This Copy of Windows is not Genuine

K27 is in the UK, so the contact info he posted above should be useful to you.

I have a feeling this could be the problem:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Windows-7-activation-error-0xC004F061

The trouble is that I am certain that the advice from Dell when I got the upgrade was that it was better to do a full fresh install of Win7 rather than upgrade in situ. Now I have this problem and Microsoft are advising to reinstall vista and then apply Win7?! With all the software and data files I would have to restore that will take a lot of time. 

I am not a happy bunny. Somebody at MS will receive the full force of my grumpiness tomorrow.

Thanks for the help so far.

I phoned 0844 800 2400 and followed the instructions from K27. I was told to ring 0844 800 2400 (note same number!) and choose option 5.

I rang 0844 800 2400 and chose option 5 and somehow ended up talking to somebody completely unrelated who gave me the number 0800 018 8354 and said let it run through a couple of times so you get to talk to a person.

I rang that number, spoke to a person who told me I need to phone 0870 601 0100.

I rang that number and had a recorded message telling me this number was out of service and to ring 0844 800 2400.

I rang 0844 800 2400 again and spoke to the same Indian lady as my first call, who said to try again and choose option 2 and then 5.

Phoned 0844 800 2400 again and chose option 2. Option 5 was about X-box so decided not to bother but went for 7 instead for technical support.

At last, somebody who knows what they're doing. I told him my license key from the label on the Dell Win 7 Upgrade disk. He told me that it was a full License (i.e. not upgrade only), and that it should work. He told me that Dell should give me a new code and I should contact them.

Had another go at Dell online support and it seems to work now (different machine), so I've logged it.

I have a feeling that they will send me back to Microsoft. Dell and Microsoft are such huge multi billion dollar companies. How can the customer service be allowed to be this poor? I'm even more grumpy now.

Wow, what a runaround!  If your problem was with Microsoft Update and Microsoft confirmed that the code should work, I do not understand why you need another license key from Dell. I must be missing something.

Yes, I was thinking about that too. I'm beginning to wonder if I understood what the microsoft person said. 

Dell have come back and offered to replace my corrupt system cd, so they haven't got the hang of this either. I might give ms another call tomorrow, now that I know the right way to get to somebody.