A friend of mine wants to update his girl friends PC with a Japanese version of Win' XP. Since he has already bought the English version for himself he doesn't want to buy another Japanese version. So I was going to let him use my copy on his girlfriends PC. Then I remembered about the nasty reports XP can send to Microsoft. Anyway, my question is how many PCs can you use the same copy of XP on? Surely if you have 3 PCs Microsoft don't expect you to buy a copy of XP for each one do they? Yakumo
I am 90% certain you're allowed to put it on one desktop PC and one laptop. I don't know if you could put it on another desktop though instead............although how would Microsoft know.......???
In theory it's one license per machine, you only have one license so you should only install it on one machine. XP doesn't send any nasty reports to MS, it can if you want it too, but otherwise it just checks to see that you are running a legitimate license, which in your case will be true if you already have a genuine disc / serial number. ...So whilst you shouldn't 'really' install it on more than one machine at a time in 'theory' you could !
If you have a different serial number specific to that build of XP then it doesn't matter, but you can't use the same key on 2 different installs of XP (well you can, but it either disables the key because it's been used too many times or just refuses to accept it due to the previous activation having different hardware) His key for XP probably won't work with your install CD, due to being a different build, you can go the dodgy route, but I take it your friend wanted all this legitimate.
I run it on my desktop and he'll be installing it on a laptop. So I guessed he could do it using my legit disc but then Tachikoma's comment about my disc code not working on his his laptop put a bit of a damper on things. What will happen? Will XP check to see if that versions of XP has already been signed up by another user whenyou connect on line and if it has it will cancel one of them? Yakumo
Yeah when you authenticate it, it checks if the code has been used/blacklisted and it generates a hash when it is first authenticated. The hash is made from serial numbers/types of hardware in your PC, so if you changed anything major in your PC you have to re-authenticate it in order for windows to work. What it would mean for the other person with the same code is they are blocked from Windows update, and probably a few other MS things. Also there are a finite number of times you can use the code (unless you have a volume licencing code) and it will eventually "time out" and you have to buy another copy of XP. I have access to 1500 legitimate XP codes from work, but they only work on specific vendor signed XP disks.
bummer. Looks like he'll have to buy or get a "fixed" copy of Japanese XP then. Thanks for the help guys Yakumo
Yakumo, ever heard of a little application called XP-Antispy? I recall it disables those little reports and many other spy features of this OS. it's here and it's like 50 kbytes. It's got some other funky options, though, like not letting you access regedit, but it has many good fixes too.
ooh, that looks like a good answer, thanks XerdoPwerko. I'll send my mate the link to this thread so that he can download it. Yakumo
You'll still be able to use Windows Update if your copy of Windows isn't quite legitimate, but MS say you won't get as much support if it's a dodgy copy - what this means, I don't know. And I don't know if this applies to legit copies on multiple PCs. MS previously were allowed to block illegal copies, but there was some court case about it I think - invasion or privacy or something... Though be warned - some OEM copies (i.e. ones that came with branded PCs) won't work at on PCs of different brands. I've seen this with copies supplied with Siemens-Fujitsu PCs before - they check the BIOS on booting to see if it's a Siemens-Fujitsu PC, and won't install if it's not. I've been using totally dodgy copies of Windows 95, 98SE, NT4 and 2000 for years (some of them don't even ask for product keys!) and I can still go to Windows Update and whatever else no probs.
I think a little bit of social engineering is in order. Install XP, make sure the machine is not connected to the internet. Call Microsoft for the authentication key. Tell them you bought a new computer and are installing your copy of XP on it. Make sure you tell them the old computer is gone, kaput, stripped down and sold, melted, whatever. Pretty sure the liscence allows you to do this. Install and authenticate before you reconnect to the internet. Download the updates/service packs manually (don't set it to automatically look for updates.) Essentially, make sure it never sends any reports back to Microsoft about anything. Should work Ok then.
simply download windows xp corporation edition, and you'll be able to install it on every pc you'll want to, without any cd key, and service pak 1 and 2 will work flawlessly on it.
Yeah you can multiboot with XP, but you need to either make a new partition (for NTFS) or install XP on the same drive but keep the partition as FAT32 for 98 to still work.
What specs are this PC though? I wouldn't recommend installing XP on anything lower than a P3-800 with 256MB+ RAM, and even then that's pushing it IMO. For anything in the sub-1GHz range, I'd recommend Windows 2000, and for anything lower than a Pentium 2 - NT4 (I'm using it now on my P90!).
That's not really true for all versions. My copy of XP is from my friend who works in DELL. The version is for DELL PCs but works fine on mine which was originally IIYAMA before I changed many parts. This was the version I was going to give to him. Yakumo
I have installed XP on a Celeron 266 laptop and had it running fine, you just have to know what to tweak.
that's no warez version, it's a version microsoft made for corporations, you don't need any password or things, and it can be installed on thousands and thousands of pcs without any problem. If the buyer decided to spread it over the web, it's his choice and the rules always aplies: no password, and no limit.
