Be my hero! Please someone tell me it's OK for me to...

[JJd]

please help me get out from behind this desk. I've been having a frustrating time the last month or so with the WIN98 OS on my "spare" computer here at home. I've been dinkin' around with registry files since 10 last night! I was thinking... wish I could dump the WINXPPro OS I have in this rig and forget about it. Hmmmm...CAN I? How does the MSoft rule of thumb work here? I own the XP, I actually bought it. It's installed on my main rig (my daily machine). Can I install it on my backup machine without worry? Could I do updates & such or??? Please help save the rest of my weekend.

 

[Broadkipa]

1 copy per machine I'm afraid, wont let you run the same copy on two machines,

 

[KF]

I guess you activated it if you own it. I don't think MS is going to say it is OK to activate it on two machines if you say that is what you are doing. The license is for one machine. There are activation cracks around the Internet, of course.

You don't need to be activated, registered, or even licensed to use updates. MS doesn't look. They aren't out to get people they say -and lord knows there are plenty to get- they just want to inhibit casual piracy. However they did include a killer for the previous activation crack in SP1, so they could do that again. There are new activation cracks of course.

You can use XP for 30 days without activation, I believe. After that you can't even get into it, so you can't do the crack.

This is for information only. I don't advise people to pirate software. I think their license is a bit restrictive for people that use more than one machine themselves.

 

[Roots]

Yeah I don't like that BS either. WinXP is expensive enough, but to buy it for two machines just sucks. Luckly I got my copy for $5 D) but I'm not willing to spend another $5 to get another copy! Actually I can't buy the $5 copy anymore. Is there any way to "de-activate" WinXP from one machine and uninstall it so that you can re-activate XP and install it on another machine? And what if you want to format your hard drive and reinstall? M$ sure likes to make using computers more difficult than it needs to be

 

[Doomer]

Actually, I think you can activate it on 2 machines BUT NOT LEGALLY.

I've reinstalled twice in the last month and was able to reactivate via the web without a hitch. These 2 were in addition to the original activation.

I also just reinstalled XP home for a friend and it too reactivated via the web.

Dunno if they're able to detect 2 separate installs and block one from updates but as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather buy 2 licenses for peace of mind.

 

[EeyoreX]

I've reinstalled twice in the last month and was able to reactivate via the web without a hitch. These 2 were in addition to the original activation

The key here is in the number of times you activated. IIRC you are able to activate 3 times per 90 days via the online activation. After that you have to pick up the phone and spend 5 minutes on the phone with Microsoft.

Dunno if they're able to detect 2 separate installs and block one from updates but as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather buy 2 licenses for peace of mind.

You will have 30 days from the activation on the second machine before being asked to activate the first machine. Again, after three activations per 3 months, they will require a call. They will probably grow suspicious if the same key is activated every month. They will eventually realize the attempted piracy and disallow you to activate one or both machines.

Dunno if they're able to detect 2 separate installs and block one from updates

They are only able to count how many times a specific activation code was activated. Not on how many machines it was activated on. Of course, they aren't stupid. "Activation code blah-blah-blah has been activated once every 30 or so days. I wonder what's up here. Hmmm..."

M$ sure likes to make using computers more difficult than it needs to be

Other companies have done this before. None were on the scale of Microsoft, so Microsoft gets all the negativity thrust upon it for trying to protect their work. I agree, Windows XP is costly and think they should lower the price. However, I abide by the EULA so activating my OS is not a problem for me. Nor is it "more difficult". What is it, three clicks and you are done?

\Dan