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On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:47 PM, Frank Steinmetzger <Warp_7@×××.de> wrote: |
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> On Wed, Feb 01, 2012 at 09:31:13PM -0500, Mike Edenfield wrote: |
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>> > From: Dale [mailto:rdalek1967@×××××.com] |
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>> > Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 8:06 PM |
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>> |
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>> |
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>> > Your reply made me think of something. I had a XP reinstall once that |
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>> > required a number from MS because of the new mobo and hard drive. They |
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>> > said it recognized the change in the serial numbers. When I ran into |
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>> > that before tho, it installed fine but gave 30 days to put in the |
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>> > number. Does winders 7 have something similar? |
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> |
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> That's the Product Key, being 5x5 characters in size *looking at sticker on |
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> bottom of laptop*. Once you entered the key, Windows activates itself online. |
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> If that fails (e.g. if you used the key too often or the key is blacklisted, |
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> etc), you can reactivate Windows via a phone call to MS. |
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> |
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>> I *think* you get a grace period after that to re-activate your system but |
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>> it's been a while since I had that happen to me. |
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> |
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> Incidentally, I have this very situation in a virtual XP right now. Once that |
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> grace period is over, it shuts you out completely. When I try to log in it |
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> tells me that I need to activate it before I can log in. My choices are to |
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> either enter a key into a dialog or to not do so, in which case I get thrown |
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> back to the login screen. Neat, huh. |
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> |
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> Windows 7 gives you some more leeway, in that it lets you log in to your |
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> desktop, but IIRC the background is blackened and all you can open is IE to |
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> open the MS site or summit like that. |
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> |
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> There is a command which can rearm the 30 days counter at most twice, as long |
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> as it hasn't run out yet. |
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|
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XP used to offer more leeway than you currently get, but there's a |
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nasty version dependency sequence where you need a newer version of |
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something (I forget what) in order to continue Windows Updates, but to |
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install that newer version, you need to satisfy WGA, which I believe |
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is the tool that forces you to activate before accessing a desktop. |
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Which means getting a fully patched system before entering a key is |
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difficult, if not impossible. |
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|
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Where I work, it had been recommended to us that we use the grace |
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period to avoid burning our activation keys when we went to do testing |
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of our software. Having WGA and the "enter a key or forget about |
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logging in" misfeature land happened only a few weeks later. *sigh* |
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|
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-- |
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:wq |