Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

Good to know.. But considering I bought my laptop off of ebay with Windows XP already installed, I don't know if I have a legal copy.. Now do I?

Any way to check on these kinds of things?

And, the converstion going on in the majority of this thread is about WindowsXP SP2 "bugs" and it's reliability as a upgrade, and not software issues that are intended to kill a non valid copy.

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

Is there a difference between a 'vaild' and 'legal' key?

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

yes, the difference is that MS has your info on file, that you bought a copy of thier software, and the key you are suppost to be activated with.

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

So they would get you if you bought a copy and registered with a different key. If you never bought a copy in the first place, then they don't have any records, correct? So they can't catch those people?

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

if you don't activate then you're fine, unless they verify with the new windows update now,i think my father mentioned that.

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

um, how does one start one of these discussions anyway?

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

Just found this on Slashdot:

Oops.

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

Go to the forum you want to put the discussion in and click the "New Thread" button. It will be in the same places as the "New post" button in a thread. :) Hope that helps.

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

Well, you should have stick on your laptop which says "Windows XP Home/Professional Edition" and also the key for it. Of course, it could be a legal copy which was bought and installed legally and the sticker just wasn't put on, but...

And if XP was factory installed, then it will definetly have the sticker.

And, of course, you could always just get SP2 to find out... :yikes:

Seemed a fair enough point to me, but hey, whatever... :)

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

There are millions of people who use Windows in the world... If they decided to launch this kind of project to track every single key and the person/people who use them, it would take for ever. Plus, some people keep on upgrading their software from previous versions of windows.

Plus, to catch these people, wouldn't they need some kind of warrent to get their IP addresses and breach some kind of law if they needed to do this? If they wanted to do this, they'll have to do what the record company did going up to court and spending millions to just to get a few IP addresses to sue them for downloading music, but in this case, using the fake codes. I'm sure they could just get the information off the internet, but that would be illegal for them because of the privacy act, right?

Doing the SP2 freeze up is cheaper and easier to impliment for Microsoft. The SP2 is just a short term solution. People who can find flaws in Window would just continue to try and work their way through SP2 and eventually crack it someday. This is just a short term solution for Microsoft to try and lower the piracy stuff for now.

Re: XP Service Pack 2 Bomb
 

it just occurred to me, that it isn't the key that microsoft checks on a valid registered copy of windows, it's the PID (product ID).