Need to activate Windows? Microsoft just eliminated an option I've relied on for years

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Phone activation for Windows has been discontinued.
• You'll have to use an online portal to activate Windows.
• The portal requires a Microsoft or business account.

Microsoft has typically offered a few ways to manually activate Windows for times when it won't activate automatically. One useful method had been to call Microsoft by phone, allowing a customer support rep to talk you through the process and grant the activation. That was especially handy if you couldn't get online with your PC. Alas, that method is no more.

In a recent YouTube video, a tech enthusiast named Ben Kleinberg demonstrated the loss of phone activation. After installing Windows 7 Home Premium, Kleinberg said he called the Microsoft product activation number to activate a license for the OS. Instead of getting ...