Activation Backup & Restore for OEM Windows Vista
=================================================

Brian Mathis <bmathis-abr at
============          directedge.us>

About:
------
	This package provides utilities to backup and restore the activation 
	files in OEM versions of Windows Vista that are pre-activated at the
	factory.  It probably won't work on activation that was performed 
	online or over the phone.


Support & Documentation:
------------------------
	For problems or questions, please see this forum on notebookreview.com:
	http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228


Instructions:
-------------
	1. Unzip/copy this folder to an external USB/flash drive
	2. Run "activation_backup.exe"
	3. Reinstall Windows Vista
	4. Run "activation_restore.exe"

	The new install should now be activated.


Description:
------------
	"activation_backup" will create 2 files on your USB drive:
	    backup-key.txt: Backup license key
	    backup-cert.xrm-ms: Backup activation certificate

	"activation_restore" will use those 2 files to restore your
	activation once you have done a clean install.


Command-Line Options:
---------------------
	activation_restore:
	--silent
		Restores the activation without prompting or producing
		any output.  This is useful for automatically activating
		when doing unattended installations.


Revision History:
-----------------
24-Jun-2007:
	Beta release

28-Jun-2007: ABRbeta1
	Public Beta

17-Jul-2007: ABRbeta2
	Fixed 64-bit backup.  activation_backup should now
	work on both 32bit and 64bit Vista

11-Oct-2007: ABRbeta3
	Check that created files are not empty to give better warning
	if there's a failure, and changed "Activation Successful" to 
	"Please check the activation", because it's not reallt checking
	if it was successful or not.

20-May-2008: ABR 1.0
	Added the "--silent" command line option to activation_restore

	Bug Fix: 
	Some backup-cert.xrm-ms files were corrupted during backup, causing 
	the restore to fail.  This fix resolves the corruption and allows 
	previously corrupted files to successfully restore activation.

