ML of French had XP and wanted to update to 7. Helpdesk told him he had to go through Vista, so he installed Vista just long enough to update that to 7. When he tried to start Vista after installing it, the computer wouldn't start, so he ended up doing a clean install of 7 using what appear to be update disks. He reported getting "Windows could not be activated | Key management services host could not be located in domain name system" error. Helpdesk suggested another clean install. Greg and I found a specific page on the Microsoft help site that addressed this issue, so I put ML on to that and said he might take it to the Helpdesk. He decided to follow the instructions himself and reports that the activation alert has not reappeared.