Your activation period has expired and Windows is no longer working.

To use Windows you must activate this copy of Windows. Activate Windows Online now Buy a new product key online Retype your product key Show me other ways to activate With every option expect "Buy a new product key online" it takes a while before a message appears that says: Authentication Failed with the following error: 0x800705B4 This is caused by a known bug (Studio|1613093) in Beta 2 with regards to the User Account Control security settings. UPDATE Jan 30th: I added a Method 1 which my collegue Lars van Beek pointed out to me . I haven't tested this so if someone succesfully activated using this method please post a comment. Otherwise please use method 2 which I tested and works.

Method 1:
1) Click "Buy a new product key online" and verify if the browser that opens shows you the Microsoft page on product keys. This is merely to verify that you have a working Internet connection. If that page doesn't appear and you are unable to browse to other pages from that Internet Explorer you'd better fix the Internet connection first and try again before taking the steps below. 2) Restart the PC. After the BIOS screen hit F8 a couple of times untill you see the Advanced Boot Options menu. Select Safe Mode and hit Enter. 3) Click on the Windows Key + R on the keyboard. This will open a RUN box. Type MSCONFIG and press Enter. 4) On MSCONFIG, select the TOOLS tab, scroll down and go to "Disable UAP". Hit the Launch button, close the command windows afterwards and click OK. 5) Restart the PC. 6) Logon to the PC with a user that has the Administrative permissions (If you have more than one account take the first account you created). Just like before when logging in as a user the "Activate Windows now" dialog appears. Note that the little shields are now gone from the options. Make sure you have internet connection and hit Activate now. Assuming your product key is correct you'll soon be smiling at the "Activation was successful" message. Enjoy your Windows Vista Experience again!

Method 2:
1) Click "Buy a new product key online" and verify if the browser that opens shows you the Microsoft page on product keys. This is merely to verify that you have a working Internet connection. If that page doesn't appear and you are unable to browse to other pages from that Internet Explorer you'd better fix the Internet connection first and try again before taking the steps below. 2) Restart the PC. After the BIOS screen hit F8 a couple of times untill you see the Advanced Boot Options menu. Select Safe Mode and hit Enter. 3) Click the Administrator account, give the password you gave during setup (Or try blank) and login. 4) Click Start, Rightclick Computer and select Manage 5) Click the plus sign in front of the "Local users and Groups" to open up that folder and click Users. Note the red circle / white x icon next to Administrator. 6) Rightclick Administrator, click Properties and uncheck the "Account is disabled box" NOTE: Although it may same convienient to leave the Administrator account active and use this as the default login we strongly urge you not to do this. The User Account control may same a lot of extra clicks to some but serves an important extra layer of defense.

7) If you reboot now then the Administrator account will not show up on the Welcome screen. Therefor we will edit the registry. Warning, editing the registry is dangerous, continue on your own risk bla bla bla. Click Start | Run | Regedit [Enter] Go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList If SpecialAccounts doesn't exits create it (New, Key). Then create the UserList key, (New, Key). Select UserList on the left pane and right click in the right pane and select New | "DWORD (32bit) Value" Value Name: Administrator Value Data: 1 8) Click Ok, Start and next to the Power icon button press the little arrowhead and choose restart. 9) After the restart the Welcome Screen appears. If you followed the steps correctly you'll now see the Administrator account. Click on that icon to logon as Administrator. Just like before when logging in as a user the "Activate Windows now" dialog appears. Note that the little shields are now gone from the options. Make sure you have internet connection and hit Activate now. Assuming your product key is correct you'll soon be smiling at the "Activation was successful" message. Enjoy your Windows Vista Experience again!