Microsoft has kept quiet about issues related to license keys for Windows Vista and Office 2007, although it has received a decent amount of turbulence from its partners. And in fact, the problems the Redmond Company experienced with the Vista and Office 2007 license keys impacted only Microsoft's Gold Certified & Certified partners. After resolving the issue, Microsoft has also disclosed the root of the problems encountered by partner companies.

The Redmond Company revealed that, starting on December 8, Microsoft's Gold Certified & Certified partners in Partner Membership Center have been able to get MAK Keys for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. Prior to December 8, partners in the MSPP PMC did not have product keys available to them. This was the case because of the multiple activation key technology introduced by Microsoft. The Redmond Company managed to have the MSK system and provisioning processes up and running by December 8; before this date, Microsoft has prevented activation for the partner downloads.

A second issue impacted approximately 1,600 active Gold & Certified partners, former owners of Empower accounts. Microsoft explained that this small volume of partners were not able to access MSDN and perform downloads due to the fact that their accounts have expired. The Redmond Company explained that the issue was generated by a cleansing of the Empower database that resulted in the expired accounts. All the 1,600 accounts were restored as of December 7, 2006.