We are working on this issue with Microsoft.  It appears that there may be a shell issue that we are trying to get them to address.

Well that would explain the issue then...   - Hope MS is ....helpful?

Btw, I guess I should update this thread too..
IP4 4.09b cured all my issues with activation it seems..

I can run all parts of IP4 in sequence as many times as I want to without any of them nagging for activation.
To be sure the beta contained activation I renamed the sig.bin and they asked for activation when they should (I only tested one or two of the parts this way).

I wondered about that. The release doesn't mention fixing that issue.

Comments Zargon? .. or anyone else involved in the development.

As an aside, I still haven't heard anything new back from support on my ticket for the Optical Drive/activation issue. (Last response was 'We're working on it')

Would I have gotten something if a fix was released?

@pictoratus,
I was a bit hesitant myself when it was mentioned in the thread "activation keeps coming up..." that Goose40 got rid of this issue after installing the beta.
After asking for confirmation and receiving it from Goose40 I decided to try (making sure I had a new backup image before continuing), and, well it seems to have squashed my problems with activation (battle of activations etc) which is somewhat well documented in these forums.

As it is a beta, the only thing you can be almost sure of is that there are usually more changes than is publically described..
However, because it is a beta, treat it as such.

Regarding support, if they're similar to most support staffs they would be very reluctant to recommend a beta as this has the potential of creating even more problems.

Because some of this particular issue probably can be done online (serverside) there is also the possibility they have fixed the activation issue by providing corrected activation commands through Impulse (i.e the activation it performs after installing a product if it doesn't find sig.bin etc.)

I asked specifically about repeatedly running each part of IP when I asked for confirmation.. (sorry for the extra post, it's not possible to edit as I'm posting from my phone with no visible edit button on the page)

Thanks for the info, haerdalis

was solved the problem of CD drive?

I just noticed I can change individual icons again without the activation.exe error, and I was able to change my dvd drive icon.

I can't see IP4 4.09b in SDC ( even with pre-release version)
Is it shown only with impulse?

Windows xp sp3

Doesn't appear to be in SDC yet.

Probably just an oversight. I'm sure they'll get it showing up there soon.

Christolia, I guess it might only be available in Impulse as it is the primary delivery vehicle for the products, although SDC isn't abandoned.

As I've mentioned before this is a beta, so it should be treated as such..
If you're not familiar with the term, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

Yeah, isn't it cool to finally not have to reactivate all the time...

Thank you all

My thought exactly