Question 1: Is activate by phone a permanent license?

Answer:
If you don't reinstall, activate by phone is a permanent license. During the reinstallation process, Microsoft's products check the status of the key before entering it, so even with the old step 3, it still depends on the key's status at the time of entry.

Question 2: How to check if activate is permanent?

Answer:
- For Office, Visio, Project products, go to the Account section, and the product will display "Product Activated" if permanently activated.
- For Windows operating system: From Search -> type cmd -> type slmgr -xpr command -> the product will show "The machine is permanently activated" if it is permanently activated.

Question 3: Can activate by phone be updated?

Answer:
Since activate by phone is a permanent license, you should update to receive patches without worrying about the key being blocked.

Question 4: How is step 2 created?

Answer:
Step 2 is created by Microsoft's wizard combining the Product Key and the computer's hardware information. If either of these two factors changes, step 2 will change. Computers will have different step 2s, even with the same Product Key.

Question 5: Which country should be selected at the first step?

Answer:
Any country is fine. It only provides the phone number of Microsoft's call center in that country.

Question 6: Do I need to disconnect the Internet during the entire activate by phone process?

Answer:
Only during the key entry process to avoid Multi-Key errors due to entering too many keys. After entering the key, you can connect to the Internet freely to activate the product.

Question 7: What is the difference between retail and VL (Volume License) versions?

Answer:
The product features are entirely the same. The difference is that the VL (Volume License) version comes with a MAK (Multiple Activation Key) for mass activation. MAK keys are usually provided to MSDN, TechNet accounts, and large organizations registering in bulk.

Question 8: Errors when activating by phone

Answer:
- Limitation error and no activate by phone option due to entering the key too many times without disconnecting the network.
- Key entry failure -> solution: Retail version must go with MSDN retail key, VL version must go with MAK key, core version must go with core key, ...
- Not verify error, unable to activate -> Someone called before or the key is dead.