Installing Windows ZP Without a Product Key

Hello Guest,

My extensive enquiries have failed to locate a "windows zp".

However, perhaps you had a typo, and intended "Windows XP".

If this was so, the news is not good for you.

WinXp is carefully designed to require, and ask for, the Product Key at an early part of the Installation of WinXP.

If you do not have the correct Product Key, the Installation cannot proceed further = You cannot instal from the disk.

If you intend to use someone else's Product Key, forget it, because each Installation Disk is encoded, and unique.

Worse is to come, if you somehow manage to use a WinXP disk which is also used by a friend, and use the Product Key which came with that Disk.

WinXP requires "Activation", or it has the auto-kill feature turned on, normally within 30 days, and this "Activation" can be done either automatically via the Internet, or by telephoning your local Microsoft Office, and registering there.

If there is a second WinXP installation using the same retail disk + key, you will not be able to "activate" the second PC, as a warning error message will advise you to contact Microsoft directly.

All the above applies to Retail WinXP Disks.

For System Builders, they can purchase OEM disks, at a cheaper rate, but even these have a unique product Key.

If you work for a very large Corporation, 5,000 PC's and up, the Administrator does get a "Corporate Installation" Disk, which is normally carefully guarded, and that Corporate Disk does not require "activation".

So now you know the Story.

Kind Regards....

Nice job GA sparkster.

milo

Guest, if you don't have the product key you don't have the licence to install or use the software.

What you are asking is to use some software without paying for it which is called stealing in most countries and is illegal.

John.

Guest, just a thought but have you done a google search of 'Free registration key Windows XP' ???

Not that I would suggest you follow up on this line, but it may prove interesting...

John

Is the group prosecuting this poster without a trial?

Our poster may simply be a victim of missing box syndrome.

The computer may have windows pre-installed and he forgot to ask for the disk.

Windows 98 was the last version that did not require a key. M$ got tired of people stealing their software. Almost 10 years have passed since they began their crackdown on these thieves.

I feel XP is crap, but I am forced to use it. Three of my PC's had XP preinstalled. The OEM will give you a recovery disk. Just ask. On two out of three of these XP has had to be reinstalled for various reasons. No problem.

I have two that I built. One has legal XP and it is the worst PC I have ever used. I am considering asking M$ permission to move this XP license over to a new PC, but don't want to go through the hassle of talking to M$ so I just suffer with 4 or 5 reboots per day.

I still use Win 98 on another PC that can boot to other OS's. Never had a problem with it.

I also have one PC with Linux. Never had a problem.

So, these are your choices. 1) Pay and pray like the rest of us. 2) Try to steal a copy of XP from the ritchest man (or whatever) in the world, 3) Get XP preinstalled, 4) try to run with Win 98, or 5) Go with a real OS (Linux or a Mac).

BTW, whatever you do don't do Vista. It is really bad. Probably the worse yet.

Hello eriew and other readers,

From: http://www.securecomputing.net/:

Negar Salek May 16 2008 14:39

The row between PC Tools and Microsoft over Windows Vista security escalated today with PC Tools attacking the effectiveness of Vista's User Access Control (UAC) tool.

Earlier this week, Microsoft attacked results of a PC Tools' study which found Vista allowed 639 threats per thousand PCs compared with 86 for Windows 2000.

In a blog posting, director of Windows product management security at Microsoft, Austin Wilson, said Microsoft rejected the claims and vowed that Windows Vista was significantly less susceptible to malware than older operating systems.

However, in a statement released today, PC Tools said the company maintains its comments last week that Vista is not immune from online threats.

According to PC Tools, the latest raw data confirms that approximately 121,000 pieces of malware were detected on approximately 58,000 unique Vista machines in the ThreatFire community.

These Vista machines had at least one piece of malware actively running on their system.

Additional investigations found that 17 percent of all threats were Trojans, while worms accounted for five percent, spyware for three percent and viruses for two percent.

"Online threats such as Trojans, worms and spyware have the potential to seriously impact consumer privacy and security online.

"These threats can cause substantial damage by acting as backdoors for hackers to access personal and confidential information," said Simon Clausen, CEO of PC Tools.

Meanwhile, PC Tools also revealed that Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool in Vista was not a comprehensive anti-virus scanner, but a malware removal tool with a limited range in response.

"The Microsoft MSRT checks for a significantly smaller, specific range of malware than other third-party products.

It is therefore not surprising that the percentage of infections detected by the Microsoft MSRT is significantly smaller than what ThreatFire has detected," Clausen said.

It is also equally important to note that we regard the implementation of Microsoft's UAC (User Account Control) ineffective in providing protection against malware for two reasons, said Clausen."Firstly, UAC alerts are shown too frequently for non-malware and therefore users are either simply ignoring the alerts and permitting all actions or turning the UAC off.

One might argue that showing recurrent alerts for routine actions trains users to ignore the alert information and unknowingly letting threats penetrate the system.

"Secondly, because the UAC is limited in the number of activities it monitors, malware can also penetrate the operating system by evading detection," Clausen said.">

Think twice before using Vista.

Kind Regards....

Thanks Sparky for another good answer!

One quibble however.

Why after knowing all of this would one need to think twice about migrating to Vista when once should be fine! As you see I am happy now!

eriew,

I won't waste my time counting the number of errors in your thinking. I just want to help you remove Windows from all your machines, so you can live happily ever after. Well actually, I do have to mention one stupid quote cause it's so wrong that I don't want you misrepresenting the facts. Why would you think that you would need to "talk to Microsoft" in order to move XP from one machine to another? As long as it is fully uninstalled from the original machine, it is completely OK to install that copy on another machine and activation will work fine.

Now then, you seem to know so much, I am surprised that you don't have Linux on all your machines already. Just go download RedHat Linux and generate a boot/install disk. Stick it in your drive and reboot the computer. You can then reformat your HDD and install Linux. Live happily ever after with your FREE software.

Brock

A Microsoft Employee

Thanks for wasting your time, FUDster after proclaiming you wouldn't.