation of certain updates, third party software, and device drivers may have reset the hardware configuration database. This information is used to trace any big hardware change. If the hardware change exceeds an allowed situation, it will trigger the re-activation of the Operating System. This feature is designed to protect an activated Operating System from being cloned from one computer to another computer which doesn't comply with the EULA (End User License Agreement) of the Microsoft Windows Operating System. When trying to re-activate online, if the Product Key of the current system has already been registered it is normal to receive the message that the Product Key is in use. At this point, we will need to re-activate the system via the Automatic Phone Activation System. Microsoft offers local Customer Service Centers to process toll-free phone activation requests. To ensure that this activation issue is resolved in a timely and efficient manner, I suggest contacting the Phone Activation Center by running "SLUI.EXE 4" (without the quotation marks) and following the wizard. For licensing related issue, you may contact Microsoft licensing team. In the United States and Canada, you may call the licensing team directly at 1-800-426-9400 (select option 4), Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. (PST) to speak directly to a Microsoft licensing specialist. In this way, you will know the detailed information about license. Worldwide customers can use the Guide to Worldwide Microsoft Licensing Sites http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/worldwide.aspx to find contact information in their locations. Thank you for your understanding! Regards, Arthur Li TechNet Subscriber Support If you are TechNet Subscription user and have any feedback on our support quality, please send your feedback here.Arthur Li TechNet Community Support

Hi Arthur Li Thanks for your rever, however in our case there was no change in hardware and also when it got deactivated 1) we were not able to see the "You must Activate Today, Activate Windows Now" 2) "Product id:" option was showing as Not Available instead of "Change Product Key" Windows Activation tab was completely grayed out... I am sure that this is not because of the issue what you explained. We tried to simulate in Lab and found that Windows Activation option will get grayed out only if we uninstall the product key using command "slmgr/upk". In this case Event ID 1018 with remark Proof of Purchase removed successfully. will get generated. In our case Event id also not generated hence we cant conculde that it happened because of Product Key uninstall. I feel there seems to be some bug or malfunction... It will be great if some one can help to identifiy the root cause of the issue. Regards:Mahesh