Reinstall Windows and retain NTLite activation

P

padhend

New Member
Hi all,

As the title says - how can I I need to format a PC with a licensed version of NTLite - Once Win 10 pro goes back on - can I activate NTLite without wasting an online activation?

thanks

Mod note - Changed title to be more specific.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
padhend Provided you are reinstalling windows on the pc hardware that NTLite was activated on you can do it 3 ways,

1 - just copy over the (activated)NTLite program folder during installation(using the $OEM$ method) or manually after 1st logon.
Note - Any settings you changed are kept.

2 - Install NTLite, copy license.dat and settings.xml from your current (activated)NTLite program folder.
Note - Any settings you changed are kept.

3 - Install NTLite, copy license.dat to program files folder, run and enter your serial number.
Note - all NTLite settings are set to default.
 
Last edited:
I install NTlight on another disk/partision on my computers than C drive. That way you not need to install and activate your NTlitght when you do a windows clean install. And yes, the program work perfect after the clean install of Windows.
 
Just install NTL as portable and make a backup in zip or rar. Problem solved.
Easy to update, point out where folder is if not the one just clicking yes yes from install popups.
 
Hello, I would like to ask if NTLite is the right solution for me.
  • I have 15 PCs to maintain. They are all Family and my own PCs.
  • I routinely do my Windows builds on two PCs. My main PC and a PC I've set up exclusively for testing purposes.
  • I could be building and tweaking images on either PC at any time.
  • Of the 15 PCs, 4 are reinstalled from scratch 4 times a year, 2 could be as often as once a month and the rest are updated on an annual basis
  • I NEVER have a LAN cable plugged in when installing Windows. I don't bother disabling it in the BIOS.
  • I do not EVER use Wi-Fi on any system I build or maintain or device that I own.
  • I don't do in-place upgrades.
  • I wanted to use NTLite portable, but if I've read the posts here correctly, portable mode is not available for the home edition.
  • The cost for NTLite in AUD is about double the Euro price, so given I'm on a pension I can only afford the home license..
  • All PCs are Windows 10 21H2.
  • I generally strip out almost everything from my ISO.
  • I've been using MSMG toolkit but that project has been dormant for about 9 months.
  • I add in .Net 3.5, Photo Viewer, DirectX, Calculator and some inbox apps - Realtek Audio Console and some codecs like WEBP, HEIF, HEVC, VP9, AV1, Dolby
  • I only use Local accounts. They day I am forced to use a Microsoft account is the day I will force myself to look at Linux.
  • I run a post installation script that I wrote to install games and applications that each PC uses, having first run a script that backs up relevant data before reinstalling.
Hardware wise, at least one PC changes hardware once a month. I upgrade hardware before it runs out of warranty so the parts have resale value and I can minimize my out of pocket upgrade costs. The point being the environment is not static. Most PCs would get something upgraded at least a couple of times a year.

I've been reading posts on the forums here and I must admit all I've managed to achieve is to get myself totally confused about how licensing/activation works.

Do I need to upgrade my license every year to be able to keep applying the latest CUs? Like, once my 12 months is up, new CUs can't be applied?
 
TanyaC said:
Hello, I would like to ask if NTLite is the right solution for me.
  • I have 15 PCs to maintain. They are all Family and my own PCs.
  • I routinely do my Windows builds on two PCs. My main PC and a PC I've set up exclusively for testing purposes.
  • I could be building and tweaking images on either PC at any time.
  • Of the 15 PCs, 4 are reinstalled from scratch 4 times a year, 2 could be as often as once a month and the rest are updated on an annual basis
  • I NEVER have a LAN cable plugged in when installing Windows. I don't bother disabling it in the BIOS.
  • I do not EVER use Wi-Fi on any system I build or maintain or device that I own.
  • I don't do in-place upgrades.
  • I wanted to use NTLite portable, but if I've read the posts here correctly, portable mode is not available for the home edition.
  • The cost for NTLite in AUD is about double the Euro price, so given I'm on a pension I can only afford the home license..
  • All PCs are Windows 10 21H2.
  • I generally strip out almost everything from my ISO.
  • I've been using MSMG toolkit but that project has been dormant for about 9 months.
  • I add in .Net 3.5, Photo Viewer, DirectX, Calculator and some inbox apps - Realtek Audio Console and some codecs like WEBP, HEIF, HEVC, VP9, AV1, Dolby
  • I only use Local accounts. They day I am forced to use a Microsoft account is the day I will force myself to look at Linux.
  • I run a post installation script that I wrote to install games and applications that each PC uses, having first run a script that backs up relevant data before reinstalling.
Hardware wise, at least one PC changes hardware once a month. I upgrade hardware before it runs out of warranty so the parts have resale value and I can minimize my out of pocket upgrade costs. The point being the environment is not static. Most PCs would get something upgraded at least a couple of times a year.

I've been reading posts on the forums here and I must admit all I've managed to achieve is to get myself totally confused about how licensing/activation works.

Do I need to upgrade my license every year to be able to keep applying the latest CUs? Like, once my 12 months is up, new CUs can't be applied?
Click to expand...
Video card,ram,cpu,hard drive stuff like that would be fine but a motherboard change would most likely cause issues.

Cpu's are usually really good for a long time and if I can play top games with my overclocked 12 year old cpu with updated software a decent 6 year old one would also do the same.

To the point you have made about activations. I am unsure what would be appropriate for your type of need and will leave this to someone more experienced with the licenses than I am.

Hope my little bit of knowledge helped you a bit
 
TanyaC said:
Hello, I would like to ask if NTLite is the right solution for me.
Click to expand...
Yes.

TanyaC said:
I've been reading posts on the forums here and I must admit all I've managed to achieve is to get myself totally confused about how licensing/activation works.

Do I need to upgrade my license every year to be able to keep applying the latest CUs? Like, once my 12 months is up, new CUs can't be applied?
Click to expand...
NTLite licenses do expire, but they are permanent for the activated PC's. What that means is all new premium (non-free) features are unlocked until the expiration date. After the expiration date, NTLite continues working as before but you're locked into the previous feature set which you enjoyed before the expiration. Those locked features are perpetual for this PC.

If you don't need to support the next Windows release, then you can continue making images for older Windows. You can continue using the Updates Downloader to check for monthly updates, regardless of expiration.

NTLite Home is the correct edition for a non-commercial user to purchase. You don't need NTLite activated on target PC's for the most part, unless you're doing a Host Refresh to reinstall components you regret removing. As you sound like a more experienced modder, you know how to test images before rolling them out to the install base.

Renewals are priced 50%. If you purchase a renewal, it's essentially like a new license. You can choose to hold off activating your renewal license, if there's a newer Windows release coming and you'd prefer to wait. The new license can replace licenses on expired PC's, or be used on new machines up to the 5 activation count.

The activation count will get consumed if you replace any PC's CPU, network or boot disk since NTLite's HWID is tagged to those attributes. But if you're creating install images, you know only your main PC needs to run NTLite.

PS. I've read that MSMG's dev is literally stuck on a farm with poor Internet access, for family reasons.
 
Thanks garlin and Necrosaro

So, I have to "install" ntlite on my main PC only. I can't run portable. I don't need to install it on any other PC (Unless I want to do a refresh, which I expect not to have to do - that's why I set up a test PC). "Experienced" might be a bit generous. "Mediocre" might be a better word. That's another reason for the test PC - I screw up regularly :) Experimentation is a good way to learn.

My main PC has THREE NICs. A plug in 10G NIC and 2 I226V (The buggy one). So I can only use NTLite on my 10G NIC, otherwise it will revert to unlicensed if I do tests on one of the 1Gbe NICs?

My Test PC has THREE NICs. Again, a plug in 10G and two motherboard NICs (I211 and I219). I will test the image on both speeds. For example, Kodi performs differently at different speeds. But since I;m only preparing the image on my main PC this is irrelevant.

I gather ntlite will "tag" the NIC that is in use at the time of activation and won't get confused by the fact that there are other NICs on board?

NTLite licensing is not tied to Windows Licensing, only to hardware.

I would put NTLite on a different SSD to my boot SSD but thismight be pointless if it can't run portable as the installer will at least write uninstall registry keys, as well as file associations (like HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.inf\OpenWithList),

Most PCs have a minimum of two 2TB SSDs. My two HTPCs only have one. Windows partitions are usually 96GB and the remainder is set as D:\. All programs are installed on C:\, games on D:\. On the bigger PCs there are 4 SSDs and 1 spinner. Portable programs are set up on my H:\ Drive (Eg MSMG).

I have several 1TB NVMe M.2 portable drives which are the bootable installers. I rotate these so I always have a current plus 2 previous images.

Some months I won't create an image. The CU might have no worthwhile bug or security fixes. When new features are added all I look for is how to disable or remove them. I haven't seen a Windows release for well over a decade that had a feature that I wanted or needed. My changes seem to be driven mostly by hardware. For example, the Z790s use ALC4080 USB audio. The legacy realtek HDA manager doesn't work and I had to upgrade to the UWP app.

Yes, I heard the same thing about msmg. And his health hasn't been too good. I wish him all the best.
 
Portable NTLite is when you install the program files to a different folder path, but it's still persistent to that location.

As to which NIC is considered primary, I'll leave that detail to nuhi. If you're paranoid, it's possible to run NTLite inside a persistent VM guest instance since that's another unique "HWID". Obviously there's a performance hit, but it isolates you from changing HW if that's a major factor in how long you keep the same gear.
 
My main PC was the last one upgraded. I don't expect to be changing it for a couple of years.
My only concern is running out of activations or being seen to be doing something wrong.
 
apologies in advance for reviving old post, if not appropriate mods please remove it.

can someone please elaborate how activation works for install on virtual machine? I am down to my last activation since august 2023 (home license purchased). I don't recall how or why but throughout the year NTLite has randomly asked me to activate copy again and again. general after the app self-updates or windows installs cumulative update ( I think), I have been just hitting okay and moving on but came to forums since I am down to my last activate. I was going to renew it anyways but would like to know if I am doing something wrong.
 
VM's like VMware or VirtualBox will retain the same "HWID" as long as you don't destroy or remake the VM instance you licensed. You can resize the virtual disk, or add new volumes since that doesn't change the instance. But creating a new VM image will result in a different "HWID".

You can transfer the intact VM image to another PC, and the licensed NTLite inside the VM will continue to be activated. The problem is the VM platforms don't allow you to keep a persistent signature across new instances.

Installing Windows updates shouldn't impact NTLite licensing, as long as you're re-using the same VM.
 
I have kept VM config same since its creation, no change in disk size, ram or processors.
I have snapshot of VM after activating NTLite, once done with my ISO I restore initial snapshot and delete that snapshot.

also if there Windows Update or NTLite update I update it and I run disk clean, sfc, component cleanup, restore health and sfc again.

I take snapshot again before using NTLite and when I am done with ISO, I restore snapshot state of VM.

does this affect activation?
 
Shouldn't. I'd email [email protected] (which is nuhi) and try to figure if there's something else going on. Maybe he can reproduce the problem. No one else can work on weird licensing glitches.
 
Hi. Followed instructions from this post to re-activate NTLite after new Windows installation. I copied the NTlite folder (activated). But still I need to do online activation...this should not happen right?
 
I haven't tried it recently, but in the worse case online activation will recognize this as a previously licensed PC and not subtract from your current activation count.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top