Grimm

What is it and why does it exist? From what I have read I understand that it is something that makes the OS stop working if you upgrade your computer.
That's just wrong.

coleslaw

The Germans have cracked it, so have no fear.

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Jeffbx

From what I understand, it requires you to register your copy of Windows or the OS will stop working. It's to verify that you own a legitimate license.

What makes you think the OS will stop working if you upgrade soemthing? Worst case is that you'll have to re-register.

As much as MS thinks it makes sense, I think it's a royal pain in the you know what. All I think of is when I'm trying to play one of those on-line games like QIII that validates your SN against a central server, and how PO'd I got when the validation server was down....

Grimm

So basicaly MS wants my personal information if I am going to use their product?
I'm thinking I will be using 98SE for a long, long time.
Unless, of course, I switch over to Linux or BeOS. There aren't many games available for those OSes. I wish I had a real alternative. I wish I was the judge deciding what to do with the MS monopoly. I'd rule that all their OSes are now public domain, to compensate the public for their losses to the monopoly. That would keep any software company that considered unfair competition from attempting it.

Jeffbx

No, you don't have to provide personal info. Just a valid registration #. Of course, I don't see any reason to upgrade from W2K to any XP version.

moosehead

I think evilcyclops is at least partially, if not completely right. From what I've heard, not only do you have to register XP when you install it, you also have to re-validate your registration if you change your comps configuration (i.e. install a new vid card)...thus the upgrading part.

One person I talked to thought this would all be done via telephone, although I think he had been sniffing something. I can't see why Microsoft would make people call up to register, although, what if you're one of the 1 in 3 zillion people who doesn't have an internet connection, then you'd have to call in your registration, and if you do, how does your computer know? It'd probably lead to another situation like the AOL customer service fiasco that happend back around '96 or '97....you'd just get a busy signal. I think either way, they're in for a really big flop. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody sued them.

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moosehead

"Good afternoon...Microsoft registration and customer service. All your base are belong to us!!"

Clauzii

I do not think Mr. Gates is happy before he owns everybody...

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pyaralii

I was talking to someone online and they mentioned that microsoft logs your ip address when you are on windows xp and connected to the internet, and thus can find if you have an illegal copy of windows xp or an unregistered one (that may have been cracked by a german, j/K). Isn't this a violation of some sort of privacy act? I don't know the truth to the ip logging, but it just scares me. If anybody can confirm that it does or doesnt log ip, please let us all know.

Doomer

Without the source code there's no way for you know what the hell XP is doing when you're connected to the internet. As always, stoopid, apathetic morons will determine the degree of freedom for all of us.

Bluto

I'm running XP at home... Just so you know, I changed out my video card and it didn't make me reregister it... I know its not the released version, but it was RC1. Also, the registration was all done online... I had like 2 weeks to register it before it would quit working so plenty of time to get my internet connection up and running. I'm not saying I like it, just that it hasn't been as bad as I feared.

attgig

so a couple of questions..
if you have 2 computers, and would like to have XP on both, do you have to buy 2 copies?
and also, what happens if you don't have internet connection on a computer?
does it need an internet connection to make sure the key is valid?

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Bluto

I don't know about the licensing issues, but I don't think they are changing from what they are now (I think you are supposed to have a copy for each computer now...)

When you go to install it asks you for your registration key (on the cd). After you install it says it needs to register, you can do it online (recommended) or by phone. Online it is automated, I don't know if it would let you "register" twice or if it would make you call them up...
I'm guessing it will let you register it a couple times, but if they see them same license key popping up several times then they would look into it.

So far I like XP. I'm not in love with the new look, but I think any change from what you are used to people are resistive to. I've had some stability issues that I leave my computer running all day and go to use and it's locked up, haven't played with that too much yet, but overall it seems to run faster then 98se did.

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bugaboo

I jsut got xp rc1 also. i was thinking of installing it on a laptop. any comments?

Bluto

not really... they just released rc2... might want to just go with that rather then doing 2 installs... i have it installed on a desktop and didnt have any hardware problems doing an upgrade from 98se... i'd do a clean install because there were little things that were tweaked from the upgrade like my dial up account and Outlook, and I think it's easier to set things up right rather then figure out what they broke :-)

attgig

well, then with liscensing issues, what happens if you clean out your hard drive and reinstall the software???