-=> Ross Cassell wrote to Bob Bainbridge <=-


 RE>> A friend of mine has a copy of W2K Pro, that he got
 RE>> from someone on the net. Now he wonders, does he dare
 RE>> to click on the Windows Update icon ?

 BB> I wouldn't worry about it. Win2k doesn't use the Activation scheme
 BB> incorporated by Microsoft that checks your installed ahrdware.

 RC> 2 points..

 RC> A. He was saying he has a less than legal copy of Win2k.

 RC> B. I myself run WinXP, a very legal copy.. This past Friday out of
 RC> necessity, I had to replace the motherboard, CHIP and video.. Only
 RC> original hardware was the 2 hard drives, the floppy, the CD
 RC> burner and DVD reader drives, new motherboard has built in
 RC> sound and LAN, old one I had the LAN and sound on PCI
 RC> cards. Old memory configuration was 3 DIMM chips 256m each
 RC> PC100, new one is 2 DIMM chips 512m each PC133. Oddly
 RC> enough with this much of a hardware change, I did not have
 RC> to "re-activate".

 Even re-activation isn't that big of a deal... I got a new notebook, replacing
another that I first removed Office XP from... after installing, it recognized
that it was a completely different system-- and required that I phone a
toll-free number.

I was not on hold for more than a minute, explained the situation to the person
on the other end (that I had this copy installed both on a desktop and a
notebook-- which is legal with Office but not w. Windows), and that I had
installed it on a new notebook after removing it from the old system.

I had to read a 50-digit code that was on my screen, and he then generated a
new 50-digit code that he read to me... Total time spent, about 5 minutes.

It's a bit of a bother, but not that big a deal.
... -- az: email to alan{at}zisman.ca
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