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re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 1:27 pm Posted by Steve (21659 messages posted) I don't think XP phones home to see if it's a legit copy. Steve [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 2:52 pm Posted by triplate (20746 messages posted) ya mean like this??...cant be done. Cossacks MC Nomad [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 2:55 pm Posted by jazzman (4137 messages posted) lmao************************************** nope, impossible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! jazz is a state of mind... You can choose a ready guide in some Celestial voice...........I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose Freewill.... [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 2:56 pm Posted by triplate (20746 messages posted) ....right......you bet. Cossacks MC Nomad [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 2:57 pm Posted by jazzman (4137 messages posted) jazz is a state of mind... You can choose a ready guide in some Celestial voice...........I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose Freewill.... [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 3:01 pm Posted by Steve (21659 messages posted) Ya been on vacation or get out on work release.:)? Steve [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 3:06 pm Posted by jazzman (4137 messages posted) "professional admins don't keep the hundreds of disks about that would be needed if this were the case..." Actually, they do keep a copy, but image the drives and buy CALs accordingly.. jazz is a state of mind... You can choose a ready guide in some Celestial voice...........I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose Freewill.... [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 3:30 pm Posted by lmc (7 messages posted) I guess the consensus is that MS doesn't have their products check in. I find it unlikely that its "impossible", except perhaps inasmuch as it would be a PR screwup of major proportions. BTW, I wasn't advocating using this. The name on the header was supplied by the website, and I didn't know enough to fix it; I was just trying to straighten out an impression that I had, and answer a couple of things I read in the earlier postings. On Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 12:54 pm, lmc wrote: >I have a question about How >do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?: > > I believe that I've heard that every once in a while XP' WPA (and other activated >products, like Office XP/2003 and development apps) phone home to make sure all is >well. That would kill the suggestion in the notes above that it may be possible >to use an activation on several computers by lying about moving a single copy to >a new computer. Does anyone know if that is really the case? > > WRT using an OEM disk - an OEM disk is Windows plus whatever the OEM wanted to >add to it, including, possibly, software to detect what model/mfgr/SN the Windows >is running on and refuse if it's the wrong one. I've never been able to successfully >"clean" such a disk back to the MS generic product, though I know that people claim >it can be done. The only safe disks to use on other computers are real, MS generic >disks. MS probably doesn't really care whether these disks get copied and distributed >or not, because their real defense is in the WPA; professional admins don't keep >the hundreds of disks about that would be needed if this were the case, and besides, >they build new ones through "slip-streaming" with MS' full blessing when a new SP >comes out. MS even designed the system to do that, and publishes the procedure. > > However, don't simply take my advice as legal - I'm not a lawyer and I don't work >for MS. Besides, lawyers in general can be very anal about their client's priviledges, >and the disks still say "Do not copy" on them. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 3:44 pm Posted by jazzman (4137 messages posted) Oh, it's not impossible :P http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1108940242 jazz is a state of mind... You can choose a ready guide in some Celestial voice...........I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose Freewill.... [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 6:50 pm Posted by Dan Sarandrea, MCSE (7096 messages posted) When installed, XP polls a selection of the hardware of the system it's installed on and generates a "magic number." Every now and then after that point, it recalculates the magic number using the hardware that it finds. If the hardware changes enough, the magic number won't be within certain tolerances, and XP is designed to announce to you that it thinks something is wrong and that it wants to be activated again. Then you have to allow XP to phone home to check in with the activation servers that keep track of each activated Product Key. If the Product Key is flagged in some manner, such as too many reactivations in too short a time, the automatic process will be halted and you will be instructed to phone home to Redmond so you can plead your case, as it were, to the activation reps on the phone. My understanding is that the vast majority of people who have to phone in to plead their case are immediately successful, and the reps either issue a new Product Key or reset their existing Product Key. BTW, Symantec's execution of their Product Activation system is almost identical to Microsoft's. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 7:18 pm Posted by kroeg (2 messages posted) I'm not all that computer smart, so please forgive my confusion, are you guys saying that if I have a xp programe that came with one computer(my laptop)and I try to then use it on my home computer xp will know it's not on the right computer and not work? On Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 6:50 pm, Dan Sarandrea, MCSE wrote: >When installed, XP polls a selection of the hardware of the system it's installed >on and generates a "magic number." > >Every now and then after that point, it recalculates the magic number using the hardware >that it finds. If the hardware changes enough, the magic number won't be within >certain tolerances, and XP is designed to announce to you that it thinks something >is wrong and that it wants to be activated again. > >Then you have to allow XP to phone home to check in with the activation servers that >keep track of each activated Product Key. If the Product Key is flagged in some >manner, such as too many reactivations in too short a time, the automatic process >will be halted and you will be instructed to phone home to Redmond so you can plead >your case, as it were, to the activation reps on the phone. > >My understanding is that the vast majority of people who have to phone in to plead >their case are immediately successful, and the reps either issue a new Product Key >or reset their existing Product Key. > >BTW, Symantec's execution of their Product Activation system is almost identical >to Microsoft's. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 7:39 pm Posted by Dan Sarandrea, MCSE (7096 messages posted) After XP is installed and activated on computer A, it can be installed per se on computer B but most likely the activation process will fail. After all, the purpose of activation is to enforce the retail End User License Agreement (EULA) which (at least in the USA) states that XP is only licensed to the End User to be run on one computer at a time. Once activation fails, the second installation of XP becomes operable only to the extent that it will start and run for the purpose of conducting the activation procedure and nothing else. If you were to purchase another copy of XP, you would be able to activate computer B's installation with the product key obtained with the second purchased copy, as long as the second is the same "flavor" (ie, Home Full, Home Upgd, Pro Full, Pro Upgd) as the first. The activation "freeze out" period is 120 days on the retail and OEM copies of XP that I have used, which means that 120 days must elapse between the activation of the copy (as represented by the product key) installed on computer A and the activation of the same product key on computer B. You will still be in violation of the EULA. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Monday, February 21, 2005 at 2:16 am Posted by 666 (2255 messages posted) I believe that I've heard that every once in a while XP' WPA (and other activated products, like Office XP/2003 and development apps) phone home to make sure all is well Nope. Phoning home would be detected by any firewall that monitors outgoing traffic. OEM (...) I've never been able to successfully "clean" such a disk back to the MS generic product I have a Dell desktop and a Dell laptop. Both came with XP OEM disks (Dell doesn't sell clean computers, they force you to buy XP). I installed Linux on the Dell desktop, edited the OEM XP disk and installed it on my old computer. Which is not a Dell. No problem at all. Activation worked, too. OEM licenses are a dirty trick to stop people from recycling their software when they replace their computers. Violating OEM licenses is an acceptable form of civil disobedience. There should be a law against the OEM scam, similar to the law that prohibits printer manufacturers to stop you from recycling their ink cartridges. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Monday, February 21, 2005 at 4:24 pm Posted by kroeg (2 messages posted) This doesn't make sense to me. If I wasn't online how would xp activate and know it wasn't on the same computer? What if I don't need XP on my laptop but want it on my home computer? I have to buy it again? That doesn't seem right. Can't I use it for personal use on wichever system I choose? I paid for it, when I bought the laptop because that's what it came with, now if I try to use it to upgrade my home system instead I can't legally do so? On Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 7:39 pm, Dan Sarandrea, MCSE wrote: >After XP is installed and activated on computer A, it can be installed per se on >computer B but most likely the activation process will fail. After all, the purpose >of activation is to enforce the retail End User License Agreement (EULA) which (at >least in the USA) states that XP is only licensed to the End User to be run on one >computer at a time. > >Once activation fails, the second installation of XP becomes operable only to the >extent that it will start and run for the purpose of conducting the activation procedure >and nothing else. If you were to purchase another copy of XP, you would be able >to activate computer B's installation with the product key obtained with the second >purchased copy, as long as the second is the same "flavor" (ie, Home Full, Home Upgd, >Pro Full, Pro Upgd) as the first. > >The activation "freeze out" period is 120 days on the retail and OEM copies of XP >that I have used, which means that 120 days must elapse between the activation of >the copy (as represented by the product key) installed on computer A and the activation >of the same product key on computer B. You will still be in violation of the EULA. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Monday, February 21, 2005 at 5:18 pm Posted by lmc (7 messages posted) The first question is easy: if you're not online, then it will ask you to call the toll-free number to input the number it gives you (identifying the characteristics of your computer) and the computer on the other end will either read you back the key that will allow you to run, or pass you off to a real human, who you'll have to convince to give you the key. I don't know what criteria they (the humans) use to determine authenticity; I know I bought (generic MS) XP Pro for a laptop, re-installed it several times through upgrades (sometimes failing, but always got the key from the nice gentleman), and then moved it to a desktop, with the same procedure when the laptop died. The OEM version? I would assume paying for the key bought you the key, and you could move it at will (providing you can find suitable media, and you'd be lucky if an OEM disk would work for any other computer), but it's certainly possible I could be wrong. On Monday, February 21, 2005 at 4:24 pm, kroeg wrote: > >This doesn't make sense to me. If I wasn't online how would xp activate and know >it wasn't on the same computer? What if I don't need XP on my laptop but want it >on my home computer? I have to buy it again? That doesn't seem right. Can't I use >it for personal use on wichever system I choose? I paid for it, when I bought the >laptop because that's what it came with, now if I try to use it to upgrade my home >system instead I can't legally do so? > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 7:29 am Posted by Dan Sarandrea, MCSE (7096 messages posted) Just as a point of information, Dell does sell a line of computers without an installed OS: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/desktops_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 7:32 am Posted by Dan Sarandrea, MCSE (7096 messages posted) What you paid for (as part of the price of the laptop, desktop or what have you) is a license to use the OS in the manner specified by the licensor, MS. XP that comes preinstalled on a computer is often called OEM software, and that carries a different license from a copy of XP that you'd by at a retail store (retail software). MS sells licenses to OEMs for a significant price reduction in return both for the promise that end users will have to call the OEM (in your case, Dell) for operating system support and not bother MS, and for the fact that the software media is designed to limit the software's portability, ie, how easily it can be installed on another computer, and thus the limit how easily the software can be installed contrary to the license. Most mfr-branded OEM copies of XP will not install on any other brand name of system. Furthermore, the license to use OEM software (in this case XP) is tied to hardware (because that's what you have title to, the hardware you bought from Dell). The OEM license does not permit that copy of XP to be used on any system that does not have the hardware you purchased. The licenses for retail copies of XP are different in two major ways: OS support comes from MS not any computer mfr, and the license is tied to you, so that you can install it on 100 computers, so long as it's installed (and activated) on one computer at a time. That's why retail copies of XP are generally $100 more than OEM copies. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 8:01 am Posted by 666 (2255 messages posted) Great. Now they have to offer this opion on ALL their computers, including notebooks (not just a limited selection of desktops) in EVERY country where they do business, including mine. On Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 7:29 am, Dan Sarandrea, MCSE wrote: >Just as a point of information, Dell does sell a line of computers without an installed >OS: > >http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/desktops_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Question about 'How do I skip the Product Activation in Windows XP?' Saturday, October 15, 2005 at 6:27 am Posted by Cat (1 messages posted) How did you ?? >edited the OEM XP disk and installed it on my old computer. Which is not a Dell. Thank you, On Monday, February 21, 2005 at 2:16 am, 666 wrote: > >I believe that I've heard that every once in a while XP' WPA (and other activated >products, like Office XP/2003 and development apps) phone home to make sure all is >well > >Nope. Phoning home would be detected by any firewall that monitors outgoing traffic. > > >OEM (...) I've never been able to successfully "clean" such a disk back to the >MS generic product > >I have a Dell desktop and a Dell laptop. Both came with XP OEM disks (Dell doesn't >sell clean computers, they force you to buy XP). I installed Linux on the Dell desktop, >edited the OEM XP disk and installed it on my old computer. Which is not a Dell. >No problem at all. Activation worked, too. > >OEM licenses are a dirty trick to stop people from recycling their software when >they replace their computers. Violating OEM licenses is an acceptable form of civil [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum