Archive: Steam Updates
A series of Warband updates were recently pushed out to players on Steam.  They were part of addition of Steam Workshop support for Warband and better Linux and Mac support.  Some of them broke Warband badly with errors or crashing but it seems somewhat fixed now.

These updates only affected Steam users.  Stand-alone installations of Warband did not receive any updates.

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Archive: Authentication Servers
Unrelated to the recent updates, Warband was available to play for free on the weekend.  This resulted in a massive influx of users which overloaded the TaleWorlds authentication and server list servers.  "Incorrect Authorization Key" and "Unable to Connect to Server" were very common errors.  Furthermore, free players (and some payed users) were given completely random IDs each time they joined a server preventing them from getting stats and gear.

The free weekend is now over but there are a few leftover problems.

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Archive: Random User IDs
If you are still getting activation codes each time you join a server try these steps:

Lets start with the simplest: restart Steam entirely.  Closing all the Steam windows is not enough, you need to make sure it is not running in the system tray.  If you are unsure how to restart Steam entirely, restarting the computer will do as well.

Try joining a server and hope that it works.  If not, try these longer steps:
Make sure Warband is closed when you do this.
Be very careful about editing your registry.  If you are not careful, you could break things.

1.  In the Steam Library, right click Warband and click "View CD key".  You will need this key later.
Note: If you do not see a CD key listed, stop.  The rest of the instructions require it.
2.  Open the "Run" prompt.  (Holding down the windows key and pressing "R" is an easy way to do this.)
3.  Type "regedit" and press enter.
4.  In the left panel, go to the following folders: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ MountAndBladeWarbandKeys
5.  In the right panel, look for the "serial_key" entry.  (If it is not there, right-click a blank area and create a new "String Value" and name it "serial_key".)
Note: "serial_key_nw" is for Napoleonic War and is not related.
6.  Right-click the "serial_key" entry and modify it.
7.  Set the value to the CD from step 1.

Close all the windows and try joining a server.

These are the only two methods I know for fixing the random IDs.  TaleWorlds / Steam might do something to fix it automatically in the next few days but if you are eager to play, this should work.