In March I bought a brand new computer (Intel Quad Core processor, 4MB RAM) but without an operating system so I separately bought Windows Home Premium 64 bit and installed it.
After about a month I started getting a message about Windows not being genuine and that I may be a victim of counterfeiting. Control Panel showed that my copy of Windows had not been activated and in Services, Software Licensing (although set to Automatic) had Stopped and I was therefore unable to validate Windows. When I tried to Start it I received an error message :
‘Windows could not start the Software Licensing service on Local Computer. Error 3: the system cannot find the path specified’
At this time I lost various functionality including
Direct access to Control Panel
System Restore ceased to operate
The Print Spooler in Services stopped and could not be restarted, preventing me from printing anything.
After speaking by telephone to the ‘technical experts’ at Microsoft and trying out countless things, none of which worked, I eventually decided to do a re-install of Vista and start afresh.
As soon as Vista was installed and after making it safe to do so I went on the net and activated and then validated my copy of Windows. Both of these actions were successful. At this point I naturally thought ‘Great, problem solved’ But , beginning two days ago, I have got the exact same problems – can’t activate, can’t validate, Software Licensing has stopped in Services, loss of functionality etc!!
I posted a question on the Microsoft Windows Vista Validation forum and got an answer from Darin Smith, the Forum Manager, telling me that my problem was because Software Licensing had stopped (which I already knew!). He suggested a couple of solutions but neither of them worked and I was told that the issue is larger then just a Software Licensing problem.
Can anybody suggest a solution please? If you need any further info then please let know.
Thanks for your time.
Andrew