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How to Activate Windows 7 Manually – Windows 7 Activation Steps

What is Windows activation?

Activating a Windows 7 installation is in a way registering Windows 7 operating system of yours and making it legal.

Why activating Windows 7 is important?

Microsoft operating systems had this feature on Windows Vista editions as well as on Windows 7 editions with different Windows 7 Build ’s until its RTM release is published.
And windows activation which is not completed in the given period of time disables some Windows features and prevents you to use all properties of your system after the activation period.
Also you may not be able to update your system with the recent product updated from Microsoft.
So to make sure that you can benefit from all the feaures and enhancements of your Microsoft Windows 7 RC system, give importance to activate Windows7 as early as possible.

How to Activate Windows 7 manually ?

If you did not activate Windows 7 during your Windows 7 installation, you can start activating Windows 7 manually.
You can see for Windows 7 activation you have limited time to complete activating Windows 7 installation.
You can see how much time remaining for you to activate Windows7 for different Windows 7 Build numbers when you open the System control panel screen at the bottom of the panel view.

To open the below System Control Panel screen, you can open the Control Panel, then select System and Security menu item and select the System control panel view.

If you have not activated Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate) Ultimate Edition after you have installed your Windows 7 operating system, you will see the Windows activation section at the botom of the Control Panel screen.
When you have an online internet connection, you can start activating Windows process manually by clicking the “Activate Windows now” link.

On the Windows Activation screen in order to activate Windows 7 Build 7000 for instance, you are reminded how many days are there still for activating Windows 7 Ultimate RC operating system.
Activating Windows 7 will enable you to use all Windows features after the activation period is ended.
So to make sure, if you have an active online internet connection, go on for next steps by selecting the option “Activate Windows online
now”.

This screen displays the message to the user about the product key is being veried. So if the activation can connect to Microsoft via internet connection and manages to validate the product key without any problem you will be redirected to the last screen of the Windows Activation wizard.
This is the activation step the question of “How to register Windows 7″ is answered.
If the system can not reach to the internet due to network errors or a valid internet connection, you will be prompted to define and build an internet connection.

In the below screen you can see the result of a successful activation.
It is stated that your copy of Windows is verified and with a valid copy of Windows 7, you are eligible to recieve all available updates and product support from Microsoft.

As you can see in the above explained steps Windows 7 activation is simple and straight-forward unless you have a valid copy of Windows 7.

Generally you will not face a problem during Windows 7 activation of your Windows copy.
If you experience a problem while trying to register Windows 7, then you can call the Microsoft Support phones or start activation using phone procedure and talk to a support engineer to help you with your Windows 7 activation problem.

Using AutoRun with a USB Flash Drive

USB flash drive / USB stick

A typical USB flash driveMost of us have today a USB flash drive (sometimes also referred to as a USB stick or USB memory stick) that we use when we want to store data temporary. They are small and lightweight and are very practical when you want to move files from one computer to another. Before we often burned the data to a CD or DVD, but using USB flash drives are faster and they are easier to handle and they can store more data. And they are so small that you very easy can store them in your pocket.

USB flash drives are often used when data is moved between home and office. They are also very often used when data is moved inside an office, for example when moving data to/from a computer that is not connected to a network. They are also practical if you want to start small special programs that don’t need installation and is not normally located in a computer.

Nowadays some companies have also started to distribute software, documents, movies and music via USB flash drives. One reason is that they are very fast – they are faster than CDs or DVDs. Programs that are placed on a USB drive are started immediately and large documents are shown very quickly. But when placing programs, documents etc on a USB flash drive, the same problem that was common with a CD or a DVD also occurs here. How can the end-user quickly find the program or document he/she wants to open?

With CD’s and DVD’s the AutoRun technology in Windows was used to start a particular program or open a particular document automatically. But is this possible also with a USB flash drive?

Using AutoRun with USB flash drives

If you place an Autorun.inf file in the root folder of a CD or DVD and the Autorun.inf file contains an OPEN command pointing to a program file (e.g. OPEN=MYAPP.EXE), the program is launched automatically when you insert the CD/DVD in a drive. But if you place the same Autorun.inf file and program file on a USB flash drive and plug the drive to a USB port in a computer, the program is very likely not started automatically. Instead is a Windows menu shown, which contains a list of actions (options) that you can choose between to handle the USB drive.

The AutoPlay dialog box in Windows

The dialog box that is shown when you insert a USB stick in a computer is called the AutoPlay dialog box. This dialog box is also shown when you insert a CD/DVD with no Autorun.inf file in a computers disc drive.

With a CD and DVD this dialog box can be suppressed if an Autorun.inf is placed on the disc. Unfortunately this is not possible, by default, with a USB flash drive. In Windows 7 this is not possible at all.

In Windows XP and Windows Vista it is possible for the user to change the behavior of a USB flash drive by changing settings in Windows, and there exists also programs that can do this automatically. By changing some settings the user can make Windows to run the Autorun.inf file instead of showing the AutoPlay dialog box for USB flash drives. But for security reasons it is not recommended that a Windows user do this. And in Windows 7, with its tightened security, this possibility is completely removed.

So, how to launch a program on a USB flash drive?

Using Autorun.inf to automatically launch a program on a USB flash drive seems not to be possible in the same way as with a CD or DVD. So what to do instead? Are there any alternative ways?

Well, the answer is yes and no. It depends of the version of Windows. Below we will explain how to handle this in different Windows version.

How to launch a program in Windows XP and Windows Vista

As described above in this article, an AutoPlay dialog box is shown when the user plugs a USB stick in a USB port. This AutoPlay dialog box contains a list of action (options) that can be performed on the USB flash drive, for example view a slideshow of pictures on the drive (if there exist any) or open Windows Explorer. In Windows XP and Windows Vista it is possible to extend this AutoPlay dialog box with your own action item (option). This will give the USB flash drive almost AutoRun capability. The item is placed as the first item in the action list, and it is also selected by default, so the user only needs to press Enter or OK to launch the program. Not as automatic as using pure AutoRun, but almost.

To add this action item to the AutoPlay dialog in Windows, a command called ACTION must be placed in the Autorun.inf file. This command will display a user-defined text row in the AutoPlay dialog box (as the first text row) and it will co-operate with the OPEN command in the Autorun.inf file. The OPEN command specifies the filename of the program to execute. We will explain the ACTION command with more details below in this article, but first some words about Windows 7.

How to launch a program in Windows 7

In Windows 7 it is not possible to use the ACTION command and the OPEN command together with USB flash drives anymore. Microsoft has removed this support for security reasons. These commands are still available for CDs and DVDs in Windows 7, but not for USB sticks.

Specifying your own label and icon for the USB flash drive via the Autorun.inf file is still possible, but it is not possible to allow a user to execute a program on the drive via the AutoPlay dialog box. And automatically executing a program on a USB flash drive by turning off AutoPlay and only using AutoRun is not possible either. The OPEN command is not supported at all for USB flash drives in Windows 7.

To execute a program the user must open Windows Explorer and manually run the program. Luckily an option to start Windows Explorer is always shown in the AutoPlay dialog so it is easy to start Windows Explorer. But to make it also easy for the user to find your program on the USB flash drive (the program you want the user to start when plugging in the USB stick) you should always place the program on the root folder of the drive and give it a descriptive name such as “StartMe.exe”, “Autorun.exe”, “Menu.exe” etc. This program file should also be the only executable file in the root folder, otherwise some users might start the wrong program by mistake.

Using the ACTION command in an Autorun.inf file

There are still lot of users that uses Windows XP and Windows Vista so adding an ACTION command to the Autorun.inf file is still a good idea. It is also simple to add this command and below we will show an example of how this command can be used:

[AutoRun]
OPEN=MYAPP.EXE
ICON=MYAPP.EXE
ACTION=Start my application

In this example the ACTION command will place the text “Start my application” in the AutoPlay dialog box in Windows XP and Windows Vista. The item with this text will be placed as the first item and it will also be selected by default. Next to the text, the icon specified by the ICON command is shown. And when the user chooses the selected item, the program file specified by the OPEN command is launched.

If you use Notepad to create the Autorun.inf file, you should enter the following in Notepad:

How to give the USB flash drive a label (title)

It is also possible to give the USB flash drive its own label (title). This will work in all Windows version since Windows XP, including Windows 7.

The label text will be shown in Windows Explorer and in the AutoPlay dialog box. To specify this text, a command with the name LABEL can be used in the Autorun.inf file. Below we show an example of how to use the LABEL command (the last line in the example):

[AutoRun]
OPEN=MYAPP.EXE
ICON=MYAPP.EXE
ACTION=Start my application
LABEL=My Drive

In this example the USB flash drive has been given the label “My Drive”. This label is displayed before the drive letter in Windows Explorer and as a dialog box title in the AutoPlay dialog box. Below we show how the AutoPlay dialog box will look like in Windows XP when using the Autorun.inf file above:

Specifying your own icon for the USB flash drive is also possible. In the example above we tell Windows to get the icon from the MYAPP.EXE program file by using a command named ICON. Instead of an .EXE file you can also use an .ICO (icon) file, for example as:

ICON=MYICON.ICO

More information about the LABEL and ICON commands, and other commands mentioned in this article, can be read on this Microsoft page: Autorun.inf Entries. A short commands reference is also available on this page on our Internet site: Autorun.inf – Commands.

Adding a menu interface to a USB flash drive

Example of an AutoRun menu interfaceThere are different reasons why a specific program should be run immediately after that a USB stick has been inserted in a USB port. One common use is to start a general setup program. Another use is to show a menu interface. This menu interface can for example contain buttons to start installations, show documents or show movies.

As described above in this article, different methods must be used in different Windows versions to start a particular program, for example to start a menu interface program. In Windows XP and Windows Vista the menu program can be launched almost automatically – just press Enter or OK – but in Windows 7 the menu program must be started by the user from Windows Explorer. To handle this in the best way you should do the following:

1. Give the program that should be started a descriptive name
2. Create an Autorun.inf file that adds an action item to the AutoPlay dialog box in Windows

You can for example name the program file to “START-MENU.EXE” and then create an Autorun.inf file with the following contents:

[AutoRun]
OPEN=START-MENU.EXE
ICON=START-MENU.EXE
ACTION=Show Menu
LABEL=My Menu

This file must be placed in the root folder of the USB flash drive. Also the menu program (“START-MENU.EXE”) must be placed in the root folder, otherwise the Autorun.inf file above will not work. It is possible to place the menu program in a sub folder (then you must add a folder path to the OPEN and ICON commands) but it is not recommended; users will then have more difficult to find the program.

Software that can create a menu interface to a USB flash drive

Although it is not complicated to create an Autorun.inf file, it is more time consuming to create a menu interface. There exists lot of products on the market that can create menu interfaces for USB flash drives and some of them can also automatically create the necessary Autorun.inf file that is needed to add an action item to the AutoPlay dialog box in Windows. At our company we have a product named SamLogic CD-Menu Creator, which can be used to design and build menu interfaces for CD, DVD and USB flash drives.

Enabling Remote Desktop in Windows 7 or Windows Vista

Remote Desktop is disabled by default in Windows 7 or Vista, but it’s easy
enough to turn it back on. If you need to access your Vista PC remotely, it’s
an essential thing to turn on.

Important note: Remote desktop is only included in the Professional,
Business, or Ultimate versions of Windows. Home editions do not have remote
desktop.

To get to the configuration page, you can either right-click the Computer
icon and choose properties, or you can type in system into the start
menu search box, and then find the entry for System.

Now you’ll want to click the Remote Settings link on the left hand side:

Now you can finally turn it on:

To connect from another Vista / Win7 PC on the same network, click the
bottom radio button. If you need to connect from an XP/2k machine, click the
“Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop” radio
button.

Don’t worry about setting up firewall rules, Vista or Windows 7 does that
for you automatically.

Note: This should work for both Windows 7 and Vista.

Enabling Remote Desktop On Windows XP

Remote Desktop Protocol (aka RDP) is a method to remotely connect to your
machine, and be provided the same Windows GUI that you’d be accessing if you
were sitting at that computer.  You can perform any task that you could
perform if you were literally sitting in front of that machine. 
Unfortunately you’ll be required to have Windows XP Professional to enable this
protocol for use.  Below are the Microsoft steps to enable this on your
machine.

You need three things to create a remote location:

To set up the Remote Desktop, start with the host computer, which in this
example is your work computer.

1.	Verify that you are signed in as the administrator.
2.	Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3.	Click System.
4.	Click the Remote tab, select the Allow users to connect remotely to this computer check box, and then click OK.

Next, make sure you have Windows Firewall set up to allow exceptions.

1.	In the Control Panel, click Security Center.
2.	Under Manage security settings for, click Windows Firewall.
3.	Make sure the Don’t allow exceptions check box is not selected.
4.	Click the Exceptions tab, and verify that the Remote Desktop check box is selected.
5.	Click OK, and then close the Windows Security Center window. Your host computer is now set up to allow remote access. You will need the name of the host computer.
6.	In Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, click System, and then click the Computer Name tab.
7.	Write down the full computer name, and then click OK.
8.	Close Control Panel.
9.	Leave this computer running,a nd connected to the network with Internet access. It doesn’t matter whether you’re logged in or out, RDP will automatically logout any logged in users if a remote connection is detected and authenticated.

NOTE:  You may have trouble connecting if your host computer is behind
a router.  I suggest enabling DMZ-Host on your router and/or port
forwarding port # 3389 on the host computer to avoid the router firewall from interfering. 

 

 

Connect your remote computer to the host computer

To connect your home computer, which is the client (or remote) computer to
your work (or host) computer, follow these steps:

1.	On your home computer, click Start, point to All Programs, and then point to Accessories.
2.	In the Accessories menu, point to Communications, and then click Remote Desktop Connection.
3.	In the Computer box, type the computer name of your host computer, which you wrote down earlier.
4.	Click Connect.
5.	When the Log On to Windows dialog box appears, type your user name, password, and domain (if required), and then click OK. The Remote Desktop window opens, and you see the desktop settings, files, and programs that are on your host computer, which in this example is your work computer. Your host computer remains locked, and nobody can access it without a password. In addition, no one will be able to see the work you are doing remotely.

To end your Remote Desktop session:

1.	Click Start, and then click Log Off at the bottom of the Start menu.
2.	When prompted, click Log Off.