XP Activation Info

[cjolley]

http://www.hardocp.com/articles/windows/xp_piracy.html
I have mixed feelings.

chuck

PS Sorry if this has already been posted.

[Jammrock]

Jammrock's solution...

Find a copy of XP that is designed for enterprise business' that doesn't require you to register.

Problem solved.

Jammrock

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Athlon 650
256 MB PC133 CAS3 from Crucial
87 GB storage from WD & IBM
Matrox G400 (it's not dead yet!)
SB Live! the original full retail, still going strong
Klipsch ProMedia v.2-400, the PC speakers that goes BOOM!
Hope Matrox releases the G800 before rebuild time, becuase the end is near!

[Strahd]

Hmmmm, they're getting wiser apparently.

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[Admiral]

" Changes in hardware are expected, and allowed."


Like what ? They're dreaming of a time when you have to get special permisson from M$ to install new hardware ?

[Technoid]

My Boss was at a seminaruim about Win and office XP.
And acording to what they (microsoft sweden) told him, ther will not be any OEM version without the Activation code...

[Gurm]

There will be because there HAS to be.

Or else their call center will be 100% swamped by near-continuous calls from the IT department of every company with more than a dozen machines.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Technoid]

Gurm:

Well, that's exactly what my Boss told them..

And they(MS) only continued to praise XP and explain how fast and easy the registration proses was..

So I will belive in the registration less OEM version vhen I see it and I don't think MS cares about how swamped their call centers will be, because they obviusly care more about casual copying than happy customers.

If they do release a OEM that doesent have the registartion demand it's like pandoras box!

90% of all "casual copying piracy" usualy starts with a OEM version from a company and then spreads

[FrankDC]

Your boss was given bad info.. Corporate multiuser licenses won't have WPA.

[Bursar]

I've heard conflicting reports on this.

I was initially under the impression that the Select versions of the software would not have this activation 'feature'.

I have since read that it will have it, but a company can call and get 1 code, and use that code on all of their PCs (regardless of it being 10 or 10,000 machines). This would drastically reduce the amount of time spent calling MS for new codes for new PCs.

I guess we're really just going to have to wait until release day to find out the truth.

[FrankDC]

Here's an excerpt from Paul Thurrott (editor of Win2000 magazine), after he spoke with Allen Nieman (product manager for Licensing Technologies at Microsoft):

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Corporate customers that buy Windows XP volume licenses, such as those provided by the Microsoft Open License, Microsoft Select, or Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, won't need to deal with WPA at all; those versions of Windows XP will not include WPA. "Most business customers would qualify for an Open License, but they don't realize that," Nieman said, suggesting that corporate customers who are purchasing Windows products through retail channels look into this option.

[Paulr]

I'm a little confused by the statement 'Corporate editions HAVE to be activation free or their call lines would be swamped'

For everybody using illegal copies of Beta2, let me just quickly go through how fast activation is.
This is on a 56k modem connecting at 38k.
Click activate windows now....1 second, 2 seconds.........10 seconds all complete.
On a faster company LAN activation takes about half that time.
Now, re-activation will only be required if MAJOR amounts of changes are made to a system.
The average workstation in a corporate environment will not change that often.
Most companys tend to buy in new PC's and then pass the older ones on to other people within the company.
It's actually quite rare to see a mass upgrade of corporate workstations.
Sure sometimes a massive RAM upgrade goes on, but that isn't going to prompt re-activation.
Of all the environments XP will be used, the corporate environment is probably one of the best to use it.
A lot of machines that simply will never need re-activation because their hardware doesn't change.

[FrankDC]

Paul, there are adds, changes, moves, virus infections, hardware failures and 100 other reasons why reinstalls are necessary and why reactivation would be a problem. If that wasn't the case you can bet MS would be implementing WPA on the enterprise versions of XP. MS knows most large companies would choose to not use XP at all rather than deal with activation.

[KvHagedorn]

I actually bought Windows 95
I actually bought Windows 98
Looks like now I will be buying anything BUT Windows XP.
Good time to try Linux.. or stick with 98 or 2000. BTW, it irks Microsoft no end at how many people never upgraded from Windows 95.. Let's see what kind of kink this mess throws into their sales!
I have never clicked on "Windows Update" for this very reason. They can say whatever they want to to pacify the masses, but who REALLY knows what the hell they are doing in there in your computer? Yes, I'm paranoid, but that doesn't mean they AREN'T out to get me!

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Kind Regards,

KvH

[This message has been edited by KvHagedorn (edited 30 April 2001).]

[Gurm]

PaulR:

The issue is that corporate IT guys do NOT want to maintain a database of 500 activation keys and which machines they correlate to.

And if John Q. User happens to blow a hard drive, they don't want to have to get a NEW digital product ID.

Some companies move hardware around a LOT.

If you are rebuilding a test machine daily, then you have to CALL (not Internet activate) and explain to them more than once a week why the hardware has changed.

They can say it's easy all they want, but 5 "major" hardware changes and you're locked out of the activation system. I can go through that in the space of 5 hours. And I'm a "home user".

WPA is the worst thing in the world for IT departments, and you can bet your bottom dollar if there ISN'T an enterprise edition, large companies will NOT buy Windows XP.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Jammrock]

I work in an IT department that supports over 7500 users. I promise you, if there is not an edition that has WPA disabled, Windows XP will NOT be installed on anything. There is no way in hell an enterprise company would do that. Microsoft has stated that there will be a open version without WPA, and there will be. They may be bastards, but they're not that stupid.

Jammrock