Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 28621
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2025/05/25 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
5/25    

2003/6/3-4 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:28621 Activity:moderate
6/3     If I get a Windows XP and Office XP installation CD from
        someone else, will I be able to install it on my computer?  Will
        it absolutely not work due to licensing issues, or will it
        work in some cases (maybe depending on the type of license)?
        Or is the only way to get Windows XP to buy it?
        \_ All that matters is the serial number. There's a number of them
           that are google'able, but most of them won't allow you to install
           the SP1 patch bundle since the bundle checks for these common #'s
                \_ What's the SP1 patch bundle?
                   \_ Basically a 130MB bundle of all their patches
             \_ I have some big long number, along with the copy of the
                installation CD.  So if I have this number, I can install it
                and it won't stop working after 30 days or something?  Some
                people I've talked to are certain that I would have to
                contact Microsoft via internet to active XP and that
                Microsoft will know that the particular license was
                already installed on another computer, and so that it
                won't let me install/activate.  Is this not true?
                \_ Maybe it's just the CD I had, but I never had to activate
                   it via Microsoft. And I've set Windows Update to
                   auto-download the latest patches without issues. This was
                   when I used the stock serial number everyone else in the
                   world was using, and when I generated one via a keygen.
                   And you can use XP w/o serial number for 30 days, but
                   after, you neither need to call M$ or activate via website
                   or insert your serial number when prompted.
                        \_ So what happens after 30 days?
                           \_ Not sure. Never tried. I assume it just won't
                              let you log in.
                \_ There are two versions.  One is retail and another is
                   OEM-like.  With retail, you will need to activate it
                   either thru internet or phone.  With the OEM-like one,
                   you'll just need the serial number.  If you use the
                   googled serial, MS will refuse to install SP1 on it.
                        \_ How important is SP1?
                           \_ Not very except for Java Runtime. Used to be
                              XP automatically d/l's it for you, but M$ removed
                              that feature, only to put it into SP1. However,
                              they removed it from there too (currently you
                              can only get SP1a (identical to SP1 minus Java)).
                              I'm sure you can find the original SP1 somewhere,
                              or you can use Sun's Java runtime, which runs
                              dog slow on XP.
                        \_ What's OEM stand for?
                           \_ Original Equipment Manufacturer. Think software
                              that comes with computers... the CD plus some
                              flimpsy manual. No fancy box.
2025/05/25 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
5/25    

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2003/11/20-21 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:11161 Activity:kinda low
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2003/2/7-8 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:27346 Activity:moderate
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2003/2/6-7 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:27326 Activity:kinda low
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