Pirate windows

I_love_money!

Can anyone help. The hard drive on my old pc went, so thinking it was a safe thing to do, I had if replaced by a friend of a friend. Now a year later, I keep getting warnings that the windows programme installed is an illegal copy. I have a second computer at my sisters, and have the master discs for this second computer. Does anyone know whether if I load this onto the first computer i will get the same problem. I ask because I know you can when purchasing the software install it on more than one computer in a household legally. The computer is a packard Bell, so did not come with the original discs for windows-they install it in the factory. I have learnt from the first computer that I needed to save masterdiscs incase I need to replace the hard drive on the second one at a later date
any advice would be welcomed

nickmack

I_love_money! wrote:

I ask because I know you can when purchasing the software install it on more than one computer in a household legally.

Without an additional licence it's illegal.

Expect this thread to be locked soon.

culpepper

Might not be an illegal copy at all. Many people have been getting that message since the new windows XP updates downloaded and have perfectly legal copies installed.
Theres a thread about it on here somewhere.

bat999

Hey I love money!

There are new pukka OEM Windows XP available on ebay these days for around £50

I_love_money!

So... I knowI am blonde, and not the best with computers, but how do i find out then if it is a legal copy? I am so cuonfused.
Thanks for all the advice

Browntoa

by now you would have had the warning if your windows updates are on

www.windowsupdates.com

to check but I think the "friend of a firiend" put a dodgy copy on the PC

and, yes you will get round it for a while until the rumoured Windows "kill file" surfaces

30 days to update licience or shut down

foo_fighter4000

bat999 wrote:

There are new pukka OEM Windows XP available on ebay these days for around £50

If you do buy one of these then make sure you use paypal ... i bought one with nochex and was scammed out of my £60. Also make sure the dealer has sold these before and has not just registed in the last 10 minutes!

And mine wasnt pukka.... the manual had spelling mistakes in it!!! amongst another 100 things wrong with it... be carefull!

hope this helps

culpepper

The warning you get from windows updates has an option to fix it now which I think lets you pay to register online. They will then give you a bonefide registration number.

whotook316

Well if your initial copy was legal, I think you are morally justified in installing your other copy on your PC. You will have to activate it, but that will be fine as you are allowed to activate a copy of windows a few times before they start blocking it. Just don't register and don't install windows updates.

Microsoft's DRM really is getting OTT. I decided to learn a bit more about computers by swapping around the hardware from a couple of old PC's. Everytime I installed any new hardware I was locked out by Windows DRM and I had to call them to re-activate it. Bearing in mind that I have paid for about 8 legal copies of various Windows OS I am not at all happy with the way they treat their customers.

I have now - and I would suggest that you also do this - moved to Linux and am happily using Ubuntu on my PCs and am free to do whatever I want with my hardware without having to get Microsoft's permission.

Sorry about the rant.

Little_John

The system restore disk is unlikley to be the right disks set for your old pc anyway. I cant belive that pacard bell now tell you to make a restore disk they used to provide them. If your pc is a branded pc and had windows XP installed before it will have a sticker on the pc somewhere if this is the case then if you canget a copy of an OEM windows xp disk with the correct service pack version for the time the pc was sold then you should be able to install windows from that cd and use the key on the sticker unfortunatly you ony find out if you have the right disk when it accepts the key if it isnt then the key will be rejected.

I would contact the makers of the PC and see if they can supply your system restore disk.

Kilty_2

Little_John wrote:

windows xp disk with the correct service pack version for the time the pc was sold then you should be able to install windows from that cd and use the key on the sticker unfortunatly you ony find out if you have the right disk when it accepts the key if it isnt then the key will be rejected.

Actually, as long as you have the correct version (Home/Professional) to match your legitimate serial and its a proper OEM copy, the service pack it has doesnt matter.

(A lot of people slipstream SP1/2 onto Windows XP now, to save them having to install it seperately).