Select the product you need help with

Windows activation fails and may generate error code 0x8004FE33

Article ID: 921471 - View products that this article applies to.

Expand all | Collapse all

Symptoms

Activation fails when you try to activate one of the following Windows operating systems over the Internet:

Windows 8
Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008

Additionally, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

Activation fails and generates error code 0x8004FE33.
The following Error events are 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 fails, and you are not prompted for credentials.

Back to the top | Give Feedback

These issues may occur when you connect to the Internet through a proxy server on which Basic authentication is enabled.

If 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 fails.

Back to the top | Give Feedback

Workaround

General users

Method 1: Use the telephone to activate Windows

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

If you are running Windows 8, follow these steps:

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. Or, if you are using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, and then click Search.
Type SLUI 04, and then tap or click the displayed icon to open the wizard.

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 website:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus

(http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/)

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.

Back to the top | Give Feedback

More information

For more information about Windows Vista Volume Activation 2.0, click the following article number to go to the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

929712

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929712/ )

Volume Activation information for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

For more information about how to activate Windows Vista, click the following article number to go to the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

940315

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940315/ )

How to activate Windows Vista

For more information how to troubleshoot Volume Activation error codes, click the following article number to go to the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

938450

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938450/ )

How to troubleshoot Volume Activation error codes on Windows Vista-based computers

If you experience other errors than those mentioned in the "Symptoms" section when you try to activate Windows, go to the following Windows websites for additional troubleshooting information:

Get help with activation errors

(http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/activation-errors)

Why can't I activate Windows?

(http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/why-activate-windows)

If these articles do not help you resolve the problem, search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information. To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base, go to the following Microsoft website:

http://support.microsoft.com

(http://support.microsoft.com)

In the Search Support (KB) field, type the text of the error message that you receive, or type a description of the problem.

Back to the top | Give Feedback