1) For boxed retail products, normally you have 6 times to activate your product without calling service center. If you re-install the system without formatting your hard disk, it doesn’t deduct from your left chances.
2) For VLK products (like under Open/Select plan), there is activation required. However, you must use the VLK media and enter the VLK product key altogether. The VLK is not provided with the media, customer has to login to Microsoft’s web site to get it.
3) For MSDN single versions, product activation is required. However, you can install the same product on up to 10 machines. For MSDN Open/Select versions, product activation is not required.
