Warning: Microsoft is anti consumer and encourages piracy

Antagony

exup wrote: »

no disrespect , but the poster didn't say ebay, he said ebuyer, which is a supplier of computer parts and software. I wouldn't recmmoned buying an operating system from ebay unless its a ebay shop site of a computer store

vuvuzela wrote: »

No disrespect, but my wall of text was a bit smaller than yours and you managed to misread where I said ebuyer, a long-term IT supplier
I'd never buy OEM or other versions of Windows from ebay, it's pretty much a den of thieves.

Ah, right you are... I did misread your post, sorry. The stress of almost losing use of my PC has left me exhausted.

Well thanks for the info, and I'll bear it in mind for future reference. Unfotunately it's too late to take advantage of it on this occasion.

squeaky

OK... I'll move the thread across...

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oldone_2

What you now need to do is make a clone copy of your new hard drive and store it on external media, i.e. DVD, external HDD or USB stick.

If you hard drive fails again, you can be up and running again in twenty minutes.

Macrium Reflex do a free version of their software which I have used for a number of years without problems. Find them at
http://www.macrium.com/

Free version here http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Teribus

I can definitely recommend ebuyer.

I haven't used them for buying software, but I have used them for hardware (through a friend's account) and their prices are very competitive and their delivery quick.

Sorry to hear of your problems with Microsoft. I have a PC which has a questionable copy of windows XP on it, but so far it's still working (after about three years I'm hoping they're not suddenly going to decide it's a pirate copy and lock my PC down!)

-T

Antagony

vuvuzela wrote: »

No disrespect, but my wall of text was a bit smaller than yours and you managed to misread where I said ebuyer, a long-term IT supplier
I'd never buy OEM or other versions of Windows from ebay, it's pretty much a den of thieves.

Out of curiosity, I've been looking into what the implications of buying and installing an OEM version are.

AFAICT, the biggest difference between a retail box and an OEM box is that with the former the license allows you to move the product to another PC; whereas with an OEM installation the license is tied to the motherboard and can only be reused if you can satisfy Microsoft that the motherboard needed replacing. In other words, the license is tied to the box. Of course there's nothing to stop someone lying to Microsoft about upgrading their motherboard to get reactivated, so it's hard for them to fully enforce their OEM license limitations. But many people, like me, would not want to do that.

Other differences are that there is 90 days free support supplied with retail and none whatsoever with OEM; and both 32 & 64 bit versions are included with the retail box but have to be specified with the OEM version.

BTW, I checked ebuyer's prices and Win 7 Pro 64 bit OEM from them is £105.69 Their retail box is £161.91, so the MS direct offer price – under the guise of a "Get Genuine Online Kit" – is a reasonably good saving on that. Their normal price is £219.99 +p&p

All told, I am much less bothered about price difference between retail and OEM versions, than I am by the outrageously huge price discrepancies between US and and UK markets. If that isn't a classic example of rip-off-Britain pricing then I don't know what is.

Antagony

oldone wrote: »

What you now need to do is make a clone copy of your new hard drive and store it on external media, i.e. DVD, external HDD or USB stick.

If you hard drive fails again, you can be up and running again in twenty minutes.

Macrium Reflex do a free version of their software which I have used for a number of years without problems. Find them at
http://www.macrium.com/

I will do that, thanks.

SimbaSimon

What you should have done was ask Dell for a replacement installation CD or alternatively buy an Dell installation CD online. The Dell CDs they ship work pretty much on any Dell PC and won't need activating or anything as its an OEM copy and linked to the serial number on your PC. This would have set you back a few pounds at most and you would have been sorted. My workplace have bundles of Dell CDs and they all pretty much work on every Dell PC they hold. Find someone with a Dell PC for your version of Vista and you would have been sorted.

Browntoa

I've always managed to source Dell reinstallation CDs/DVD's off ebay when I've needed to re-install for people, have quite a nice collection now

philneedham

Hi,

Sorry to read of your woes, my story is almost identical, although with a happier ending! I also bought off ebay from a buyer with good feedback offering a sealed retail package complete with Certificate of Authenticity. I checked everything out on arrival very closely and was satisfied it was all legit - holograms on the COA and disk.

Installed and activated fine and forgot all about it until the same pop up warning one Saturday morning a few weeks back - possibly the same date? However I was given 30 days to fix the problem.

Called Microsoft out of hours and got an Indian call centre who couldn't help other than confirm mine was also an MSDN product key, did a spot of googling and found the anti piracy unit, emailed them with photos and a summary of my plight and got a very unhelpful generic response. Emailed them back to stress the points I had made, which was mainly "how on earth could I have possibly known I had a counterfeit product when it met all the checks Microsoft tell you to make"? They replied again just saying go back to your retailer, which I couldn't as it was outside ebay/paypal's buyer protection period.

I decided to send my media off to be evaluated by the Product Validation team as I'd read that Microsoft sometimes replaced realistic counterfeit copies. Waited about 10 days then got a letter back thanking me for helping them fight piracy but with no offer of help, and they'd kept all my media - although in fairness this was advised in advance.

Decided to admit defeat and order the legit copy direct from Microsoft but it wouldn't accept my card for some reason. I called them up again (this time during office hours) and eventually ended up with a very helpful guy in the Direct Services Team. I explained my predicament and he said if I could email some info (the details of the seller, the ebay invoice and some photos) he'd review them.

Although I didn't have my media/packaging any more I did have the photos I'd taken so I was able to send those along with all the other items they'd requested - and all my other emails/letters! He called back an hour or two later sying they'd replace the product in full just for the cost of P&P, about £17. Product is on order but hasn't arrived yet.

Very pleased with this outcome but so annoyed that it was such hard work, and that Microsoft can't police these MSDN licences better so that they pick up on people flogging them on illegally. MSDN products are licensed to large companies so they can use the same product key for all users, so if they just asked for the company name as part of the activation that would be enough to tip off unsuspecting but honest punters such as myself that something was up.

Anyway, the conclusions here are:

• Don't buy Windows or other software on ebay, simply too many crooks
• If you have this problem, don't send your product off but call within UK hours and ask for the Direct Services Team.
• Don't give up, someone there will help, just need to get to the correct people!

Sorry if my input is too late to help you, but hopefully it will help others!

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Warning: Microsoft is anti consumer and encourages piracy

They dont encourage in fact by making things have special keys they try and discourage piracy. The code you got was one that wouldve been given to many people and would register fine. It was only a few weeks ago that a certain update targeted keys that they knew were fake and shipped to people who stupidly bought from certain dealers who are less then scrupulous. In fact even some legitimate keys were asked to register again as their keys were similar to the fake ones and were rectified quite quickly.

Unfortunately your rant is against the seller of your disc and key - not with Microsoft.