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Journal nizo's Journal: As Microsoft slowly drives me insane.... 10

Journal by nizo

Ok you know that little sticker on your computer with the license number on it? Well it just so happens that it may actually not really be a real license. Case in point:

I have an HP workstation with an XP Professional license on it. Due to a variety of problems, I decided to run XP recovery on the machine. Since no one has any idea where the recovery CD is that came with the machine, I decide to use a generic XP Professional CD. Sadly, when it got to the "enter your Key" phase, it gave me an error saying that the key that is taped to the #@*!@! case isn't a valid key! Whattheflyingfuck????

So now I can play phone pingpong with some random guy in India (working for either HP or Microsoft, take your pick. Hell it could even be the same guy) to try to figure out how to resolve this entire nightmare. And all I am trying to do is make this crappy machine work, and the only thing stopping me is the moronic Microsoft brain damaged licensing from hell.

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As Microsoft slowly drives me insane.... More

As Microsoft slowly drives me insane....

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  • You do know the solution [distrowatch.com], don't you? (Of course, you knew this was coming.)

    • I'm still amazed that people actually stick the sticker on the machine, where it can easily be damaged, rendered illegible, "borrowed", etc. Get get a keygen if you really insist on using Windows ...

      Or you can go here https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshipit.ubuntu.com%2F [ubuntu.com] if your boss insists on nice official CDs with nice silk-screened artwork in pretty cardboard envelopes.

      Now that so much Windows software runs properly under Wine (one of my coworkers was using a windows debugger under wine, and it ran better than under real Win

  • And the OEM will say that you should phone Microsoft for support.

    So, you upgrading to Ubuntu, huh?
    • I have this amusing scenario in my head. Nizo, just for the sheer madness of it all, calls MS which sends him through their call support in India. The helpdesk guy says he should call HP for support. So, Nizo calls HP, who also sends him through their call support in India. The helpdesk guy says he should call MS for support. Nizo then calls MS again, with similar result. After a few more turns of this (what better to do on a Tuesday night), Nizo begins to recognize the voice of the helpdesk guy at MS - and
  • You didn't hear this from me, but...

    Ex-pee's supposed to have a back-door kludge (and a really stupid one at that) that gets around the key-code question. I remember reading about it on some fairly reliable sites; it's done by making a copy of the recovery disk (to hard disk), changing the setting in one of the main .ini files (autorun.ini?) with a really, REALLY obvious name (keyreg_chk=true or some such), and then re-burning it to CD with the changed file. Do a lookup on it on the net-- like I said, it
  • Your computer probably has a sticker from an OEM copy of Windows XP. The CD you have in your hand is either a retail or a volume license copy of Windows XP. License information from an OEM copy of Windows won't work with a CD from a retail copy of Windows. Microsoft does this on purpose (and yes, I agree, it is a pain in the butt on the end user).

    So the easy solution is to find a Windows XP Pro OEM CD to install from (assuming your sticker is an OEM license sticker.. otherwise find the flavor that matche
  • Had to find some new keys on the net.

    I find it sad that my own legit keys wouldn't pass win genuine validation, while some key that I pirated passes.

    Feel free to email me if you want to try mine.
  • That box runs openSuSE now.

    Seriously: if Microsoft doesn't want me to run my legitimate copy of Windows, then I won't. I show all my friends the Compiz and Beryl stuff as much as I can. ;-)

    I know they don't actually care; they got their money when it was first bought. Once in a great while, I do need Winders, which means I have to use a different box. This box runs openSuSE as well, but I have Wine installed, and IE4Linux; and of course I can boot into Windows for games.

  • I'm a big fan of OpenSUSE so I applaud your decision to use it. However, I have always had luck activating machines with the sticker. I use Dell's OEM CD's. I have even activated HP's with those CD's. You always have to call to get it activated, but it's not too much of a hassle.

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