Activation fails when you try to activate Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 over the Internet

When you try to activate Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 over the Internet, the activation may be unsuccessful. Additionally, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• Activation fails with error code 0x8004FE33.
• The following Error events may be recorded in the Application log:
  Log Name: Application
  Source: Software Licensing Service
  Event ID: 8198
  Level: Error Description: License Activation (SLUI.exe) failed with the following error code: 0x80004005
  Log Name: Application
  Source: Software Licensing Service
  Event ID: 1008
  Level: Error Description: Acquisition of Secure Processor Certificate failed. Status Code=hr=0x8004FE33
• Activation is not successful, and you are not prompted for credentials.

This issue may occur when you connect to the Internet through a proxy server where Basic authentication is enabled.

When the proxy server is configured for Basic authentication, the server requires that you type a username and a password. However, the activation user interface does not let you enter these credentials. Therefore, the Basic authentication fails, and activation is not successful.

General users

Method 1: Use the telephone to activate Windows

Open the Windows Activation Wizard to use the automated telephone system and activate Windows. To open the wizard, click Start, click Run, type SLUI 04, and then click OK.

Advanced users

This method is intended for advanced computer users. If you are not comfortable with advanced troubleshooting, you might want to ask someone for help or contact support. For information about how to contact support, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Method 1: Configure the proxy server to disable Basic authentication

For information about how to perform this method, see the documentation that is included with the proxy software.

Method 2: Configure your proxy server to exclude the URLs for the certificate revocation lists (CRLs) from the requirement for Basic authentication

To do this, configure the following list of CRLs to be unauthenticated on the proxy server:

• http://go.microsoft.com/
• https://sls.microsoft.com/
• https://sls.microsoft.com:443
• http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftRootAuthority.crl
• http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureCommunications.crl
• http://www.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureCommunications.crl
• http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureServer.crl
• http://www.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureServer.crl
• https://activation.sls.microsoft.com

For information about how to perform this method, see the documentation that is included with the proxy software.

For more information about Windows Vista Volume Activation 2.0, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about how to activate Windows Vista, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information how to troubleshoot Volume Activation error codes, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

If these articles do not help you resolve the problem or if you experience symptoms that differ from those that are described in this article, search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information. To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Then, type the text of the error message that you receive, or type a description of the problem in the Search Support (KB) field.