Windows 7 OEM Activation 2.1

Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 01:17 Written by admin Sunday, 24 May 2009 10:39

UPDATE: Windows 7 Ultimate RTM Build 7600.16385 Cracked

For Windows 7, Microsoft bumped the version number of OEM Activation 2.0 (in Windows Vista) to 2.1, reflecting the minor changes in the activation process reserved for original equipment manufacturers (Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, etc.).

There will be more ways than one to activate Windows 7. Customers already familiar with Windows Vista’s activation will see little changes for existing options: Retail, OEM and Volume Licensing.  Retail activation has no more secrets for Windows 7 Beta and Release Candidate testers that made good use of the free product keys from Microsoft.  Ram Rathnam, Director of Product Management in the Windows Activation Technologies team already explained the modifications to Volume Activation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (video at the bottom, after the jump).

Microsoft already shared the Windows 7 OEM Activation details with OEMs. The company is telling its computer manufacturing partners that OEM Activation 2.1 for Windows 7 will be nearly identical to OEM Activation 2.0, and that the only change is the Windows Market version created, which is 2.1 instead of 2.0.

The OATool and the OACheck tools will be updated to write the new version number. Their release is planned for six months ahead of the RTM of Windows 7. Theoretically, the OATool and the OACheck tools should have already shipped to OEMs, Windows 7 RTM is less than six months away, and general availability is scheduled ahead of the 2009 holiday season (there are voices mentioning mid-October). This is one aspect that I have not been able to confirm.

The OEM Activation components created with the OA 2.1 tools work not only with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, but also with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft made no changes to the OEM factory process or to the activation technology.