I just upgraded to Server 2003 R2 Standard from Server 2003. When I log in from the console, after accepting an validating the password it shows a dialog reading: This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can continue. You cannot log on until you activate Windows. Do you want to activate Windows now? To shut down the computer, click Cancel. [Yes][No][Cancel] Yes and No have the same effect - get a saving settings message and then returns to the Enter Ctrl-Alt-Del to logon dialog box. Cancel shuts down as it says. Nothing actually lets me activate over the internet nor gives me a way to activate over the phone, just logs me out. Has anyone else run into this issue?

Hi, Please refer to the following articles: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932442/en-us http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936915/en-us http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946930/en-us Tim Quan TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi, How are things going? I have not heard back from you in a few days and wanted to check on the status of the issue. Please let me know how things turned out. Tim Quan TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks Tim, I'm going to try these things out at the close of business today. I appreciate the help.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Tim. Here is what worked for me. 1. Download IE8 installer on a USB drive 2. Start server in safe mode 3. Install IE8 from USB drive 4. Restart server and activate