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As you may recall, I was not having very good luck with updating the license for my CherryPal Bing. If you aren’t sure, you can read about it here ( the-bloom-is-off-my-cherrypal .)

Well today I tried the last thing I could find….. actually using a Microsoft solution for their own problem and believe it or not it worked! Now whether it worked because of, or in spite of all my previous “mucking about”, I honestly cannot say. But based upon my previous experiences, and this current one, if ever I run into the problem again, I will try Microsofts solution first.

The biggest problem with their solution was finding it, I actually had to stumble around a lot on the web to find it and it wasn’t until I added “Windows Advantage” to my search query, that it actually popped up!

So for those who are in quick need, just go here and download their Windows Product Key Update Tool ( after clicking on their  box to acknowledge the fact that it will send some information to Microsoft ) and then run it! The page also had instructions on how to exactly run the program and enter the data, but it’s pretty straight forward..,

Once the new and valid license keys have been inserted all the warnings, banners, blackened backgrounds, etc, etc, all disappear. Almost like magic. A reboot is required, but that is it!

Now why they didn’t tell me that in all their earlier banners, and other warnings is beyond me, for that matter why isn’t this info readily available and known on the web instead of hidden inside their “Genuine Microsoft Software” web pages is beyond me.

What it looks like happened was somewhere around Service Patch 2 or 3 ( SP2 or SP3, ) Windows Advantage  tagged some of those hidden files, so that all the previous solutions ( which I tried many of ) failed and no longer worked. I am assuming that “in hindsight” Microsoft discovered the problem and came up with a fix…. only they didn’t advertise if very well. That’s all conjecture, but based on what I discovered and tried I bet it’s close….. Bottom line is however, it worked!

Oh, and before I forget. DO NOT, when confronted with their banners that the software is invalid, buy their immediate $200 new license key to fix the problem solution… With everyone, ( in spite of my best intentions ) upgrading to Windows 7, you should easily be able to find someone with an old license key for Windows XP Professional ( or Home if you are struggling with something that isn’t a Bing. ) Just check to make sure they never used it on another computer or upgrade or reinstall and buy that version for a whole lot less ( or if you are lucky even free. )

That was one of the real joys/benefits of Windows XP. You could reinstall it after it was already installed ( thus rescuing/upgrading your computer, or an older computer, or in this case a Bing, ) Which is something that is sorely lacking in the new Windows 7….. which is one of the many, many, many reasons that I’ve now moved over to Ubuntu and love it….

Next Bing challenge? Repairing the wonky disk partitions that some idiot thought was a good idea….. Tell next time.