Windows – How to activate Windows 7 for a different computer

windowswindows 7windows-activation

I bought Windows 7 Professional Retail which I installed on my laptop. Now I've decided to move it to be on my desktop PC, so I uninstalled Windows from my laptop, restoring the original OS that came with the laptop (Vista Business), and installed Windows 7 on my desktop PC. The problem is that I cannot activate my copy of Windows 7 on the desktop PC. Every time I try to activate it I get the error message:

The product key you typed cannot be used to activate Windows on this computer

and the code of the error is:

Code: 0xc004c008

Description:
The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used.

How can I solve this problem?

Best Answer

This Microsoft Support page has information on the error code. It states under the heading for your error code:

Cause
This issue may occur if the KMS key has exceeded the activation limit. KMS keys will activate up to 10 times on six different computers.

Workaround
If you need more activation times, contact the PA Call Center.

It looks like you have to ring Microsoft Support.

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