Legal windows xp

Smike

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I'm thinking of buying a copy of windows xp. I was looking on eBay, and found various different possibilities. However, most come with activation keys, but not with certificates of authenticity.

What must the product have for it to be legal?

ETA: should I get home or professional edition?
 
ETA: should I get home or professional edition?
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It might sound like a flip answer, but if you don't know, you want Home.

About the only differences I've found are that Pro lets you connect to a Windows Domain Controller, and also lets you use Administrator as a regular user (Home only allows Administrator logins in safe mode).

David
 
I guess someone had to said it, right?

Screw Microsoft. Why pay for their buggy garbage?

Okay, token linux zealot post complete.
 
I don't understand linux, and there aren't any good games on it.

token MS user response.
 
Chris O. said:
I don't understand linux, and there aren't any good games on it.

token MS user response.
Click to expand...
Linux can be confusing, and you're right, there arn't many programs (or games) made for it.
 
Smike said:
I'm thinking of buying a copy of windows xp. I was looking on eBay, and found various different possibilities. However, most come with activation keys, but not with certificates of authenticity.

What must the product have for it to be legal?

ETA: should I get home or professional edition?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't buy any software that requires registration and activation (i.e. Windows XP) over the internet. You can't tell if it's a bootleg or duplicate copy until you try to activate it, and then the seller's gone and it's too late.

The Windows XP certificate of authenticity (COA) has the product activation key printed on it. In theory, the idea is that each machine should have it's own COA stuck on the machine somewhere.

I usually buy the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) version of XP from a system vendor at the local computer swap meet. You get the CD and the COA sticker, but not much else. The OEM version is usually about half the price of the boxed retail version, only not packaged as pretty.

Can't see any advantage to XP Pro vs. XP Home. Never needed any of the Pro features yet, and most small offices run Home on their machines with no problem.

Beanbag
 
What Beanbag said. If the Microsoft Police come knocking on your door, all you need are the little stickers - you can claim you lost the CD and they will relent. A valid Product Key is all you need.

Check here for a full breakdown on how to check if you got a ringer.
 
Thanks for the help so far.

As to using Linux, I primarily want a games machine. To keep you happy, I am planning to install OpenOffice rather than the microsoft version.

Would the administrator thing be an issue when installing games?
 
There shouldn't be a problem with the administration. The standard Windows account works for just about every Windows game out there. I've had problems trying to run games under a Guest account (very limited functionality). As long as the game itself says it will run under Windows XP, there shouldn't be any problems.

Beanbag
 
I should have been more clear - the Home edition restricts use of, specifically, the account called "Administrator". The first "regular" user you create during setup should automatically be a member of the Administrators group, so you'll be able to do everything with it.

David
 
davidhorman said:
The first "regular" user you create during setup should automatically be a member of the Administrators group, so you'll be able to do everything with it.

David
Click to expand...

not that you should.
 
Re: Re: Legal windows xp

Beanbag said:
I usually buy the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) version of XP from a system vendor at the local computer swap meet. You get the CD and the COA sticker, but not much else. The OEM version is usually about half the price of the boxed retail version, only not packaged as pretty.
Click to expand...

In 1994-5 when I worked for Microsoft(*), it was absolutely true that buying an OEM Windows apart from the purchase of a new PC is illegal, and that copy of Windows is *not* a "legal" copy any longer, and that you can turn the retailer who was willing to sell it to you in to Microsoft for a reward.

I'm *pretty* sure it's still true. For instance, doesn't your OEM version still come with a big warning that says "FOR SALE WITH A NEW PC ONLY?"

------

To whomever said there's no programs for Linux -- I don't want to take this off-topic, but by what metric? I count several thousand packages just in my copy of Ubuntu.

I'll agree the support from commercial game developers is somewhat lacking, but it gets better all the time. Doom3 has a native linux version, for instance. Plus there are many excellent free games for linux.

I'll agree that linux takes more effort to use than Windows, too.

But that it has any lack of programs is ridiculous. It has many programs and systems available for it that aren't even dreamt of on Windows.

You can say a lot of bad things about linux, but saying it has a lack of programs just shows you're repeating bullcrap you heard someone else say.

-Chris

(* Yes, absolutely true, this Linux zealot used to work for "The Evil Empire.")
 
One thing I did not know when I bought my laptop is that IIS (Internet Infromation Server) will not run under the Windows home edition.

Also, I believe you can purchase an OEM version as long as you buy hardware at the same time. Some places require buying a hard drive or motherboard while others just require the purchase of some PC hard ware like a floppy drive.

Here's a line from TigerDirect:

This is a legal OEM version of Windows® licensed by Microsoft® to be sold with any "non-peripheral hardware component" and is bundled as such.
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eBay's OEM policy means that anyone selling windows has to send a bit of hardware (often broken) as well.
 
If eBay's a bit risky, does anyone have anywhere else that they could recommend for a good deal?

So far the best price I've found for a new version of the home version from a reputable comapny is £59.93 inc. Vat, with free P&P as they have a shop nearby where I could collect it from.
 
That's about £8 more than getting it from the US (not including getting it sent to you) so I'd go ahead and buy it at that price. But for hardware, you should join the growing hordes of UK shoppers who are buying gear from US stores such as newegg.com and have it shipped over by a friend.
 
Dogbreath said:

Also, I believe you can purchase an OEM version as long as you buy hardware at the same time. Some places require buying a hard drive or motherboard while others just require the purchase of some PC hard ware like a floppy drive.
Click to expand...

When I bought OEM Win2K from an online vendor, it came with a 1MB Hard drive. Thus, it was a completely legal version of Win2K.

I used the hard drive as a door stop for awhile; think it's ended up in the trash can.
 
When I'm buying an OS, it's usually because I'm building a new system; therefore, a hardware purchase to qualify for the OEM package isn't too much of a problem. I've found places that will qualify you for the OEM package if you buy a $4.00 mouse (think about it: you really DON'T want to try Windows without a mouse, therefore a mouse is essential and therefore not a peripheral). I've found used equipment resellers that will sell the system disks with COA for a brand-name computer because they somehow ended up with a pallet-load of them in some business deal. All I need is a little advance warning to start looking for a deal. I've even found places that will sell just the COA sticker (new and unused), which is fine with me because I've got Win XP OEM disks available to use. It's not illegal -- the COA sticker entitles me to another install.

The important thing is that I have an established relationship with these dealers, or have seen them doing business for a long time, so I feel fairly certain that what I buy will install and activate correctly. I don't buy software from unvetted sources.

For "must-have-it-now" deals, I fall back on Plan B: build the system, install the wheezy old copy of Windows 98 First Edition I keep around for just such an emergency, then go out and buy the upgrade package for XP for just about the same price as the full OEM version, and install the upgrade. A few more steps, sure, but the result is the same. Once I get XP installed, I do a Norton Ghost backup of the hard drive to a DVD or CD-ROM so I can reinstall the system later without having to fiddle with the upgrade route.

I do like the OEM disks because they don't put all that extra garbage that the brand computer manufacturers think you need. Saves me a day or two of weeding crap off the hard drive.

Beanbag
 
I bought, from Ebay, both Xp Home and Pro (OEM) both came with the product key and both work fine.
Home cost £21 about 2 years ago and the Pro edition cost £23 recently. As long as the seller has 100% feedback (or pretty damned near) then it's a fairly safe bet you won't be ripped off.
 
I dual installed XP Home and SuSe Linux on a fresh laptop to just see which I would naturally use over time, and to have a backup system in case one OS crapped out on me.

I use Windows WELL over 95% of the time, easily.

As far as Pro goes, it doesn't offer most people significantly better features, but if you like to format drives and such it's useful.
 
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