Follow these suggestions to fix the Volume Activation Event ID 8233 warning you may see in Event Viewer of Windows: Check Network Connection Verify your Product Key Temporarily disable Firewall and ...

Brian Freeman found a flaw in my article Reinstall Windows when you’ve lost your reinstall disc or partition. I told readers that “when it comes time to activate Windows, use the activation number on ...

Microsoft closed a Windows 7 / 8 key loophole last month, and now people are experiencing issues reactivating some Windows 10 / 11 installs. Microsoft closed a Windows 7 / 8 key loophole last month, ...

A product key is a sequence of alphanumeric characters used to certify if the copy of a program or software is genuine. For example, Microsoft uses a 25-character alphanumeric key to identify the ...

When Microsoft first launched the Windows operating system, installing it was only a matter of copying the program onto a disk. You didn't have to verify your copy of Windows. Starting with Windows XP ...

Windows product keys are almost (but not quite) a thing of the past. With Windows 10, Microsoft has rewritten the rules for how it performs product activation on retail upgrades of Windows, including ...

It has never been too hard for someone with the right amount of time, desperation, or flexible scruples to get around Windows XP’s activation scheme. And yet XP activation, the actual encrypted ...

Threshold 2, the first big official upgrade to Windows 10 since its July 29 launch, is on schedule for arrival next month. Members of the Windows Insider program have been testing previews of the new ...

If the Event Viewer displays an error message—The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application ...

A funny thing happens when you look for a product key in Windows 10 after doing the free upgrade: You won’t find them. In Windows 10, utilities like Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder or Belarc Advisor ...

In an unexpected twist, a Microsoft support engineer resorted to running an unofficial 'crack' on a customer's Windows PC after a genuine copy of the operating system failed to activate normally. It ...