Windows 7 From Europe Doesn't Activate By Internet In Thailand

[bkk_mike]

I bought the family pack for Windows 7 Home Premium N in the UK (3 pack for £122 - I haven't seen the family packs in Thailand, so this is cheaper than getting it here).

Note: that it is for distribution only in Europe as Media Player is excluded following Microsoft losing a court case in the EU (you can download it separately), but I triple-checked before buying that the box doesn't state that there are any activation restrictions.

However, it appears that it won't activate from Thailand using the standard internet activation, giving error 0xC004C017. Clicking on the link shows you a nice picture of a box with a picture of what the geographical activation restriction looks like. And, of course, nothing like this is to be found on the box I bought (from Amazon - it's not like I bought it from a flea market).

There doesn't seem to be any way of telling Microsoft that your box doesn't have the activation restrictions, and that they apparently made a mistake when printing the box and that you should therefore get a refund. Additionally, there doesn't appear to be any way to actually contact them to find out how to get around it.

Fortunately, I did find a workaround.

You can still do a phone activation by manually running

slui.exe 4

which seems to work.

[Wolfie]

Strange, i didnt have any problems activating mine, and i did pretty much the same thing...

Good to know you got it working in the end