RC1 has Timebombed and the Product Key has been used the maximum number of times – HELP!

September 19, 2007 — Philip Churchill

If your WHS has time bombed by changing the system date or for any other reason, you will see the following message:

“The Evaluation period for this copy of Windows has ended!  Windows cannot start. To continue to use Windows, please purchase and install a retail copy of this product!”

If this is the case first check the system date and time in the bios (on the server) and correct if necessary. If this does not work you will have to reinstall your Release Candidate (RC) copy of Windows Home Server again. As long as you select “Server Reinstallation”, your data (including shared folders and backups) will be safe.

When you come to activate you’ll be told that the product key has been used the maximum number of times. Now that the beta has ended new keys are not available so when prompted use the activate by phone option , the wizard will supply the phone number, which varies depending in which region you live.

Make sure you have your RC1 product key handy so the Microsoft operator can activate it for you and remember after the “Server Reinstallation” you will need to recreate the “Users”.

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Searching for the Cheapest Copy of Windows Home Server

September 19, 2007 — Philip Churchill

I’d like to give you some techniques for searching for a copy of Windows Home Server in your country at the cheapest price possible.

What to Search for

  • You could do a basic search using the product family name of “windows home server” or just whs, but naturally even using a localized search engine like Google.co.uk would return hundreds of results.
  • So to narrow the returns you can search using Microsoft’s part number, which for the English version of WHS is CCQ-00015 (Other language edition part numbers and descriptions are listed below). Notice for the part number that we can search for it without using “quotation” marks as there are no spaces within the part number.
  • And finally we can also search using Microsoft’s official item name for whs, which for the English language version is:
    “Windows Home Server Win32 English 1pk DSP OEI CD/DVD 10 Clt” (including the quotation marks).

Where to Search

  • My first port of call would be Google, using the localized version tailored for your country www.google.ca, www.google.co.uk, www.google.com.au, www.google.ie, www.google.co.nz, www.google.com etc.
  • Next, and also part of Google is “Product Search” (formally known as Froogle). From your local Google page, click on Products (may be located under More). Sort the results by price, low to high. If to many results are displayed you can use the advanced product search feature to refine your results eg. Excluding the word book and defining a price range. If your “local” Google does not have a product search, locate and use the nearest Google site to you or use Google.com.
  • Other shopping comparison sites worth searching are Kelkoo (a Yahoo company) which has numerous European search sites and PriceRunner UK for, you guessed it, the UK. For other countries do a search for “price comparison”
  • Finally your local eBay site can be a good source but remember to check the final price including delivery, tax (VAT), insurance etc and check the sellers feedback.

Other Language Part Numbers

  • French Version:
    “Windows Home Server Win32 French 1pk DSP OEI CD/DVD 10 Clt” 
    CCQ-00016
  • German Versions:
    “Windows Home Server Win32 German 1pk DSP OEI CD/DVD 10 Clt”
    OSB CCQ-00017 and
    “Windows Home Server Win32 German 1pk DSP OEI CD/DVD 10 Clt Non OSB”
    CCQ-00038
    For the difference between the German language OSB and Non OSB versions see this post.
  • Spanish Version:
    “Windows Home Server Win32 Spanish 1pk DSP OEI CD/DVD 10 Clt”
    CCQ-00018

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